XPost: misc.phone.mobile.iphone, comp.sys.mac.advocacy

Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> wrote

How are your Pixel's doing?

Pixel 5a, doesn't feel 'old' yet, only issue I've had was one bad
monthly update that hurt daily battery life, fixed the following month,
will receive updates until August 2024 (I doubt whether the 15 upgrade
will come out during that timescale)

Good for you on the Pixels as you taught me about the A/B partitions and
the OTA updates, which we don't have on my free Samsung Galaxy A32-5G.

I stress particularly that it was free because I love that darn thing!
I didn't pick it though - T-Mobile picked it for me. I buy cheap phones.
<https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/tmo-us-is-giving-away-this-phone.4265127/#post-89033675>

However, the size is right (most of the time it's two feet tall on my PC monitor anyway) and the 5AH battery lasts forever (where I know how to keep
the radios off unless I need them), and the CPU & display does everything I need it to do - so it too does not feel old in the least to me either.

Unless I break it, or lose it, or if I move to the slums and it gets
stolen, I can't imagine what they'll have to do to make me want a new one.

But my main question is how to differentiate between Project
Mainline/Treble "security updates" and the Android "security updates".
<https://artihe.com/heres-what-you-need-to-know-about-project-mainline-on-android-14-and-later/>

Google previously gave 3 years for both, currently give 3 years and 5 years,
the rumour is from the upcoming pixel8 they're going to going to get 7
years of major upgrades

I wonder how "important" the security patches are that happen during the
Project Mainline (aka "Google Play system updates") & Treble updates?

The Play updates seem somewhat behind the security updates, e.g. it's on
1st Sept security fixes and 1st Aug Play updates right now.

My update status is documented here but I have many updates turned off.
<https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/is-it-just-me-or-is-samsung-google-t-mobile-who-updating-the-heck-out-of-this-free-samsung-galaxy-a32-5g-sma32-6u-phone-lately-who-is-doing-it.4629997/>

Note that I have almost all Google packages disabled but they're _still_ updating my phone even though I have a ton of the updaters turned off.
<https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/for-how-long-are-the-over-two-dozen-android-core-modules-updated-over-the-google-play-system-update-mechanism-aka-google-system-updates.4455927/post-88995551>

Would
normally expect a new security fix during the first week of Oct, but
that's likely to be the v14 major upgrade instead this month.

I tried to stop all security fixes but they still keep coming!
<https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/can-i-prevent-an-update-or-at-least-stave-it-off-or-must-i-accept-the-upcoming-update-i-dont-want-the-baseband-to-increment-for-rooting.4532085/#post-87902917>

You seem to know this stuff better than anyone else on this newsgroup.
Me? I can't figure out why they even bother to separate the updates.
<https://forum.xda-developers.com/attachments/galaxy_update_upgrade-jpg.6008295/>

a. There is the "Android Security Patch Level"
b. There are the "Google Play system updates" (aka Project Mainline/Treble)
c. There seem to be Google Play Store system updates (mine are disabled)
etc.

A critical question we should know the answer to are what the differences
are between the security patches in the Project Mainline/Treble updates
(which happen, as far as we can tell, almost monthly forever) and the
specific entity called the "Android Security Patch Level".

Google is apparently frustrating that effort by not documenting it well.
<https://www.androidpolice.com/project-mainline-android-14/>

Mainly, I can't figure out how to differentiate between Project Mainline security updates and the rest of the Android security updates.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

XPost: misc.phone.mobile.iphone, comp.sys.mac.advocacy

Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> wrote

The problem with these alerts is they are almost all bogus

Yes, since I got a warning for a tropical storm half the planet away
from me I've turned them all off (supposedly we don't have a $GOD level
that can't be turned off)

I wonder if they get the $GOD level reference you just made... :)
<https://duckduckgo.com/?&q=windows+god+mode>

For example...
*How to enable Windows God Mode*
<https://www.tomshardware.com/how-to/enable-god-mode-windows-11>

Back to the topic of what's the security update lifetime, I think there are
two overlapping answers to that question - one of which is "forever"
and the other of which is about three to five years for Google/Samsung.

For example, my Samsung shipped in 2021 with Android 11 which then moved to Android 12 and now to Android 13 while Frank Slootweg's Samsung shipped
with Android 10 and he recently updated his to Android 13 - all the time
with two types of constant weekly concomitant Android "security updates".

Notice though that the two types of security updates are both the same and different at the same time - which I think is the source of confusion...
"If you don't already know, security patches and Google System updates
aren't the same. You might be familiar with the former because those
arrive as a software update for your phone. Unless you have auto-updates
turned on, you have to manually download and install the monthly security
patches. They fix various privacy and security vulnerabilities found on
Google's version of Android as well as custom skins supplied on top
by your phone's manufacturer.

Google System updates, meanwhile, are fully automated.

Originally referred to as Project Mainline, these updates fix bugs
discovered in various OS components like device connectivity,
location services, media services, Emergency alerts, and others.

Sometimes, they may also bring new features or enhancements."
<https://www.androidheadlines.com/2022/01/google-monthly-changelog-play-system-updates.html>

What it says is that Google is publishing _monthly_ a changelog of both
a. Security updates via security updates, and,
b. Security updates via Google Play system update updates.
*What's new in Google System Updates*
<https://support.google.com/product-documentation/answer/11412553>

Notice that says "Every week, the Google Play Store provides...", so the
update frequency is literally weekly, forever (as far as anyone knows).

The latest appears to be the October Google Play system updates update.
"Available through Google Play Store v37.8 updated on 10/2/2023"

In summary, "some" security updates on Android last only five years,
while other security updates last forever (Android 10 and above).
--
Forever here means nobody knows of any EOL date and even if there were an
EOL date, all Google Play System updates are donated to the AOSP community.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)