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Comment by Andrew_nenakhov | Hacker News Reader

Previously, I used to be excited about new OS versions coming out. Nowadays, I'm only looking for what did they break or block this time, and how much problems would it cause.

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Yes, I am in the same boat here. It feels like there is always a new iOS or Android version being released which always manages to break a feature on my app and sheds months off of my life.

Same.

I was thinking about this when I first saw this announcement and realized that if AOSP was developed in the open it probably wouldn't change anything. Releasing big updates of the open source code like this feels pointless.

AOSP is practically dead, all important parts replaced by proprietary Play Services. I think it is only a matter of time before google replaces Android and Linux with Fuchsia.

This isn't remotely true. Nearly all the advertised Android 12 features are in AOSP, not Play Services. People vastly overestimate how much stuff is in Play Services.

> Releasing big updates of the open source code like this feels pointless.

Custom ROMs still benefit

Because a new night mode or yet another needless redesign is not an update. They seem to have a quota of "updates" to fill tbh.

About 1 major version per year, for some weird reason.

It's not like you can easily update the OS in a smartphone, to begin with...

Unless it's made with a user in mind, like Librem 5 or Pinephone.

Or a Pixel

ducks

that lets you unlock and, wait for it, relock the bootloader after installing Graphene.

But graphene does not let you do anything more than AOSP, specifically it does not trust you enough to let you have root while using a locked bootloader.

It does far more than AOSP, and AOSP has taken patches from Graphene's lead dev — I'd definitely inform yourself further on this.

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