TL;DR

• Google has made it harder to build custom Android ROMs for Pixel phones by omitting their device trees and driver binaries from the latest AOSP release.

• The company says this is because it’s shifting its AOSP reference target from Pixel hardware to a virtual device called “Cuttlefish” to be more neutral.

• While Google insists AOSP isn’t going away, developers must now reverse-engineer changes, making the process for supporting Pixel devices more difficult.

If Pine64 can spec out a reasonably decent prototype of a phone and Purism can sell theirs for 2 grand (not worth it), then somebody else can legit come out with something just the same. Pine64 project and Purism cannot be the only communities that can somehow come out with these kinds of tech. Better yet, more people should be jumping to help out these guys to be free from Google and Apple dominance.

huh, look at that. the thing people were warned about when buying pixel phones happened.

I mean, you're getting a lot of downvotes, but I've gone Motorola -> Motorola -> Motorola -> Pixel -> Pixel -> Motorola.

Both my Pixels died in less than a year. Each had battery life which, while it did improve over a few weeks as Pixel's optimization stuff took hold, never reached an entire day. Both were unacceptably fragile. Both failed randomly, just out of warranty.

And the Motorola I'm using now has none of those problems, was cheaper, is faster, has a better battery, has a better screen, and in some ways is more customizable (fuck that unmovable search bar).

Like, really. Motorola is a sleeper brand. Not perfect, but damn good.

I agree with you, it's insidious.

Given you've got a Pixel phone, you can save at least yourself from this problem by running Graphene or Calyx on it.

I was about to buy one next year… what do you recommend instead?

I swear to god how many time it has to pass until developers realize open source is just a facade only Free Software licences are free as in freedom

huh, look at that. the thing people were warned about when buying pixel phones happened.

TL;DR

• Google has made it harder to build custom Android ROMs for Pixel phones by omitting their device trees and driver binaries from the latest AOSP release.

• The company says this is because it’s shifting its AOSP reference target from Pixel hardware to a virtual device called “Cuttlefish” to be more neutral.

• While Google insists AOSP isn’t going away, developers must now reverse-engineer changes, making the process for supporting Pixel devices more difficult.

TL;DR

• Google has made it harder to build custom Android ROMs for Pixel phones by omitting their device trees and driver binaries from the latest AOSP release.

• The company says this is because it’s shifting its AOSP reference target from Pixel hardware to a virtual device called “Cuttlefish” to be more neutral.

• While Google insists AOSP isn’t going away, developers must now reverse-engineer changes, making the process for supporting Pixel devices more difficult.

This is not a selling point but rather a unfortunate but comprehensible circumstance. Nexus and later Pixel phones have not been anything more than reference hardware without significant sales until the Pixel 6. Google has been a software company that has greatly benefited by android being an "open" platform you could contribute to and use their services on.

The App / Cloud ecosystem has gained a lot of competitors, so Google is doing their best to reverse this course of action by pulling more and more functionality out of AOSP into Play services and now into Cuttlefish. We can only wait and see how other phone manufacturers react to this.

Nah, you have it backwards. GrapheneOS didn't choose Pixels for any reason other than they're the only acceptably secure devices out there. I can't imagine they want this to be the case.

That still sounds like choosing to me. Like, if your project requirements are so strict that it only works on the mornings of a Tuesday that falls in a prime number day that has a blue moon and where there are no ATP tennis matches going on (all pre-existing things you have no vote on), maybe you should re-evaluate if you actually want your proyect to have a viable audience.

Which motorola?

See? Pixel devices are nothing but a trip to the lemon grove, but people with debilitating chronic ass pain tearfully refuse to accept that they wasted their money on GETBRAND. I take those downvotes as an unofficial census confirming how many people don't know ball.

Is it really so outlandish to want my phone to be unbreakable by cops?