FP2 will be shipped with 5.1.(1?). But will there ever be an update to Marshmallow (6.0)? Would be great to hear from the Fairphone Team. And of course some opinions from some tech savvy FP users… 
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I don’t remember where exactly I read that but Fairphone said that an upgrade to Marshmallow is very likely but they cannot make any promises yet ;). As always, if you want an answer from the Fairphone team, contact them directly by submitting a request as this is a community forum.
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Hi guys,
It is not yet clear what the software update/upgrade path would be, so I’d like to end rumors and be clear that we cannot state that an upgrade is “very likely” for Fairphone 2. I’m interested where you read that, so we can correct it!
We’ve learned from the past not to make promises we can’t keep, especially as these software upgrades require agreements from third parties. We’ll be releasing more information about the process and why it’s difficult to know if we can or cannot have an upgrade past 5.1 on Fairphone 2. Thanks for your patience.
Cheers-
Joe
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It would be a huge handicap for the FP2, if it is stuck with Android 5.1! And it would show, that the Fairphone team did not learn their lesson. Or is there no other way to go??? In the moment I am glad, that I hesitated to order the fp2.
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Let’s see how many devices, which are released in November, get an upgrade to Marshmallow (Nexus devices excepted). I think until Fairphone is the biggest player on the market ( 
) they will have to be compared to the actual big players because these mostly dictate the update policies of the industry.
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THE main point of having a modular repairable phone is that it will last a long time … and technological obsolescence is one of, if not THE, major killer of handsets. FP2 must be upgradable or paying extra for being able to replace components just won’t be worth the extra money (ie it could still be made fair to manufacture without being so modular = repairable = expensive = big).
After all, if we just want something that works forever on a low tech level then I have an old Nokia that is a brilliant phone and doesn’t ever go wrong (so doesn’t need to be repairable) - but is no longer used because a) its modem is GPRS not 3/4G so useless for tethering b) it only does phone calls and texts. Android 5.1 seems great today , but getting GPRS seemed pretty fab at the time!
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There are three things I’d like to point out:
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Just because they can’t state that an update is very likely doesn’t mean its unlikely. I think they are just very cautious about what they say, since a lot of FP1 users understood FP’s high hopes as promises and were disappointed when they didn’t come true.
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The main reason for obsolesce due to lack of software updates are unfixed security bugs. I think the FP team has proven that they are quite able to fix many (not all) security bugs without a need for new Android versions.
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FP can’t promise the following yet either but they are working on getting alternative FLOSS operating systems running on the FP2. So people who don’t need Android to be happy might get the newest versions of their preferred OS for the FP2.
All in all that makes chances for FP2 not getting obsolete any time soon quite high in my opinion.
So there are really only 2 things you can do:
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Put your trust in Fairphone and support them by pre-ordering a FP2, even though you don’t have guarantee that everything will work out as you hope.
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Wait for the official sale to start. I’m sure we’ll know more by then.
PS: Worst case scenario - and I think it’s pretty unlikely - you’ll have to by a new chipset module in a few years to get an up-to-date and secure OS.
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On the contrary, they learnt not to make promises towards users if they cannot be sure to fulfill them. Android 6.0 and beyond cannot be enable by Fairphone alone, it needs involment from suppliers of chipsets, etc.
Many here were demanding fairness towards customers which involves not making promises you cannot keep. Therefore all you get is “we do our best to keep the software up-to-date” like written on several Fairphone pages. There is no guarantee for major updates and there is a reason most larger smartphone manufactures do not make such promises either.
I think it is funny how many people were angry and calling the project a fail because of over-optimistic promises and now, when Fairphone are more careful, there a people demanding a statement before neither the OS or the phone is released. I guess you can’t make it right for everyone ;-).
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But your absolutely amazing Nokia 3310 that was built to last is a 15 year old device. It can still be used to make phone calls or send text messages. If you use a FP2 in 2030, you might still be able to use the exact same functionality on it than you could on the day it was released.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves: 15 years is an awful long time, and no one is aiming for that sort of longevity. FP2 aims at 5 years, but even at 4 years FP2 would last twice as long as most other phones are in use these days.
Assuming FP2 is stuck on Android 5.1, that shouldn’t seriously impair it’s ability to last 4 or 5 years.
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Checked by browser history and found the page: PC Games Hardware (PCGH): Computer, IT Gaming, PC-Spiele . It’s in German, here’s the excerpt:
Anders als beim ersten Fairphone mit Mediatek-Chipsatz, für das es
bislang kein Update auf Android Kitkat oder Lollipop gibt, setzt der
Hersteller beim Fairphone 2 auf den Qualcomm-Chip Snapdragon 801 und
bezeichnet ein Update auf Android M als “wahrscheinlich” - auch wenn er
dafür noch keine Garantie geben möchte. Ab Werk ist Android 5.1 Lollipop
mit den gängigen Google-Anwendungen auf dem Gerät installiert.
Right beneath it they talk about the OSs that might run on the FP2 which is also not official yet, is it?!
@huskers, Right. Nothing official about alternative OSs. Fairphone 2 will ship with Android 5.1 with Google Apps pre-installed.
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But you will provide an alternative version of an AOSP vanilla Android (without gapps) or Fairphone OS that the user can install himself, right? The support tells me that
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Right. But the full details of how this process will be is not yet confirmed, in terms of how the user will download it or be provided with it, for example by a group of community developers.
I know you’re eager but I believe in the next weeks we’ll have more news around software to the common questions asked here on the forum.
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[quote=“paulakreuzer, post:7, topic:9585”]
The main reason for obsolesce due to lack of software updates are unfixed security bugs. I think the FP team has proven that they are quite able to fix many (not all) security bugs without a need for new Android versions.
[/quote]Just to be clear: 1 (one) exploitable security bug is enough.
And so far the Androids track was less than reliable. Some security bugs are fixed years after discovery.
The point is that even FP1 is more secure than quite a lot of Android devices running Android 4.3 or 4.4 or, with the Stagefright exploit in mind, even Android 5.
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[quote=“Jerry, post:15, topic:9585, full:true”]
The point is that even FP1 is more secure than quite a lot of Android devices running Android 4.3 or 4.4 or, with the Stagefright exploit in mind, even Android 5.
[/quote]The point is: you need only one exploitable security hole to break into your phone.
We’re getting off-topic. 
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Then I only see one solution: no phone 
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Exactly. Not even Android 6.0 will be impenetrable!
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I think that if within the couple years after release we can get Jolla, Firefox, Ubuntu or Cyanogenmod on the FP2, getting the official Android 6.0 will not be as essential. Actually a lot of people don’t care that much for Android if they can run their phone with some other OS…
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