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Android 17 is the first since 3.x to add new APIs without releasing to the AOSP

1180 points · 723 comments · theanonymousone

  1. wps · · focus · HN ↗
    The amount of roadblocks Google is putting up for GrapheneOS is just ridiculous. None of their decisions make any sense, from the delayed source patches upstream, to the embargos, attestation issues, etc. Google simply regrets android being open source.
    1. 7734128 · · focus · HN ↗
      It's not a regret. Android would never have been popular in the first place if it had not been open source. If phone makers had been able to anticipate how much the demons at Google would be able to lock down the Android then they would never had used the OS back in ~2009.
      1. mrpippy · · focus · HN ↗
        That’s possible (never underestimate the bad decision-making of phone makers), but what would they have done instead? Windows Mobile 6 was the only licensable alternative, but it was a known quantity and obviously a generation behind Android and iOS.
        1. SoftTalker · · focus · HN ↗
          Windows Phone was pretty nice, too bad Microsoft didn't follow their DOS and Windows strategy of getting it preinstalled on every consumer PC sold. There was really only the Nokia Lumia line that I recall, but everyone I knew who had one loved it.
          1. dpark · · focus · HN ↗
            Windows Phone 7 didn’t ship until 2 years after Android. 2 more years later Windows Phone 8 was released and it was a legitimate option but just too late.

            Pre-7 was just not an operating system that anyone except the geekiest of geeks wanted to use.

            1. SoftTalker · · focus · HN ↗
              Yeah I guess Apple set too high a bar and MS was caught flatfooted (again) and was too far behind.
              1. dpark · · focus · HN ↗
                I don’t have visibility into what happened with that team, but Android from what I understand saw immediately that they needed to follow Apple’s lead and pivoted (originally they were building something closer to a BlackBerry). The Windows phone team either didn’t believe they need to pivot initially or they just took too long to do so.

                Windows Phone is a case study of missed opportunity.

            2. hurfdurf · · focus · HN ↗
              Not doing any OS upgrades from 7 to 8 and only very few from 8.x to 10 certainly didn't help either.
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