When we talk about our favorite operating system, Android, we discuss the news of the latest versions like the recent Android 14, tips to get the most out of it and a long etc., but we, the users, let’s forget (or don’t know) one of the most important aspects for the proper functioning of the platform: the core, an essential element that is never updated.
Oddly enough, Google is going to make us look like liars because they recently saw core system updates coming to the Google Pixel Soon. Let’s look at the news and get an overview of everything that will improve this change on the Mountain View giant’s mobile phones.
Google will update the kernel, something unusual in the Android world
Let’s start at the beginning, the core or Android, central part of Linux. The latter is updated from time to time to support new material, as well as to cover vulnerabilities or improve performance. However, for the green robot system to work, Google decided the best way was to adapt these robots. core (each device has its specificities) with patches to make them compatible.
Besides this reason, the Drivers components of our mobile phone are also part of the core, which also made this movement essential. The “problem” with this way of acting is that the core the android it always goes behind Linux, adopting the new features much later. However, lately, Google wants to minimize this gap and to do this, it is working on a branch called “Android-Mainline”. With this project, he aims to make the Linux kernel compatible with Android, making as few changes as possible.
Now back to the news. Mishaal Rahman, the famous Android expert, discovered the work in progress of Google, which indicates a major update of the item we are talking about. Of course, it would only be available for Pixels with one of the company’s processors, the Google Tensor.
The problem is that This is an unprecedented move in the Android ecosystem. It is true that on occasion, manufacturers update this element but these are generally minor advances, more necessary for security. In this first time, the Google Pixel will update the kernel from version 5.10 and 5.15 (in the most recent) to 6.1. And to be honest, it must be said that despite the importance of the matter, version 6.1 is still not the most current (it was released in December 2022), although that does not detract from its merit.
As Rahman states, Google is testing branches of core the most recent ones that we can compile if we have enough knowledge. However, these are tests that certainly did not meet expectations and are part of alternative developments and experiments with the software. At least we will see some of this work with the update that expected in the near future.
What implications could this have?
Beyond what has been said on core mainline and everything that Google prepares, as users we wonder what benefits will be extracted from the update. Well, basically we will have safer Pixels thanks to the new kernel, and what’s more they will inherit all the improvements from Linux 6.1.
Although in reality the most important change is the existence of this update in itselfAs we mentioned before, we have never seen such a big update of the core and we hope that this will become a habit among all manufacturers. Of course, provided they manage to update it without breaking anything along the way.
This will allow Android to get a little closer to its origin, which in turn will mean additional work and more changes, but the biggest implication is undoubtedly that opens the door to updates for longer. Because? The traditional core Android devices have always had a fairly close EOL (end of support) date, making them useless against newer versions of the operating system.
As soon as the Pixels update to Linux 6.1, they will technically be able to benefit from updates until December 2026 (depending on what Google wants to do with older models). This is in line with the improvement in the update policy of the American giant, which will grant up to seven years of support to the Pixel 8 family. Perhaps this need arose from there, and if so , it wouldn’t be strange to see more updates from core in the future.
Google has been focusing on improving Android software support for some time. This is further proof of that.
On the other hand, it should provide a better performance, looking at it from the theoretical side. This will remain a mystery until the evidence actually demonstrates that this is the case. It is worth mentioning that, in this sense, we learned at the end of last year that the Pixels were updating the GPU driver, thus obtaining a more stable frame rate in games.
In short, this update will arrive soon to equip all Google Pixels with Tensor processors. Let’s hope this create a precedent and so the software of our favorite system continues to improve and, above all, stays up to date with the latest news and security improvements.
By | Michael RahmanAndroid Font
Cover image | Iván Linares for Xataka with editing
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