Android

17722 readers

49 users here now

The new home of /r/Android on Lemmy and the Fediverse!

Android news, reviews, tips, and discussions about rooting, tutorials, and apps.

💡Content Philosophy:

Content which benefits the community (news, rumours, and discussions) is generally allowed and is valued over content which benefits only the individual (technical questions, help buying/selling, rants, self-promotion, etc.) which will be removed if it's in violation of the rules.

Support, technical, or app related questions belong in: [email protected]

For fresh communities, lemmy apps, and instance updates: [email protected]

💬Matrix Chat

💬Telegram channels / chats

📰Our communities below

Rules

Stay on topic: All posts should be related to the Android OS or ecosystem.
No support questions, recommendation requests, rants, or bug reports: Posts must benefit the community rather than the individual. Please post to [email protected].
Describe images/videos, no memes: Please include a text description when sharing images or videos. Post memes to [email protected].
No self-promotion spam: Active community members can post their apps if they answer any questions in the comments. Please do not post links to your own website, YouTube, blog content, or communities.
No reposts or rehosted content: Share only the original source of an article, unless it's not available in English or requires logging in (like Twitter). Avoid reposting the same topic from other sources.
No editorializing titles: You can add the author or website's name if helpful, but keep article titles unchanged.
No piracy or unverified APKs: Do not share links or direct people to pirated content or unverified APKs, which may contain malicious code.
No unauthorized polls, bots, or giveaways: Do not create polls, use bots, or organize giveaways without first contacting mods for approval.
No offensive or low-effort content: Don't post offensive or unhelpful content. Keep it civil and friendly!
No affiliate links: Posting affiliate links is not allowed.

Quick Links

Our Communities

Lemmy App List

See thread

Chat and More

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

107

Google extends Linux kernel support to keep Android devices secure for longer (www.androidauthority.com)

submitted 4 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

3 comments fedilink hide all child comments

After Linux reduced LTS releases from 6 years to 2, Google has committed to supporting its forks for 4 years.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I've used, and continue to use, Linux for a long time, and am very happy with it. Great for my desktop/laptop (Debian, i3).

That said...it seems like it was a bad choice for these devices. It has no stable ABI, and not even a stable API (famously

you can read the good reasons why this is the case). If a stable API/ABI was used, then I would think it would be trivial to keep up with security updates

just run a mainline kernel with a few custom drivers for cell/touch/GPU/whatever. Those will need to be kept up with security updates, but any core kernel security would be automatically handled just by running recent kernels.

Perhaps I'm missing something obvious

probably just that everyone decided on Linux, so various vendors already have good Linux support (if only for a 5.10 or some other ancient kernel...).

[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 months ago (1 children)

You might be surprised to learn that the Linux kernel as employed in Android does actually have a stable binary and programming interface. It’s called the Kernel Module Interface or KMI, and Android fixes the tool chain and symbols that may be used. It’s part of the effort to move devices to generic kernels.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago

TIL, thanks!