Re: It's the way Android takes control of the OS away from the user
Not exactly. It's because the hardware is not open source using binary blobs for drivers, isn't always rootable, and that creeping featurism eventually exceeds the hardware capabilities.
There are a number of rootable devices out there. I used to love my Sony Ericcson Xperia Pro. It started on Gingerbread and made it as far as Ice Cream Sandwich before Sony stopped bothering to update it. However, enthusiast devs kept developing and brought it up to Kitkat (it was admittedly too memory constrained to run this well). The ability to use the HDMI port and radio died almost immediately, as the Gingerbread libraries wouldn't run in later Android releases.
Sailfish was also available, but without Android compatibility it's pretty useless.
Over time the resources used by Android and Android apps increase, and that's what tends to eventually kill devices.
Currently I'm using a Blackberry Priv, until my new Fxtec Pro1 arrives. The Priv is a lovely phone, but the fact its security stops it being rootable means it hasn't had any security fixes for a couple of years. I'm looking forward to being on a fully secure platform again, because I'm buggered if I'm spending another load of cash on the next non rootable device.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
