alt Hacker News> Considering that it's rare to get kernel (or any) updates on non-flagship phones
How the cluster f*k of the Android update situation Google has allowed this to happen really needs a regulator to step in.
Planned obsolescence is supposed to be illegal in Europe.
Replies
Why would Google be responsible for Samsung and Huawei?
Part of the problem I believe sits on how chip manufacturers (looking at you Qualcomm) handle device trees that should be part of upstream, but are never done due to differences in tooling/proprietary blobs which are also part of the DT. This increases the effort on the OEMs to keep comptability across kernel versions.
More to do with how the ARM ecosystem works and the resulting lack of openness and standardisation in the hardware interface.
Google is the good actor here. 7 years of updates, unlocked bootloader, support for LineageOS, etc. The reason it sucks is all the other OEMs who don't care about anything other than the current year's models.