The 0.18 version of Lemmy was announced. This will solve many issues.
But we can’t upgrade yet because the captcha was removed, and captcha relied on Websockets, which are removed in 0.18 so despite the devs agreeing on my request to add captcha back, this will not be until 0.18.1. Without captcha we will be overrun by bots.
Hopefully this 0.18.1 will be released soon, because another issue is that the newest version of the Jerboa app won’t work with servers older than 0.18. So if you’re on Lemmy.world, please (temporarily) use another app or the web version.
Using Android 7 is a huge risk, it’s simply not safe, go grab a new phone if you got money
Meh, if Android 7 has so many bugs, the later versions must have even more bugs. I’m not sure quite what I’m supposed to be at risk of. I don’t run any Google Play apps, have mobile data turned off most of the time, don’t have much really private info on the phone though I do have some auth credentials there (TOTP app that uses some kind of hardware secret store, plus API key for email app). If I had to replace my phone right away it would probably be with another Android phone, but in the long run maybe I’d prefer a Raspberry Pi tablet or something like that, plus a separate voice-only phone or wifi hotspot. Unfortunately VOIP seems to suck badly, at least with the app I’ve tried (Linphone). And also unfortunately, 2G is dead so I can’t cobble together a DIY dumbphone using an ebay module. I don’t think they have those for 4G yet.
If you have any particular suggestions of a phone that is 1) cheap, 2) has a headphone jack, 3) has easy to replace battery (having to open the phone with a screwdriver is acceptable, but having to melt adhesives with a high chance of destroying the phone is not). A built-in e-compass for navigation would be nice to have, and a decent camera (the 5MP one that I have now is ok, but the one in the N900 was awful). I don’t need any high end features that I can think of. Lowish res screen is fine but it should be large. Wireless charging would be nice but that seems to conflict with easily replaceable battery. I am thinking of the Moto G Power which has some older versions on sale at Best Buy. But again, I’d rather postpone a new phone as long as I can.
No, because the latest Android has all of the bug fixes discovered in Android 8-14.
Also, when the developers discover a big in the latest Android, they fix it. When the developers discover a bug in an old version, they check if it is still there in the latest.
I do understand that newer Android versions incorporate the bug fixes that were found in older versions. But their main purpose as far as I can tell is introducing new features (i.e. bugs) of their own. Android 7 is also not that old as far as this stuff goes. I’m sure lots of people are running even older Android versions on their phone. I still have an Android 2.3 music player (Archos 43) though I don’t use it much.
I’m not a heavy user of Android so I tend not to pay too much attention. I’m on a 1GB/month data plan and I usually use less than 1/10th of it, checking email or (in the past) Reddit here or there. The only internet-connected Google app I use much is Maps, though that admittedly is one of the more invasive ones. Is there anything else I should watch out for? I get the impression most vulnerabilities are in apps rather than the OS. Most of my apps are from F-droid and I do keep those updated.