Android 11 Aiming For Release In Q3

[gregzeng]

Many impatient novices, it seems. They wish that air-cooled cars all had automatic transmissions. They do not understand open source coding, such as Android, Chromium & Chromium OS.
Even now, the current Android etc technology is very rapidly advancing. Fluid cooling is coming. Instead of old Lithium ion power, the alternatives have yet to reach the factories. Grumblers here do not realize that the software cannot exceed the hardware limits.
Innovators in software & operating systems usually are tested & tried by third parties, not the hardware manufacturers. Many hardware creators now use specialist, independent software specialists, rather than in-house development.
In this regard, open source operating systems are better than closed source, such as Microsoft & Apple. Open source allows & encourages many innovations, many experiments & very many contributors. This explains why Microsoft financially & manpower "invests" in open source manufacturing & distribution.
Each edition of Android etc learns from the trials, experiments & failures in the real world. Some 3rd party innovators are worth incorporating into the main system, others rejected.
Each "new" version of Android etc can be imitated by the older versions. For example, smart keyboards etc can be "emulated" by using the original third party product, before it was imitated into the newest version. Brand & status conscious names often have amazing, unique spam and gimmicks. There are independent system designers who can release in full or part, modified versions of these bloated in-house products. Status conscious novices are not expected to know this.
Unknown to these grumblers, Android 11, like Android 10, will be released weeks before the official Google products are available. Some releases will be released as "Final", even though they really are beta versions. Like the very first release of every new factory product, these will have known & unknown imperfections. Some Made-In-China brands will release hardware, complete with the latest Android, weeks before Google etc release their products.
If ever this planet develops any International Standards Organization with real responsibilities, it might determine what ALPHA & BETA releases are. Are there any responsible engineers anywhere who can finally set a standard on these terms?
ALPHA perhaps has undecided features, easily added or removed. In-house teams decide this. The BETA releases are feature-locked. If the debugging is unable to reach a suitable standard for any feature, this feature may be removed. All BETAS are expected to be buggy, with poor optimizations, and inbuilt bug-detection-recording properties. Sometimes these BETA versions might be able to be turned into FINAL RELEASE standard.
Like the source code published every few days by The Linux Foundation, the FINAL RELEASE will be continually re-released with further bug fixes & better optimizations. Simultaneously the other future versions of the next ALPHA & BETA release will be prepared, as announced here in the OP, "Android-11".
These Android-11 releases are chances for the other operating system creators to release their versions of their next Android-11. Third party application creators (eg "Open Camera") can prepare their products for this new system.
Google etc are on the very frontiers of governance innovation. Management academics here will use these press releases etc as evidence as to how & when Homo Sapiens Sapiens (HSS) rescued itself from closing this anthropocene. Management technologies, like Unix-system design, is very primitive, compared to how it will be in a few years.

[geearf]

Oh goodie - maybe I'll get to use it 5 years from now when I get my next phone.

For all the wailing about how people wish desktop GNU/Linux was more like Android, Android's inability to easily update on devices or to install with one image across devices really really really sucks. In fact, I think it would be fair to say that desktop GNU/Linux will be better off if it's never anything at all like Android.

Can't you use a GSI on almost any phone that supports Treble (officially or not)?

[S.Pam]

Google should have made it possible to update all system and OS components via the play store.

The fact today is that phones become a security threat after 18 months when vendors stop updates.

I think that security updates should be forced at least 3 years from purchase. The same amount of time you have to complain in EU for a fault in the product.

[starshipeleven]

Can't you use a GSI on almost any phone that supports Treble (officially or not)?

kind of. some things may not work properly or at all (camera and NFC among others)

[bug77]

Oh goodie - maybe I'll get to use it 5 years from now when I get my next phone.

For all the wailing about how people wish desktop GNU/Linux was more like Android, Android's inability to easily update on devices or to install with one image across devices really really really sucks. In fact, I think it would be fair to say that desktop GNU/Linux will be better off if it's never anything at all like Android.

Get an Android One phone. All problems solved.
Updating with one image is a pipe dream, phones use many custom chips, often with only closed source drivers.
The one thing that could improve the ecosystem, imho, is not allowing 3rd party skins and apps by default. You think your proprietary launcher or browser adds some value, put it on Google Play. Maybe add some home screen links pointing at them. This way you can roll out updates to the phone without waiting for your precious launcher to catch up,
Because let's face it, what gives Android a bad name is crapware end users don't really care about.

[Viki Ai]

I just wish they would stop picking and picking at the userspace!

While the underlying system is undoubtedly getting better with every iteration, Android's default userland seems to just get worse and worse every release since 7 or 8 as the developers seem incapable of leaving good alone in their constant striving to justify their jobs by adding more and more cruft-features at the expense of the useful functionality which bit-rots away to eventually get dropped.

Seriously! I know how to navigate my data. I don't need a 'smart' interface cluttering my limited screen real-estate with its constant failing to second-guess what I want while the option to just do it myself in 1/4 the time is buried irretrievably!

[geearf]

kind of. some things may not work properly or at all (camera and NFC among others)

Isn't that mostly based on Treble support though?

[starshipeleven]

Isn't that mostly based on Treble support though?

I'm talking of Treble devices. They have Treble support but in practice some things are still dirty hacks done in the vendor's GSI (or require licensed stuff that the vendor can't place in a generic hardware support partition).

Mind me, it's still great that we can swap GSI, but it's not 100% painless on all devices.

[bemerk]

Updating the system components through the play store is bad if you want a Google free phone
Instead they should and they already dkmo work on mainlining open source drivers and frameworks into the Linux kernel so that the maintenance burden gets easier. Then the generic Image will work fine for most phones and the porting for brand specific stuff will become faster too.

[starshipeleven]

Updating the system components through the play store is bad if you want a Google free phone
Instead they should and they already dkmo work on mainlining open source drivers and frameworks into the Linux kernel so that the maintenance burden gets easier. Then the generic Image will work fine for most phones and the porting for brand specific stuff will become faster too.

I'm not aware of anything low-level (kernel and such) that is updated through the play store. They are updating only the browser and the integration with Google services, and obviously apps, if the phone uses Google apps or the vendor updates them through the Store (Asus does it afaik).

So that's two different things.