OnePlus Commits To 3 Years of Android Updates By Merging OxygenOS With Oppo's ColorOS (theverge.com) 35
Last month, it was revealed that OnePlus will become an Oppo sub-brand. Now, the company announced that it's also merging OxygenOS with Oppo's ColorOS operating system. 9to5Google reports: In a forum post today, OnePlus explains that the sub-brand of Oppo is "working on integrating the codebase of OxygenOS and ColorOS." Apparently, the change will go unnoticed because it is happening behind the scenes: "This is a change that you will likely not even notice since it's happening behind the scenes. We now have a larger and even more capable team of developers, more advanced R&D resources, and a more streamlined development process all coming together to improve the OxygenOS experience."
OnePlus also further reiterates that OxygenOS will remain the "global" operating system for OnePlus-branded devices rather than ColorOS, which runs on Oppo devices and OnePlus devices in China, too. It's not mentioned if OxygenOS will change visually, but it's fairly clear that will happen based on early looks at the Android 12 Beta which is available for OnePlus 9 devices. The bright side of this change, however, is that OnePlus will be committing to a stronger Android update schedule that delivers at least three years of support to the company's entire portfolio.
OnePlus also further reiterates that OxygenOS will remain the "global" operating system for OnePlus-branded devices rather than ColorOS, which runs on Oppo devices and OnePlus devices in China, too. It's not mentioned if OxygenOS will change visually, but it's fairly clear that will happen based on early looks at the Android 12 Beta which is available for OnePlus 9 devices. The bright side of this change, however, is that OnePlus will be committing to a stronger Android update schedule that delivers at least three years of support to the company's entire portfolio.
commitment to unlockable bootloaders? (Score:4, Insightful)
Do we have any commitment that we'll continue to be able to unlock the bootloaders and reflash? OnePlus has been worth buying just due to that.
Re: (Score:3)
Do we have any commitment that we'll continue to be able to unlock the bootloaders and reflash? OnePlus has been worth buying just due to that.
If that's the only reason you're buying one, just get a Moto. My X4 is still getting updates... of LineageOS
Re: commitment to unlockable bootloaders? (Score:2)
While we're at it: Why is LineageOS not supported on all devices that are unlockable?
In my mind it would work like this:
1. Extract the existing kernel from the existing system. Which includes all drivers, firmware, OEM bits and pieces, etc.
2. Flash LineageOS.
3. Replace its kernel with the above kernel.
Done.
To mitigate minimalist and old kernels, people could write shims. Those would be per-feature. Not per-device. So they would enable whole sets of devices to work.
Anyone with some experience in porting Line
Re: (Score:3)
While we're at it: Why is LineageOS not supported on all devices that are unlockable?
The short answer is that it has to be packaged.
The longer answer is that since there's no standard for bootloading on Android devices like there is on PCs, each distribution has to be repacked for whatever scheme the manufacturer used. My X4 uses the A/B system so that required additional work. Also, drivers are different for different devices, and that means more repackaging work, integration, testing.
With that said, my potato doesn't have enough free store and only recently got enough RAM to build Android
Re: (Score:2)
"my other phone is a motorola". and to be honest I've always loved my moto phones, however there's this warning on Motorola's site:
You have only yourself to blame. Unless you have a Developer Edition device, once you get the unlock code, your device is no longer covered by the Motorola warranty; in other words, please don't blame us if things go wrong, even if they appear unrelated to unlocking the bootloader.
By contrast
The technical process of rooting or unlocking the bootloader does not void the warranty of a OnePlus device. However, we strongly suggest for you to only root or unlock the bootloader of your OnePlus device if you are confident in your understanding of the risks involved.
By accessing resources regularly unavailable to the software, you may damage your hardware during or after the procedure. Such damage is not covered under warranty. In warranty handling, we will first need to verify that any faulty behavior is unrelated to rooting / unlocking.
So if you have a physically broken / unbootable phone OnePlus will fix and if you don't then you can reflash back to the original software and if it doesn't fix your problem then you can be pretty confident sending it back for repair.
Given that I try to buy nearly new phones which cost huge amounts of money, getting a warranty makes a difference to me. This becomes
Re: (Score:2)
Well, I got my X4 for $150 and then later bought another one on eBay for $70. That one needs a new battery, bummer. I trashed my phone using it at work, sigh. Needed more case, and better pockets. The pockets in Dickies are goddamned worthless, everything just falls out of them.
Anyhoo, I don't buy super duper expensive phones because they are going places and doing shit and that means they're at risk of theft or breakage. That's a matter of principle :D
Waiting until a phone is a little older is a good way t
3 Years, and then what? (Score:3)
Am I supposed to throw my phone away after three years? Incredibly wasteful.
Re: (Score:3)
And then you continue using it until it breaks, or until you feel the need to score a new girlfriend.
Re: 3 Years, and then what? (Score:1)
"Until it breaks" is sooner than you maybe think. It is whenever you don't get at security patch. So that number is counted in weeks.
It makes no sense to not keep updating the system. Why did we invent hardware abstraction layers then? Keep the drivers the same, update the rest! There should be zero hindrance there! I think it is fully deliberate.
Also, you seem to confuse girlfriends with prostitutes somehow... ;)
If she's in for the noney, she's not in for you.
In reality, what it does, is give you confidenc
Re: (Score:2)
No one but security experts and people with access to really sensitive data give a fuck about security patches on phones. There are ancient phones still in use that haven't seen a security patch in many years. Pretty much everything that's on your phone, NSA, GRU, MSS and their aligned agencies already have. And getting into your phone to do anything meaningful is just too expensive for pretty much everyone else.
Re: (Score:2)
If it breaks, why not get it fixed if it's not beyond repair? ... To be fair, I tried to get several phones fixed, none of the repair people I tried got back to me.
If it's not receiving updates then there's the risk it becoming a bot army zombie.
If it's not receiving updates then there's considerable risk of important stuff stopping from working like the app store, which would mean no more app updates.
If it's not receiving updates and apps can't be updated then there's a good chance the apps will stop worki
Re: (Score:2)
Beyond the "lol, zombie phone, XP era really traumatized you", your other two aren't even remotely realistic. Most apps work on android 4. Of those that don't, most will work on android 7.
Re: (Score:2)
I retired my last cheap phone as it became too slow, with simple apps taking what seemed like minutes to load and consistent complaints about no room. 1GB of ram and 8 GB's of storage, with over half taken by Android, just doesn't cut it. It was an Android 5 device.
Re: (Score:2)
I know the experience. Recent Android updates took the system to eat about half of my older 16GB storage device, resulting in rather significant problems with storage space. Which couldn't be properly mitigated by using an SD card because of android's retarded handling of second storage device.
But it would still work fine otherwise.
Re: (Score:2)
Am I supposed to throw my phone away after three years? Incredibly wasteful.
Install LineageOS there are many devices that are beyond the end of support in Android [lineageos.org].
Wow, you're not as much committing a crime! (Score:1)
You're not as much literally committing the crime of planned obsolescence as before!
Have a badge! /s
You must feel real proud!
Meanwhile (Score:2)
Apple, the company that slashdot hates irrationally for some reason will push iOS updates for at least 5 years. Devices from 2013 ended OS support just last year.
Re: Meanwhile (Score:2)
TIL it is irrational to hate a company that sells you a product and then controls how you can use what you bought.
Re: (Score:2)
The answer would be to buy a device that meets your requirements. I hate McDonald's because they won't serve me spaghetti!
Re: (Score:2)
The answer would be to buy a device that meets your requirements. I hate McDonald's because they won't serve me spaghetti!
That was a dumb analogy. I never said I hated Apple because they won't sell me a refrigerator. I hate them because they make shitty locked down products, much the same as I hate Applebee's because most of their meals are disgustingly oversalted, as if they didn't know any other form of seasoning exists. There's nothing irrational about that. What IS irrational is you being concerned about which companies I do and don't hate.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
There are plenty of other reasons for not wanting to buy from Apple besides the price.
Right to repair legislation should require full public release of all technical data, possibly including source code, as soon as you stop maintaining ANYTHING AT ALL.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Yep and they’re doing just fine.
Re: Meanwhile (Score:2)
Big fucking deal (Score:2)
A whole three years? Fuck off and die. I want 10 minimum.
Re: (Score:2)
iPhones are you best bet then, but even they only go up to six years. Not that you’d want to use a device that slow anymore.
Tiered update plans, not good (Score:2)
Another article stated their more expensive devices will get updates for longer than their cheaper ones. I think this is a bad trend.
Let's Look At The Good Side (Score:2)
3 years (2 upgrades) for the OS and 4 years of security updates is a 50% and 33% improvement, respectively, over the best current support offers. So that's good.
If others match the offer, so 3&4 becomes the Android standard, might that push MS to extend their support period for feature updates? Might be nice to expect 4 years of security support rather than the 1.5-2 years they get now. After all, Win10 was supposed to bring phone-style support policies to PCs, so if phones upgrade their support then Wi