[talmand]

I don't get it, is he complaining about the Android OS or the UI skins that manufacturers choose to install on their devices?

Does this mean that if I apply a custom theme to my Windows7 install it is no longer "true" Windows7?

Older phones not getting Jelly Bean is a silly complaint at this point, can't we get past this?

I just really don't get these type of articles, I can only assume they are link bait since they rarely make any sense. Then there's the entertaining comments as people argue over their phones as if it matters somehow in their lives.

And here I am commenting on it, argh, the cycle never ends!

Is this guy trying to convince me of something? What's the point of this article?

At least the author justified his stance by describing the devices he's purchased. This has become the tech industries "I'm not racist because I have black friends" statement that is starting to appear in so many places now.

[protomyth]

"Older phones not getting Jelly Bean is a silly complaint at this point, can't we get past this?"

I would imagine we can get it past it when every phone capable of running the newest Android version is allowed to upgrade to the newest Android version. Until then, it is an issue for developers who want to use the latest APIs.

[talmand]

I can't necessarily disagree, when it comes to developers. Just curious, what are these latest and greatest APIs that's preventing developers from producing quality apps because they don't exist on older phones? Is it because of security and/or functional updates to the OS or is it truly app APIs that some apps just can't exist without?

[protomyth]

One example from the graphics APIs / changes:

"Earlier this year, Android 3.0 launched with a new 2D rendering pipeline designed to support hardware acceleration on tablets. With this new pipeline, all drawing operations performed by the UI toolkit are carried out using the GPU.

You’ll be happy to hear that Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich, brings an improved version of the hardware-accelerated 2D rendering pipeline to phones, starting with Galaxy Nexus."

http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2011/11/android-40-gr...

You can walk your way from http://developer.android.com/about/versions/jelly-bean.html backwards to see what is missing on older phones.

[wmf]

If someone else applied a non-removable custom theme to your Windows7 install it is certainly no longer "true" Windows7. The power relationship matters.

[talmand]

So at that point apps that worked in my "true" Windows7 would no longer work in this new non-removable custom theme version of Windows7? Because that's my threshold of whether it would be Windows or not.

[stephengillie]

It's like Asus releasing laptops with Windows 7 and AsusFlash. AsusFlash would replace Explorer.exe as the shell, leaving you with some other weird interface - left clicking opens menus and you have to drag icons to a bar along the top to open the program.

Now, SP1 comes out, but Asus hasn't released SP1 with AsusFlash, and regular SP1 gives you the error "Please install your OEM Vendor specific SP1 patch". And you don't have the BIOS password either.

Later, SP2 comes out but no "AsusFlash SP2" and you're still on "SP0", the unpatched Win7. Are you using "True Windows" anymore?

[talmand]

Yes, it just can't be upgraded to the latest version. If it can still run Windows applications it is Windows regardless of how badly an OEM ruins the install.

[twism]

It's really just not a skin. Ex. There are buttons in the notifications tray for turning off and on services on the phone. The launcher is a totally different app that is not as performant as the stock.

[talmand]

So, in most cases it's added functionality that some people will like and some people will not. What's the problem with that? How is it no longer Android at that point?

[bitwize]

Older phones not getting Jelly Bean is a silly complaint at this point, can't we get past this?

Not when older iPhones get the latest iOS release as soon as it's available.

[talmand]

Why is it a factor that older iPhones can possibly get the latest version of iOS when we're talking about Android? That's comparing one company with one line of phones that they heavily control the ecosystem. A proper comparison would be how the Nexus line does in terms of upgrades. Which Apple probably still wins, but so what? It's a silly complaint because the people who buy the phones don't care.

My complaint is centered around the silliness of this whole farce about "this phone is superior because of A, B, and C while that phone SUCKS because the company once made a phone that looked just like my superior phone so therefore they can never make a decent phone in the future and I won't buy a phone from that company (nor should anyone) just like I won't buy a Ford truck because I had one that broke down on me forty years ago!" kind of crap that passes for a discussion on the matter.

These things are almost to the "battery dead? throw it away" stage so can we get past this which is superior crap? They are all wonderful devices and they all serve their owners quite well even though some do things that others do not. There are better things to debate the pros and cons over.