Android 10 is here! With this release, we focused on making your everyday life easier with features powered by on-device machine learning, as well as supporting new technologies like Foldables and 5G. At the same time, with almost 50 changes related to privacy and security, Android 10 gives you greater protection, transparency, and control over your data. This builds on top of our ongoing commitment to provide industry-leading security and privacy protections on Android. We also built new tools that empower people of all abilities, and help you find the right balance with technology.
Coming to only very few devices probably not near you.
As I understand it the gap between normal Linux kernel source from kernel.org and Android has become very small compared to in the past. A far cry from years ago: https://lkml.org/lkml/2011/12/19/508
later on: https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTA2ODA
eventually: https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Nexus-7-On-Mainline
And more and more device manufacturers now also use normal kernel.org LTS/stable releases to base their kernel on for their Android phones: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDrRvrh16ws (sorry, no timestamp in the URL, I don’t have the ability to listen to it right now)
Isn’t it strange how we went from:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/ewanspence/2015/11/01/microsoft-android-patent-income/
To having Microsoft themselves contribute patches for it to the Linux kernel:
https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTM5NTQ
“The problem of devices being unable to run mainline kernels remains; the problem, of course, is all of that out-of-tree code. The amount of that code in the Android Common Kernel has been reduced considerably, though, with a focused effort at getting the changes upstream. There are now only about 30 patches in the Android Common Kernel, adding about 6,500 lines of code, that are needed to boot Android. The eventual plan is to push that to zero, but there are a number of issues to deal with still, including solving problems with priority inheritance in binder, getting energy-aware scheduling into the mainline, and upstreaming the SDCardFS filesystem bridge. ”
https://lwn.net/Articles/771974/ (November 15, 2018)
I’m not convinced it’s that dire, despite all those stats. With 18 phones running Android 10 beta vs last year for Pie, that’s a big change. I think all Google needs to do is convince Samsung to do it and the rest will necessarily fall in line. With several sizable manufacturers doing so this year, Samsung has to take notice, even if it won’t do anything *YET*. And yes, Project Mainline may not make the whole of the OS updatable w/o manufacturer input… *YET*.
At some point, users will see their friends getting updates faster and want the same/similar phones so they get the same. They may not care at all about security updates. But, when users get niceties that save time/hassle/etc, they’ll want *that* and only get it on newer OS versions. For instance, Android 7.1 w/ its long press menu (similar to Force Touch), or using the recents button to quick switch b/w apps, or multiple apps and PIP, or now gestures. Not *every* user will care, but many will. When those users stop buying phones w/o such and/or flood forums with requests for it, manufacturers will take notice b/c it affects their bottom line.
All that takes *time* though. It’s not a *never* proposition, but a matter of *when* the critical mass comes for it.
Have been running Android Quiche… oh… I mean… 10… on my Pixel 2 XL since yesterday afternoon. No bugs so far in my regular use of the phone. Dark mode, I can confirm, extends my usual day before having to charge by almost 2 hours (yay! so far…). Beyond that, I haven’t figured out what changes were made to gestures and haven’t noticed much difference from the previous version.
And yes, Google needs to get Samsung on board with more rapid deployment of new Android versions (maybe, in part, convincing Samsung to drop that annoying UI skin). And yes, I know the delay in deployment is also dependent on carriers – but Pixel phones, like current flagship Samsung phones, are running, in the US, on T-Mobile, Sprint, Verizon…
Yeah seconded here. Dark mode is nice, but that’s about all the difference I’ve noticed. The text changed subtly as well. But it seems like a really minor update. Which is awesome, I should point out. If the software matures, then manufacturers can start differentiating on reliability of hardware. I would love to be all android, as I think in many ways its far superior UX, but the hardware Android runs on doesn’t seem to last as long.