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Comment by coopdog | Hacker News Reader

I'm only buying nexus devices from now on unless a manufacturer gives a guarantee on update delay and life of phone (or at least establishes a good track record)

As much as I love my Samsung devices, really got burned by those updates

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Virtually all the Galaxy S/2/III phones are supported by cyanogenmod. Reflashing a phone is scary and weird when you do it the first time, but it's really not hard and the community support is quite good.

If you're at the point, as a technical user, where OS flexibility is more important to you than the device choice, then it's probably worth your time to puzzle out the process.

Reflashing a phone is scary and weird when you do it the first time, but it's really not hard and the community support is quite good.

You're right -- it's not hard. Just annoying and possibly risky. A lot of these ROMs are alpha/beta quality and not fully tested. For example I installed a JB ROM on my Galaxy Nexus 4G that broke my GPS. I didn't even realize it until I was lost and needed GPS to find my way back to the highway. Most of these ROMs (none yet?) have OTA updating so once you flash you are committing yourself to maintaining it going forward. So for example if there's some horrible security problem you may never get patched unless you seek it out yourself. This brings up the issue of installing software from untrusted sources. Cyanogenmod is fine but what about all the others? Call me old fashion but I don't enjoy flashing random ROMS I find on web forums. Seems like that could end really poorly.

The final annoyance that gets me every time is these different ROM releases often require you to wipe system data. So you have to use something like Titanium Backup, which has a UI similar to the cockpit of a 747, to back things up yourself. On my first attempt to do this I accidentally restored 'system data' or something like that which borked my phone up really well. I had to repeat the whole process of wiping and starting over. The other gripe is when TB reinstalls apps you have to sit there and hit install/done about a million times.

Even as a technical user I just don't want to deal with it but I still do want the latest OS release. I even foolishly bought a Galaxy Nexus thinking I wouldn't have to deal with it anymore but I didn't buy the right Galaxy Nexus that gets updates from Google. Silly me.

>Cyanogenmod is fine Yes it is. > but what about all the others? You don't need to venture beyond CM if you don't want to, but really, CM brings the whole "land of milk and honey" thing to the table.

If you get kicks out of flashing "edge" ROM's (I do) then you can go nuts, but if you're looking for fast, reliable and full-featured (of which stock ROM's are almost universally are not), then just flash CM and enjoy the phone as it was meant to be before marketing and lawyers fucked it up.

> I didn't buy the right Galaxy Nexus that gets updates from Google. Silly me.

You can fix that: http://webtrickz.com/easiest-way-to-change-galaxy-nexus-from...

If he's getting a nexus only (like me) I suppose that means he always wants the latest version of the OS. Cyanogenmod doesn't solve the problem because they're always behind. By the time CM has stable builds for J, my phone will be on K.

If you want a phone with the latest version of the OS, then CM is a bandage, not a solution. The only solution is buying only nexuses.

> Cyanogenmod doesn't solve the problem because they're always behind. By the time CM has stable builds for J, my phone will be on K.

That depends on how you look at it. It's only an issue for me if the phone is never updated. It's fine if I'm lagging behind by a version, as long as I receive an update before I end up 2 versions behind.

>By the time CM has stable builds for J, my phone will be on K.

Going to take issue with this as well. I'm on a SGS3 and CM10 (JB), and they just changed the status of the rom from "EXPERIMENTAL" to "NIGHTLY", yet I have not seen a single problem so far. Everything works except for TV-out, which I couldn't get to work with either of my TV's with the stock rom anyway.

I would still use Cyanogenmod with a Nexus. Besides, Cyanogenmod isn't lagging behind that much. It took a little too long from Gingerbread to ICS but we probably will have Stable Cyanogenmod 10 very soon.

> Virtually all the Galaxy S/2/III phones are supported by cyanogenmod.

Since when was the S2 supported by Cyanogenmod?

And by supported, I don't mean "do not use, phone calls do not work" or "stable to come soon (last non-stable release three months ago).

There are a frighteningly large number of distinct pieces of hardware that live inside a case marked "Galaxy S2". Literally there are three whole families of SoC's represented: Exynos 4, Snapdragon S3 and OMAP4; plus all the variant radios carriers demand. Some of these have have working builds, some don't. My use of "virutally all" may have been hyperbole, I don't have numbers handy of what works and doesn't.

I'm not saying that this is a clean process. It's not (and frankly can't be). I was simply saying that if you were going to rule out purchasing a phone you would otherwise prefer, it would be a better idea to do some research first.

And to be clear: I have a Galaxy Nexus in my pocket. But I wouldn't fear a OEM phone if I really wanted it.

I agree. Last November, when I bought a Nexus S on AT&T. They said ICS was coming in January. Then March. Then Jelly Bean came out in June and an upgrade was slated for July. Then "late August". I'm still running Ginger Bread

I am tired of waiting for updates. I'm not sure if it's AT&T or Google or what, but my faith has been shaken in the Nexus line. In 14 months I think I will be getting an iPhone.

</rant>

Jelly Bean was released for the AT&T Nexus S in the middle of July. I have the exact same phone and I got the OTA update the day it was released.

I'm not quite sure why exactly you're not seeing any updates available, but if you're interested Google does provide factory images for all Nexus devices: https://developers.google.com/android/nexus/images#sojuajro0...

Thanks, but I'd rather not root my device quite yet.

You have a Nexus S on AT&T? Not 4g or anything? I called up Samsung customer service just now and they said no AT&T phones have the update yet.

It's difficult to know who to blame.

Google should force ability to update system without manufacturer caring into Android ecosystem. It's probably hard with all these custom modifications done by OEMs but something should be doable. By the way, I think that HTC allows users to "root" their phones.

And I'm running 2.2 on my less than a year old Motorola Defy. No further updates expected.

HTC allows users to unlock the bootloader:

http://www.htcdev.com/bootloader

In my experience, HTC is pretty good (although a bit slow) with updating Android on their older models.

As someone who considers an s2 because htc fucked up on their commitment to update my desire to 2.3, I am very interested in how have samsung screwed you over?

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