Re: Nexus 7
This is my worry as well. I have a Nexus 7 2012 which I "upgraded" to 5.0, spent months trying to get it to work, then "downgraded" back to 4.4.4. KitKat still doesn't run all that well, but it's nowhere near as bad.
I now believe that there needs to be a regulatory mandate that proprietary software and hardware manufacturers and cell phone carriers must provide security updates to their OSes and core apps for the useful life of their devices. Five years from first public release at a minimum. Security updates that don't require users to "update" to newer, more bloated versions that won't run. Google should still be issuing security patches for any version of Android that has a significant number of users, and manufacturers and carriers should be legally required to assist them in getting the patches QAed and installed.
I think nearly everyone is in denial about the fact that end-user security is a significant component of national security. Software and hardware insecurity should be treated as just as important as physical security. Unpatched Android phones are becoming the new Windows XP, the weakest link in an already terribly weak security infrastructure.
Of course, we also need to get rid of the "security theater" aspect of physical security and ensure that it doesn't become the norm for information security as well.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
