Does big tech run 6 yo kernels? This seems like a corporation problem not wanting to spend the money properly maintaining their systems. If big tech isn’t dogfooding a 6yo kernel, it doesn’t make sense to do it.
Yes, according to the article, while this doesn’t affect the PC/server as much because the distributions take care of security for the most part, where this will have problems is the phone/IoT space (which is why Linux initially started maintaining 6 yo kernels, to cater to that market).
It's not like most phones are getting updates past two years at this point anyway, and while it would be nice if we could actually get software updates and keep our devices longer, I have my doubts that is ever going to happen on Android. I have more faith that someday I'll get my dream RISC-V powered phone with several Linux distros to choose between or even dual boot.
IoT devices are a slightly different story, but I'm skeptical that Linux offering 6 year kernels has made a meaningful difference in those devices actually getting updates.
The article points out that the kernel version used in a phone is basically frozen when development of the device starts. They're suggesting that at 2 years of support, the kernel will be EOL about when the phone is released.
That is the real problem, why is it frozen so early? Why not keep it up to date for more of the development lifecycle rather than shipping a 2 year old kernel. It is not like you have to worry about OTA updates if you have not shipped it yet,
Drivers from 3rd party. Didn't work on phone development, but was part of a company that developed setup boxes.
We will get a kernel from broadcom with all the necessary drivers that was tested for that configuration. Updating was very hard without support and might cost a lot.
Does big tech run 6 yo kernels? This seems like a corporation problem not wanting to spend the money properly maintaining their systems. If big tech isn’t dogfooding a 6yo kernel, it doesn’t make sense to do it.
Yes, according to the article, while this doesn’t affect the PC/server as much because the distributions take care of security for the most part, where this will have problems is the phone/IoT space (which is why Linux initially started maintaining 6 yo kernels, to cater to that market).
It's not like most phones are getting updates past two years at this point anyway, and while it would be nice if we could actually get software updates and keep our devices longer, I have my doubts that is ever going to happen on Android. I have more faith that someday I'll get my dream RISC-V powered phone with several Linux distros to choose between or even dual boot.
IoT devices are a slightly different story, but I'm skeptical that Linux offering 6 year kernels has made a meaningful difference in those devices actually getting updates.
The article points out that the kernel version used in a phone is basically frozen when development of the device starts. They're suggesting that at 2 years of support, the kernel will be EOL about when the phone is released.
That is the real problem, why is it frozen so early? Why not keep it up to date for more of the development lifecycle rather than shipping a 2 year old kernel. It is not like you have to worry about OTA updates if you have not shipped it yet,
Drivers from 3rd party. Didn't work on phone development, but was part of a company that developed setup boxes.
We will get a kernel from broadcom with all the necessary drivers that was tested for that configuration. Updating was very hard without support and might cost a lot.
See the Fairphone, you might be surprised
Or Samsung phones, they have 4 or 5 years of updates.
Fairphone is targeting 8-10 years with the new model
Think printers, factory machines and so on. If they run Linux and not Windows CE, it’s always an ancient kernel.