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did you know that there are Android phones with 64-bit CPUs and 64-bit kernels but which will only run 32-bit apps? did you know they are actually very common, still manufactured in 2024 by major brands, and the bane of Android console emulator developers everywhere? it sucks.
the reason for this is memory consumption. on Android, all apps are forked from the zygote, a process that is always running and has a preloaded set of libraries (libc, graphics drivers, presumably also Android Runtime, etc). but to support 64-bit and 32-bit apps you need two.
so… if you have a phone with a 64-bit CPU (every modern Android phone) and a 64-bit kernel (probably also every modern Android phone), but less than 4GB RAM… supporting both 32-bit and 64-bit applications is kind of painful memory-wise, so they just… use a 32-bit only userland
now i can see how they came to that, but it's an extremely Google Moment honestly. Apple didn't want to play this game and gave 32-bit a sudden, swift, merciful death. Google are prolonging the agony for everyone. I can't stress enough how absurd “32-bit-only 64-bit device” is
there is no destiny for these devices other than e-waste and it is fucking painful
the fact that 4GB is considered a small amount of memory is extremely jokerifying also. iPhones have delivered a premium 64-bit experience both with that much memory and with half that. Android is an absolutely wretchedly inefficient platform. skill issue skill issue skill iss—
the absolute worst thing, that pisses me off more than anything else, is that ofc making an Android phone that supports both 64-bit and 32-bit is an option when building the OS image, or even better, just 64-bit. but Google said they'd start mandating the opposite. i'm serious
obviously that mandate was not for phones with lots of RAM. they said they'd mandate only supporting 32-bit specifically on brand-new 64-bit low-memory phones. to reduce the number of configurations they had to worry about.
i do not know if they went ahead with it but SCREAMS
ARM GAVE YOU THE WORLD'S SMALLEST 64-BIT-CAPABLE CORE TWELVE YEARS AGO AND THIS IS WHAT YOU CHOOSE TO DO WITH IT? THIS????? DOES YOUR LUST FOR INFLICTED SUFFERING KNOW NO BOUNDS, GOOGLE? DO YOU NOT LOOK UPON YOUR CREATIONS AND WEEP FOR WHAT YOU HAVE DONE. WHY DO YOU CURSE US
if this does blow up then please do not follow me for technology opinions. you'd be enabling my worst tendencies. i am here to post about kanbaru suruga from the monogatari series and also how pretty the sky is
@hikari mot even doing anything cool like arm64_32?
@saagar yes. in the ruins of our civilisation, they will know us by the Cortex-A53 chips
@saagar sure, that's the typical lead time. anyway that means we've been making cortex-a53 phones for an entire decade now
@saagar at the end of the world, there will be famine, pestilence, and Cortex-A53