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.