MediaTek gets a little freer

Many of us, when a new version of Android comes out, we wonder When will we have it for our smartphone model? Many of the smartphones that we have not only do not receive it but will never receive it, other models will have it but the release date is unknown. This situation is due to many, very varied factors, from the fact that our smartphone is going to be worse with the new version of Android to the fact that the smartphone company does not want to provide this support. But, without a doubt, the most repeated factor in all this is that hardware companies do not release the code of their drivers. If many of you suffer from this problem, the company will sound familiar to you MediaTek, a company known for making very cheap processors.

MediaTek processors are currently the most used by smartphone manufacturers and are also the most restrictive in terms of code, which is why many powerful smartphones do not see the latest version of Android, such as the Bq Aquaris 5HD. At the moment MediaTek has created a space where developers can purchase part of the MediaTek code to include in their developments. It seems that MediaTek has heard the requests of its customers and fearing that the big companies will abandon the Chinese manufacturer, has decided to release part of its code for the development of new versions and roms. This code can be found at MediaTek Labs, the website specialized in MediaTek development, the only thing that we will not be able to acquire freely, but we will have to register as developers and then we will be able to have access to the code (at the moment nothing is said about paying, but the option is not ruled out) .

MediaTek and legal jargon

Today MediaTek was taking refuge in a kind of legal vacuum, or rather in a legal detour that allowed it to restrict access to its code.. By the linux kernel license, which uses Android, both MediaTek and the rest of the manufacturers should provide the code for your hardware for free or for a nominal fee. But given this, what MediaTek does is sell directly to the big manufacturers and instead of selling them the processors, what it does is sell them the parts and the way to produce them, so MediaTek is not the manufacturer and therefore has no obligation to provide the code and since the real manufacturer did not have it either, but depended on what MediaTek said, many smartphones did not get that well-deserved update.

Conclusion

I think this is a great step, not only for MediaTek but also for the Android community, since many of us who were not developers or had a smartphone that this manufacturer did not have, which makes the smartphone somewhat more expensive, or we were left without updates . A difficult choice for many and a loss for everyone. I hope that this new measure from MediaTek is the beginning of a great path towards Free Software and Hardware.