Hardware doesn’t get slower as it ages. Rather, we demand more and more of it by installing software and updates which its components were never designed to handle. In essence, it takes longer for the same hardware to process the increased number of instructions being thrown at it, and inevitably it feels like it’s running more slowly – even though, technically, it’s running as quickly as it ever was.
Manufacturers eventually stop supporting old devices because doing so would hold back owners of newer, ‘faster’ hardware – and, at that point, you must make a decision. Do you buy a new device? Keep running your existing device with out-of-date software? Or install a new operating system?
Here, we’re going to take the third option. We have a second-generation Nexus 7 tablet (pictured right), jointly built by Asus and Google, which was released in August 2013 and discontinued in April 2015. The most recent version of Android it can officially run is 6, released back in September 2015.
Rather than try to force an update to the latest version of Android (13, released in August), we’re going to install Ubuntu Touch (), an opensource Linux-based operating system being developed for a wide range of Android devices. Compatibility varies from device to device and, as you might imagine, replacing an operating system is a big job. However, if you can get Touch to work on an old tablet or phone that you own, you might be able to breathe new life into an old piece of kit.
