I fully agree with the above.
It’s very surprising, to me, that there are people just expecting spontaneous and free improvements coming forever on a phone when they wouldn’t expect this from a motorcycle or a pair of shoes.
When I buy, I close a contract, where my money is exchanged for a specific product, with in our case extremely detailed functions. Nowhere in this contract is it written that the seller will have to update anything, would it be even for a fee.
In our case with the Fairphone an accent is specifically placed on fairness of material procurement and fair conditions in the relevant factories -I see nothing remotely linked with adding new features for free here.
Now, if only the arguments here were about patching bugs, at least this would relate to durability. No. In systematically insulting tones, the issue curiously is always about getting NEW features.
Go figure.
Maybe I should try to get my car back to the garage and explain them, now all the new models feature an extra pair of headlights, they are bound to upgrade mine.
Because yes for sure extra headlights are undoubtedly better. Like Android x+1 is better than Android X. So, they must, or they are crap, isn’t it.
Hervé, you are confusing arguments.
While there m1ight be people who just want new features, I and many others want security, and being able to use the computer we’ve purchased for a longer period of time. We want it to be as sustainable as possible. Some stuff you might think of as “new features” make our Fairphone last longer. See what Jerry said:
Again: the main point is security.
The most important additional point is longevity.
Both is (apparently) only achieved by software updates. And if we are stuck with Jelly Bean, the Fairphone will not be more sustainable than, say, an iPhone. It will even be less sustainable than an iPhone. Which is a real bummer.
So, please, pretty please, do not try to construct more analogies. Computers aren’t motorcycles, nor shoes. Also it’s not about wanting something “for free”. There’s even a discussion about what people would be willing to pay for system updates. Please, stop arguing about people who want “free new features”. Please?
Soon they will be because of the Internet of Things, and everything will have a firmware. 
Seriously: The same things, @humorkritik mentioned, would apply.
This is true, but it also doesn’t say in this contract, that I have to dump my phone because it caught malware and is unusable.
Bottom line: I fully agree with @humorkritik’s opinion.
According to several reports Google stops updating older (<4.3) versions of Android. That includes not repairing safety issues.
That means that FairPhone needs to upgrade the OS in order to keep our phones ‘fair’ (i.e. usable a year after it’s introduction).
So please FP-team: now is the time!
For me it’s not just about the security. I want to be able to install new apps. Even now some apps stop supporting Android 4.2. If you only need the phone, email, simple browsing and a mp3 player an old iphone will give you a much longer support/ produce less waste.
Android Lollipop is essential and open source code would enable Cyanogenmod developers to provide updates far longer.
That is exactly what I was trying to say. And one part of being ‘fair’ is not being outdated in such a short time.
I think Fairphone had another definition of “fair” when they started producing their phone:
With the FP2 they will surely have all the software stuff in mind.
But what could be more fair in that respect than not having to use any materials at all while the phone lasts for years?
Or the other way around: how fair can it be to use more and more ‘conflict free’ minerals to build new phones while they only last one or two years?
As long as I am OK with the phone, I won’t dispose of it. And this is not dependent of the OS it is running. I am happy with the telephone function, Firefox Mobile as a browser, and the calendar. Actually I don’t need much more in a phone.
So you accept even the security holes that are not going to be fixed? Better not use your banking account (or any other stuff that needs privacy or could be hacked).
Anyway: that’s not much help for (I guess) 98% of the FP-users, who are depending on a safe system.
As long as I am OK with the phone, I won’t dispose of it. And this is not dependent of the OS it is running. I am happy with the telephone function, Firefox Mobile as a browser, and the calendar. Actually I don’t need much more in a phone.
Don’t underestimate the risk of a smartphone with security issues. The list is long, I will just mention a few things of concern, which come spontaneously in mind:
- You don’t want anyone to be able to intercept the mobile TANs your bank sends you to confirm online banking processes.
- Most people use their phones to read their emails. Most people of this group use this email address as fail safe for online shops. Anyone, who is able to compromise your phone, is able to compromise your email address. The cool method “send new online shop password to my mail address” is then compromised, too. Ergo: Anyone gaining access to your phone, can gain access to Amazon etc. and buy a lot of things in the name of your account.
- You don’t really want people to listen to your conversations or read your chats, too. Although most people don’t seem to be very concerned about this point.
- Anyone gaining access to your phone, could probably go shopping in the google play store, too.
This list could be continued, but I think I have made my point. You definitely don’t want to use a phone with open and well known security holes. Fairphone being stuck to a specific Android version means having these security holes, nevermind the good intentions of the FP team of backporting security patches. They won’t be able to backport every fix. And you will definitely not be safe forever by just using Firefox instead of the built in browser. New security holes will be discovered.
Keeping the OS version up to date is definitely a very big factor in creating a fair phone. As other users have already mentioned, you force most of the users to get rid of their old phone, if you don’t update the OS regularly, which is going contrary to the initial intention of building or buying this phone.
One addition: Even if you only use your phone for basic functions like, I don’t know, phoning, it’s not a good idea to use an insecure OS. Other people calling their friends over seas on your bill isn’t very fun, either.
If it’s really the case, that the Android version is stuck and a Cyanogenmod-port is not being able to be done because of the Mediatek processor, the Fairphone project in my eyes has failed, as one of the main goals (sustainability) could not be fulfilled because of a poor hardware choice.
I would agree with you if we could be sure also firmwares are as secure as operating system and apps running on it.
Modem and Wifi firmware are closed and nobody can tell if they contains bugs or malware (but reading about NSA and so on I suppose they are not very safe…) so I have to accept the risk of data leaking even with the most up-to-date operating system and/or applications.
I normally use my phone for non-critical data use but if I had to, I think I would not use any phone 
I know there are several projects aiming at open firmwares (like OsmocomBB for GSM) but they work only on limited hardware and I don’t know if this could be a good start point for the FP2, given that normally SoC embed different critical devices (Modem, Bluetooth, Wifi and GPS) and the number of devices product by Fairphone.
OpenMoko was a good tentative idea but it failed due to lack of numbers and software support.
Bye! 
I think they do, but still the original mission is to improve mining and manufacturing conditions as i understand. So i doubt everything whished for here will be possible.
Note that we have a fair amount of discussions regarding Fairphone OS updates here. I think it would be better to continue such topics there. This poll is about discussing if you would generelly pay an developer to port Android 5.0. Not about the general requirement of updates or not.
A Luddite’s comment on security:
I don’t think I’ve ever had a phone that has been kept up to date… just saying
It’s an industry wide issue, and it’s not helpful that the structure that manufactures have to rely on usually means that only the most recent phones are updated ‘‘officially’’
Let’s face it - the problem is Google and their bad designed update model!
it’s funny that they are pushing Microsoft with every minor security hole their “project zero” team finds, but their main OS in 2015 still doesn’t have a patching solution.
i don’t mind not to have a android 5 on my fairphone. like i don’t mind to have windows 7 on my core2dual laptop (and sorry to go back to MSFT) - but for god’s sake - allow me to patch the device! and have cross-compatible drivers, or easy-to-manage ones so i can just install an image as soon it’s available.
MediaTek want to save their proprietary software, And don’t want to run and create a new image after every Google patch/upgrade. and personally i can understand this two standpoints (as long they are not overriding the open source licenses). i also completely understand why FairPhone chose to work with MediaTek
The long term solution is not to invest in android 5 or 5.1. we need to invest to get another OS on it! and i’ll put also 20£ just for MediaTek to release drivers for the Firefox OS.
Gidi
I’m aware of the problems with firmwares and closed hardware components. But the fact, that there are other attack vectors doesn’t mean, that it’s the right way to just ignore the security issues you can do something about. Widespread and well known problems like security issues in Android systems are also the security issues, which are most exploited.
Using the phone only for non-critical data kind of contradicts the concept of a smartphone.
I always thought, that sustainability was as important to this project as improving mining and manufacturing conditions. Perhaps I didn’t follow the project closely enough to get that right. But for me, a fair phone has to be produced as fair as possible and it also has to be as “fair” as possible to the environment. And the best way to ensure this, is to be able to use the phone as long as possible.
I didn’t say this, I said that knowing there are “lower level” potential security issues I have to accept the risk
And this doesn’t depend only on source code availability (I remember some months ago the echo on the bug on OpenSSL which was present for many years although its source code is available since ever) so unless everyone is not able to investigate as deep as possible on every part of the device, we have to accept the risk of data leaking.
Why? If you know your phone might be insecure can you trust it?
Furthermore nowadays it is not simply a matter of your phone because with so many apps which leaks all kind of data, also your friends’ devices might pose a risk on your data. Some months ago for example I received an SMS from my mother and the text was an advertisement of Whatsapp, something like “Install Whatsapp to be able to talk with your friends” and so on (with also the URL to the Whatsapp website), but my mother NEVER sent me this SMS as she’s unable to write in English nor write an URL, BUT she has Whatsapp installed and I’m sure her contacts list was sent to their servers…Now I can’t imagine how many companies have my phone number even if I didn’t give it to anyone…
I fear we’re a bit OT so we can continue this interesting discussion in another thread if you like 
Bye!