Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

It's Looking Like Android Could Be Embracing WireGuard - "A Sane VPN"

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • It's Looking Like Android Could Be Embracing WireGuard - "A Sane VPN"

    Phoronix: It's Looking Like Android Could Be Embracing WireGuard - "A Sane VPN"

    Following the release of Linux 5.6 and WireGuard 1.0 declared, Google has now enabled WireGuard within their Android open-source Linux kernel build...

    Phoronix, Linux Hardware Reviews, Linux hardware benchmarks, Linux server benchmarks, Linux benchmarking, Desktop Linux, Linux performance, Open Source graphics, Linux How To, Ubuntu benchmarks, Ubuntu hardware, Phoronix Test Suite

  • #2
    Originally posted by Setif
    It will be easily disabled by Android Manufacturers.
    even worse: it'll probably never be available on existing Google Pixel phones because they never get updated to newer kernel versions.

    Comment


    • #3
      Originally posted by Setif
      It will be easily disabled by Android Manufacturers.
      It CAN be easily disabled, but why would they?

      Did any manufacturer care enough about that to disable support for any other VPN in Android?

      Comment


      • #4
        Originally posted by hotaru View Post
        even worse: it'll probably never be available on existing Google Pixel phones because they never get updated to newer kernel versions.
        Breaking news: Android devices are not getting any kernel updates, more news at 20:00

        Comment


        • #5
          I see the obligatory "Android sucks with kernel updates" comments have been covered.

          Comment


          • #6
            Lot of pessimism in this thread. I agree that it'll likely not make it back to existing devices, but why wouldn't manufacturers let it into future devices? "Free" security upgrade for their enterprise customers, and Google's handling all the maintenance. In fact, Google (Android Enterprise Recommended) & Samsung (Knox) are actively pushing into the enterprise sector, so as corporate VPN vendors adopt WireGuard, OEMs will be very keen on being ready.

            Comment


            • #7
              Interesting. Since when Greg KH works at Google?

              Comment


              • #8
                Originally posted by sturmen View Post
                Lot of pessimism in this thread. I agree that it'll likely not make it back to existing devices, but why wouldn't manufacturers let it into future devices? "Free" security upgrade for their enterprise customers, and Google's handling all the maintenance. In fact, Google (Android Enterprise Recommended) & Samsung (Knox) are actively pushing into the enterprise sector, so as corporate VPN vendors adopt WireGuard, OEMs will be very keen on being ready.
                I imagine that most of us are butthurt due to having an open source OS hampered by so many restrictions that the open source part is moot. We see all these neat developments and new things coming to Android that most of us will never see in the next year or two due to crappy update policies across the board.

                It also doesn't help with how extremely (and intentionally) fragmented Android devices really are these days -- there are 12+ variants of the Moto G6 or LG V50 or Galaxy s20. The US usually has 5 variants per phone model (all 4 major carriers + unlocked) or 9 (the other + MNVO variants)...Latin America, South America and Canada adds another 4-8 variants; Asia adds another 3-6 variants, and Europe another 3-6 as well.

                When there are that many different variants of the same phone, it slows down the custom rom scene a lot. When all the devs all over the world can't use the same rom or have to do different methods to even use custom roms, it messes with things -- like how in America T-Mobile phones tend to have unlocked or unlockable bootloaders while the AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon models are locked and require exploits to unlock so right from the start there's a fork in the community followed by three more forks on the locked fork side.

                Seeing news about the open source OS that's so hostile towards open source development tends to piss some of us off because we know that we're being fucked over from using all these wonderful things due to 27mb of closed source firmware blobs

                Comment


                • #9
                  Originally posted by skeevy420 View Post

                  I imagine that most of us are butthurt due to having an open source OS hampered by so many restrictions that the open source part is moot. We see all these neat developments and new things coming to Android that most of us will never see in the next year or two due to crappy update policies across the board.

                  It also doesn't help with how extremely (and intentionally) fragmented Android devices really are these days -- there are 12+ variants of the Moto G6 or LG V50 or Galaxy s20. The US usually has 5 variants per phone model (all 4 major carriers + unlocked) or 9 (the other + MNVO variants)...Latin America, South America and Canada adds another 4-8 variants; Asia adds another 3-6 variants, and Europe another 3-6 as well.

                  When there are that many different variants of the same phone, it slows down the custom rom scene a lot. When all the devs all over the world can't use the same rom or have to do different methods to even use custom roms, it messes with things -- like how in America T-Mobile phones tend to have unlocked or unlockable bootloaders while the AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon models are locked and require exploits to unlock so right from the start there's a fork in the community followed by three more forks on the locked fork side.

                  Seeing news about the open source OS that's so hostile towards open source development tends to piss some of us off because we know that we're being fucked over from using all these wonderful things due to 27mb of closed source firmware blobs
                  I get it, I'm a member of this forum, aren't I? I'm rooting for the Librem 5 (and the PinePhone, and the Volla Phone, and the Astro Slide, etc) to succeed as much as all of us. I'm also frustrated that there's awesome work done by our wonderful FOSS community that we just can't use on "our" smartphones. As starshipeleven said, none of this is news, and complaining about it Phoronix won't change the course of any of this. But what I was really reacting to is stuff like "It will be easily disabled by Android Manufacturers." from Setif, which seems pessimistic for no reason. In my view, we should complain and complain loudly towards the OEMs but when it's just us in our little forum, wouldn't it be nicer to be more upbeat?

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Originally posted by sturmen View Post

                    I get it, I'm a member of this forum, aren't I? I'm rooting for the Librem 5 (and the PinePhone, and the Volla Phone, and the Astro Slide, etc) to succeed as much as all of us. I'm also frustrated that there's awesome work done by our wonderful FOSS community that we just can't use on "our" smartphones. As starshipeleven said, none of this is news, and complaining about it Phoronix won't change the course of any of this. But what I was really reacting to is stuff like "It will be easily disabled by Android Manufacturers." from Setif, which seems pessimistic for no reason. In my view, we should complain and complain loudly towards the OEMs but when it's just us in our little forum, wouldn't it be nicer to be more upbeat?
                    Who to blame is really kind of difficult. IMHO, the ones most deserving of it are the American phone carriers. They all wanted their own special version with all their special crap* when at most we needed two versions -- CDMA and GSM. That added in an extra layer of testing that the phone carriers would drag ass on and sometimes never even finish (so we'd have to buy new phones for updates). From there is where the trend of special version with special crap spread to other carriers and OEMs the world over.

                    That said, that really makes Google the one to really blame for whatever licensing or agreements they have in place with their partners that allowed that kind of an ecosystem to prosper (is well aware that software design choices are also in play). Google could have been like Apple and told them "With our OS, the buck stops here", but they didn't and here we are with Google playing scramble the stuff like Treble and Fuchsia (lol...they deserve the scramble. it's what ya get when ya drop "don't" from "don't be evil").

                    About the only thing complaining here does is maybe, maybe being a stretch, maybe make some other geek who isn't a phone nerd aware of the crappy phone software situation.

                    But, really, who does get the brunt (F. C. A) of the blame? The carriers who wanted their special phones to attract customers? The manufacturers for making their custom skins and software layers to attract customers to their phones? Google for allowing everyone to treat Android, open source software mind you, like the Wild West where everything goes with little regard to long term Android viability?

                    Then ask yourself how is Google supposed to enforce standards with open source software when all one has to do is fork AOSP, give it a different name, and have "some helpful community member" release a sideloadable GAPPS package or even provide their own competing app store like Amazon does? I suppose they could have made a "Google provides all OS updates clause" for anyone who wants to include GAPPS on their devices...but even that's riddled with issues...

                    *with the AT&T phones I've had, it really is crap

                    Comment

                    Working...
                    X