Pre user: How does patching differ to Android?

[xorg]

I'm a Pre user considering Evo with WiMAX coming this summer. It depends on what Palm announces by then. (Great OS, lackluster hardware)

My question is how does patching work on Android compared to webOS?

It looks like you have to install custom ROMs for a particular bundle of low level patches, is that true?

On Pre, you use Preware and selectively and dynamically install any combination of hundreds of patches, growing weekly.

How do they compare? Not looking for a debate. Just want to understand how it works.

I'm also concerned about rebuilding the OS if needed. Is very easy to do on webOS. So easy a non-techie consumer can do it. How is it done with Android?

 

[thebizz]

The difference is vast I loved the patch method when I had the pre. But for the Droid instead of applying a patch to overlook we flash different boot images and have everything from stock speeds up to 1.3 ghz. Usually different roms package in some things the pre gets in patches.
Say if you want to theme your phone you can use an app like metamorph. But the reason i stuck with android is all the options you can run asn htc rom on your phone, or go and get some built from source with all the goodies backed in or run the rom built for this phone and do it all within a matter of minutes. Save or get all the stuff yourself and build your own. With the droid i can run kernels that overclock me anywere from stock speeds to 1.3 ghz in high voltage low voltage or the ti spec kernels

 

[xorg]

Hmm... completely ROMing doesn't sound like a good way to go. And sounds like you're limited to features of certain ROM bundles. Is there a way Android could do dynamic patch changes so all can be consolidated?

I'll see what Palm announces. Overclocked at 800Mhz improves the lag a great deal but I also want better hardware.

 

[Dapke36]

For a super quick answer, the closest thing we have to patching (as I understand it), is to upload a new ROM (adaptation of an operating system). Other applications we can install as an APK very easily from an SD card.

There are 2 managers in the Android Market that automate the process super easily. So it's not bad, and not difficult even for a new user.

 

[GivenToFly]

switching ROMS is not difficult at all. It probably takes less time to completely wipe and load a different ROM than to just reboot the palm. my wife had a pre plus, took like 5 minutes to boot, and had to do that each time a new package was installed on preware. she's finally back to android, albeit on a devour, but even that phone is better and faster than the pre.

You'd be much happier with a Droid.

 

[thebizz]

thats what i was trying to get out i can go from cyanogen mod to the desire port with backup and wiping my phone in less than 5 min and totally change the look and behavior of my phone preware is nice with the patches and all i do miss it made things to simple. but the droid is far beyond the pre when it comes to hacks etc

 

[darreno1]

I patched with Preware when I had my Pre and it was ok I guess. Depending on the patch it would have me do just a luna restart and even that took a while but not as long as having to do a complete reboot. Having to reboot webOS is one of the biggest hassles with owning a Pre and I avoided it as much as possible.

Honestly using the rom method seems much cleaner to me. I remember having weird icon graphic issues with theming via Preware and I also had issues where patches weren't removed completely leaving remnants behind that were a pain to remove.

I have yet to have any issues using the rom method on the Droid and like someone mentioned above it is pretty speedy. Plus I have several backups just in case I need to go back to a previous rom. And it all can be done right on the Droid in just a few minutes.

 

[VKitty]

So, you are saying that its better to have a Droid than a Pre(plus) because of the ability to "Hack" the phone and using different roms?


Also Does anyone have a video of the Droid with video playing, GPS app running, and a web page loading simultaneously?

So that if you are in one app, and return the the other app, its NOT in the same place as it was when you started the app and then switched to another?


I have been looking at the Droid also, or some of the new Android phones.

 

[ydaraishy]

webOS applications are written in JavaScript, so that means that patching is a viable method of changing an application's behaviour. Android apps are written in Java, and then compiled, so you can't just "patch" an Android app, which means that apps have to have their source modified then recompiled; this is then distributed as a ROM if there are lots of deep and extensive changes, and this is doubly necessary if there are any low level changes to the underlying OS that Android runs on.

 

[lozozzo]

how can i sign the rom?

 

[evilmishmish]

From what I understand, you don't "sign" the ROM, but you can build it so that it runs properly. There are tools that let you do this. I'm not a programer though, so building and signing could be the same things

 

[Andrew Ruffolo]

Signing it allows the system to be able to flash it. You can't just compress everything in a .zip file, it must be signed. There are tools, like you said to do this, but since I don't build my own ROMs (i just customize the ones available after flashing), I don't know the names of the program. I know signing is required as I've tried to flash someone's ROM that wasn't signed and it throws up an error.