I am typing this comment on a Thinkpad T43, a model that was released in 2005. It does not matter that you think 7 years ago is a long time. There is nothing "perfectly reasonable" about planned obsolescence. If a thing is still usable and someone wants to use it, preventing them from doing so is violating their freedom.
I am typing this comment on a Thinkpad T43, a model that was released in 2005.
Phones have advanced much more rapidly than computers in the last 10 years.
If a thing is still usable and someone wants to use it, preventing them from doing so is violating their freedom.
You are free to continue using your Android 2.1 devices, just not with Google's store. It is your position that no service provider should ever be allowed to drop support for any hardware that might still be functioning? Are you equally outraged at F-Droid's "planned obsolescence" in requiring 2.3? (https://f-droid.org/repository/browse/?fdfilter=f-droid&fdid...)
> Phones have advanced much more rapidly than computers in the last 10 years.
That argument is irrelevant. If you have something, it does not matter how old it is, you should be able to continue to use it.
> You are free to continue using your Android 2.1 devices
Why do you act like you do not understand anything about Android phones or have never heard of rooting, when you obviously have? You cannot install any other operating system or even many applications on most Android phones without exploiting security holes, which is illegal in many jurisdictions.
Your argument about vendor support is nonsensical in this discussion - if you did not have to depend on the vendor for basic system software upgrades, there would be no problem. You are arguing against your own position with the F-Droid example - why are people restricted from upgrading their version of Android?
Marking a "Install from unknown sources" checkbox provided by the OS is not illegal, nor is downloading properly licensed APKs. If the applications don't (legally) permit themselves to be used without being downloaded from Android Market or provide their source code, they totally have the right to do that.
> if you did not have to depend on the vendor for basic system software upgrades, there would be no problem.
Totally agreed. But your initial comment didn't point that out. It just said naively how GPLv3, AGPL, and FSF are good and all other things are evil. Please make yourself more clear next time.
> Why do you act like you do not understand anything about Android phones or have never heard of rooting, when you obviously have?
Please do not take things on a personal level like this, that section of your comment was totally unnecessary and targeted, which doesn't add any value to this thread, according to the HN's approach to comments guide[1].
> Marking a "Install from unknown sources" checkbox provided by the OS is not illegal, nor is downloading properly licensed APKs. If the applications don't (legally) permit themselves to be used without being downloaded from Android Market or provide their source code, they totally have the right to do that.
Certain system changes, and applications that need to do these changes, are not possible without rooting. This includes things like, for example, using ext3/ext4 on external storage.
They probably aren't. Many of the older phones can be rooted and custom roms installed, but the problem is nobody is writing drivers for that hardware anymore.
Also, consider that Android universally has sideloading. Nothing stopping you from running whatever you want.
> Many of the older phones can be rooted and custom roms installed
"Rooting" is exploiting security holes, which is illegal under the DMCA in the United States and under other laws in other jurisdictions. The only reason that is even possible is accidental. The phones are deliberately locked down.
> the problem is nobody is writing drivers for that hardware anymore.
If the Linux kernel had been re-licensed under GPLv3, the source code for the drivers would be available and the drivers would still work. There are a ton of Free Software drivers in Linux and NetBSD/OpenBSD written in the 1990s that have had minimal modifications in the meantime and still run.
