[miffed]

When I bought my HTC Magic , I was (perhaps mistakenly) led to believe that this "open source" (Rubbish ! its like getting into fort knox !! ) OS would be uopdated at every opportunity - Turns out we got one upgrade from 1.5 to 1.6 and thats all she wrote !
Whatsmore , If you took the official 1.6 upgrade , you are now pretty much buggered for rooting and installing custom ROM's , Can't remember the last device I had that was this restricted !

.....And then there is the T-mobile pulse , when I bought it there were all these tales of an update (as the poor thing is still running 1.5 ) , but nothing has surfuced yet , and as time goes on you get the impression it may never do ! ...At least with the Pulse there is the option to install custom ROMs

So what REALLY is the deal with Android ? , are we actually going to see much in the way of official device support , or are we really looking at one update , then you're on your own ?

Look at the 1st Gen iphone ? 2 major updates and I have lost count of the minor ones , still being updated now (for the time being ! , whether or not this support will continue with 4.0 is another matter ) - but at least it got 2 years plus of support !

[Hands0n]

The next "big" update for Android will be 2.1 Eclair that is due out during the first half of 2010. That is, depending upon whether the individual manufacturer makes the update available. For example Samsung was not going to update the Galaxy, leaving it stuck in 1.5 Cupcake. But after a global roar of protest it seems that they have relented and are preparing a 2.1 update.

The rumour mill, and that is all that it is, also suggests that the ageing G1 will get 2.1. But there are definitely some that will not.

As for rooting - the general rule is that you have to downgrade to an earlier "rootable" version, root it there, and then load up the custom ROM of your choice. This can be a right pain in the 'arris if you cannot locate the downgrade ROM, but it is possible. The resources are out there. A good starting point in your search is here http://androidcommunity.com/forums/f56/ and specific instructions about how to root a Donut handset (including the HTC Magic) are here http://theunlockr.com/2009/10/15/how-to-root-a-donut-phone-android-1-6/ complete with links to the various binaries that you'll need.

I think you are right Miffed - the "open" Android OS not really anything of the sort. There are ways around the baffles that are put in place by Google, but it isn't Linux by any stretch.

That said - Android is a nice mobile OS that easily takes on the likes of Windows Mobile and its peers.