There are guides floating around here with instructions to "de-brand" your Desire and put the generic HTC firmware on. In theory this firmware will get it's OTA upgrade direct from HTC and NOT from your carrier. Probably invalidates your warranty though.

I de-branded my T-Mobile UK Desire a couple of days ago and it was a painless process.

 

If your phone unlocked and unbranded i.e. when you boot it you only get the HTC (quietly brilliant) screen and not some carrier's logo then there are two options for you to update when/if it comes.
Either:

OTA, menu >settings >about phone >system software updates. Note that this will be taken out of your data allowance if you are not on WiFi.

Online, download from the HTC support website for Desire, put it on your SD card and follow the instructions.

 

It does not sound like it is branded.

 

Don't get too excited Ivan, HTC is almost as bad as most mobile providers at pushing out OS upgrades.

 

I think it is safe to say HTC is the worst of a bad bunch. I believe they have only sent out one Sense enabled update (Eris) which is full of bugs.

Would I swap 2.1 Sense for vanilla 2.2, errrr nope.

 

I dont think that is quite true, i have the HTC boot screen, but i have a Vodafone scene as a option. Also the software version is coded to Vodafone as well.

 

As a newbie to the whole android thing.

The phone up is made up of certain parts: HTC phone, google operating system branded orange (I had htc with WM last time and had to wait for orange to produce a rom, i couldn't upgrade directly from the HTC website).

Am I correct in thinking is that google has done an upgrade to its operating system (2.2) and there are rumours which are saying they will make it available to recent HTC phones (such as the desire which I have) on the 23rd June. Does google update the phone or do you need to wait for HTC to do something, or even worse in my case wait for HTC then wait for Orange?

 

That sounds correct.

 

Well i hope orange pull their finger out and get it released. I want 2.2 for the sheer fact of installing apps on sd card

 

Coming from Nokia through Vodafone I can tell you that HTC are amazing compared to them.

Releasing phones that are completely unusable thinking that we are their guinea pigs to get them working.

Thats why I changed to HTC and Android and must say they have been great.

It will happen when it happens people, just relax and enjoy what you've got cos trust me compared to other manufacturers we have a hell of a lot

 

Coming from Nokia through Vodafone I can tell you that HTC are amazing compared to them.

Releasing phones that are completely unusable thinking that we are their guinea pigs to get them working.

Thats why I changed to HTC and Android and must say they have been great.

It will happen when it happens people, just relax and enjoy what you've got cos trust me compared to other manufacturers we have a hell of a lot

 

Ivan's concern is teh same as mine. I am using the Desire which is unlocked & unbranded in my country ( no branded phones in this country, can I say this is a good thing for us changing SIM card at any time?). Currently what i am concerned the most is if I can get to directly do an update by following the steps in "Settings" on the phone cuz I've never experienced the situation to do an update in this way before. Rooting is certainly far beyond my consideration as I'd never take this risk.