The more time goes by, the worse the divergence will be. (I think this is basically the idea, but correct me if I’m wrong:) Right now, we might have GrapheneOS 15 vs Android 16. But eventually, there will be an Android 17 and an Android 18. GrapheneOS developers will either have to trudge along with an older OS, or hire more developers to recreate the missing pieces of the code - pieces Google has already created but will never release . The missing pieces will get bigger and more significant. Android 15 will age out of security updates.
Those companies have always developed some of their own, “hardware-specific” software and never released the results to the public either.
(Correct me if I’m wrong here, but that’s probably why pixels of the past have had really good ROMs, while phones from other companies are lucky to get LineageOS on them.)
To use the word “Android” on their devices, they already have some kind of backroom deal with Google. Nobody really knows what that deal entails, though. It would take a(nother) lawsuit to find out.
AFAIK (I may be wrong), you have to pay google for bundling Google Play Services on your phone. For example, Purism probably does not pay Google anything because it only uses AOSP + it’s own suite of services. However, Android 17 will be a bit concerning. Let’s wait till we get a bit more clarity.
Soooo, that means that android is fucked but custom roms should be able to continue from android 15, not?
The more time goes by, the worse the divergence will be. (I think this is basically the idea, but correct me if I’m wrong:) Right now, we might have GrapheneOS 15 vs Android 16. But eventually, there will be an Android 17 and an Android 18. GrapheneOS developers will either have to trudge along with an older OS, or hire more developers to recreate the missing pieces of the code - pieces Google has already created but will never release . The missing pieces will get bigger and more significant. Android 15 will age out of security updates.
This is pretty bad.
How will Samsung/OnePlus use Android 17 and 18?
Those companies have always developed some of their own, “hardware-specific” software and never released the results to the public either.
(Correct me if I’m wrong here, but that’s probably why pixels of the past have had really good ROMs, while phones from other companies are lucky to get LineageOS on them.)
That’s not what I meant. Will the other OEMs have to pay Google for using Android 17 (since it’s not open-source anymore) ?
To use the word “Android” on their devices, they already have some kind of backroom deal with Google. Nobody really knows what that deal entails, though. It would take a(nother) lawsuit to find out.
AFAIK (I may be wrong), you have to pay google for bundling Google Play Services on your phone. For example, Purism probably does not pay Google anything because it only uses AOSP + it’s own suite of services. However, Android 17 will be a bit concerning. Let’s wait till we get a bit more clarity.