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Comment by tedivm | Hacker News Reader

It's definitely still a thing, as android updates are normally pushed by the manufacturers. The Android One phones are an exception to this.

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It's crazy that this ever became a thing. When Android first came out I assumed it would essentially be like Windows for the smartphone.

But imagine if Windows worked the way Android does. You buy a Dell Windows laptop and then you receive all your OS updates directly from Dell, they limit you to only 2 years of updates (if that), and put some bloated skin over the whole OS.

I don't know why Android users accept this.

Updates are still pushed by the manufacturer. I have the Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite (with Android One) and only got Android 10 last week.

Biggest advantage is that it's a pure Android with no bloatware from the manufacturer. Also you get a guarantee IIRC to have at least two versions upgrades for the phone (my Xiaomi came with Android 8, so 10 should be the last one), and most of all security updates.

I mean, the fact that you need to say “pure android” kinda says it all, though.

All iOS is pure iOS. That’s the selling point for me, at least.

That's only because there are no other vendors to muddy the meaning of "pure". Only one vendor of devices for the OS means only one conception about what "pure iOS" means. It doesn't necessarily mean that Apple's conception of iOS is the best possible conception of iOS.

So if you can choose between pure and not pure, locked vs unlocked, is worse? Interesting selling point

For some of us, having a locked down, reliable, secure, and pure phone is a great solution.

I don’t want iOS on my random experimental project laptop, for that I have Linux or windows, or vms. But, cellphones are not something I need to hack around on.

their point is that you can choose to have "pure" android or "unpure" - which is not an option apple provides. why is that worse?

Because "unpure" Android barely receives updates and the few occasions where it does, it's extremely delayed. So that's pretty "worse"

You can also choose to jailbreak an Apple device if you really want to be unpure, and luckily doing so won't prevent you from updating your phone in the future.

>cellphones are not something I need to hack around on.

Different strokes for different folks. I like having the ability to sideload apps and flash a different OS to my phone

Phones only getting 2 major software updates (which are released yearly, so 2 years) is a bit of a deal breaker for me. I understand older versions of Android are pretty well supported at least by apps in Google Play.

Also what bothers me about Android devices: I got a Galaxy S8 to do development for work, and not all manufacturers are created equal in updates of course; IIRC I waited almost a full year after the Google flagships to receive Android 9 — in fact I think I got Android 8 around the time Android 9 came out.

Why did you even need a physical phone? Emulator works fine for most development use cases.

I think you just answered your own question. Emulators work fine for most use cases. In the other cases, a physical phone is best.

Fun. My Xiaomi came with ads baked into the app installer and a very questionable use of tracking in the web browser. Yes, Android One is great but not every device is in that program.

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