One year of postmarketOS

Posted Jun 12, 2018 21:42 UTC (Tue) by Wol (subscriber, #4433)
In reply to: One year of postmarketOS by marcH
Parent article: One year of postmarketOS

> Progress is slowing down though.

Fortunately.

I had a Galaxy Ace, which I replaced about four years ago. I didn't have much choice - with 2MB of RAM I was in the following catch 22 ...

In order to run the apps I wanted I needed to upgrade them. In order to upgrade the apps, I needed to update Google Play. In order to update Google Play I had to delete the apps to make space ...

At least with 16MB that's no longer that serious a problem, but even then, as the apps "we won't let you delete even if you never use them" grow bigger, I can see 16 MB being too small at some point :-(

That's why cheap phones die - they skimp on RAM, and then the junk crowds out everything else.

Cheers,
Wol

One year of postmarketOS

Posted Jun 12, 2018 23:12 UTC (Tue) by anselm (subscriber, #2796) [Link] (1 responses)

It's a matter of priorities. I have had a Jolla phone for the last 2,5 years or so – not cutting-edge technology, hardware-wise, even when it originally came out, but it works reasonably well, is way better for my privacy than anything with “Google” or “Apple” on it, and gets a new and improved version of Sailfish OS every few months. Jolla are planning a major-version-number upgrade of Sailfish OS for later this year and apparently even old phones like mine will still be supported by that.

I've had various Android phones before the Jolla phone and am still using an Android phone provided by my employer for work, but none of those have the same sort of commitment from the manufacturer when it comes to software updates. That's presumably because Samsung etc. would rather sell me a new phone than upgrade my old one; since Jolla is no longer in the hardware business itself, supporting the existing customer base of their software product has a higher priority to them.

One year of postmarketOS

Posted Jun 13, 2018 21:39 UTC (Wed) by Wol (subscriber, #4433) [Link]

Many users don't particular care about upgrading their phones. I don't - my latest upgrade was again based on the fact that the apps weren't working ... although in this case I think it was a hardware problem - if GPS is faulty then Maps isn't going to work very well ...

Samsung/Apple/Motorola may well want you to buy a new phone, but until the apps break users mostly couldn't care less. High end phones are like cars from a user view-point. Some customers just want the latest and newest. Others prefer to buy a good new one and run it into the ground. That latter is what I've tried to do with my latest phone - a Motorola G5.

Cheers,
Wol