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BSD

Posted Feb 29, 2016 22:41 UTC (Mon) by viro (subscriber, #7872)
In reply to: BSD by Del-
Parent article: Winning the copyleft fight

Yeah, I just can see it - evviiil corporation hell-bent on locking everything down, planning to use something Linux-based on their hardware and... damn, foiled by that pesky grub and its license. Use lilo or elilo? Nah, can't do - it has "lost", whatever that means. And users of that thing (willing to live with locked-down system, etc.) won't tolerate the lack of grub features; yes, sir - that'd be the last straw. Why, just to think - need to rerun that thing after installing the self-built kernel! In-fucking-tolerable. Mind you, being unable to install said self-built kernel (and defeat whatever lockdown they had forced on them) wouldn't be a problem, but the knowledge that having accomplished that feat they would have to run that... that thing - that would've scared them off. And staying quiet while booting the only kernel provided (no menus, etc.) would also be a deal-breaker. Or being unable to switch the root filesystem type from what's provided by the install given by Duh Evvviiill Corp, for that matter - nevermind that being able to do that would mean having defeated the lockdown anyway...

</sarcasm> Seriously, what the hell are you smoking? Scratch that, what the hell do you expect your readers to be smoking in order to buy that load of horse manure of yours?
<sarcasm>

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BSD

Posted Mar 1, 2016 7:19 UTC (Tue) by Del- (guest, #72641) [Link] (5 responses)

> Yeah, I just can see it - evviiil corporation hell-bent on locking everything down,

Corporations typically try to maximize profits. Practically all device manufacturers lock down devices as a means to control their product and earn more money. Evil has nothing to do with it. You cannot sell a locked down device with Red Hat or Suse, I don't even believe any of them support alternative boot-loaders anymore. On a related note, Canonical was specifically asked to use GPLv2 on upstart to allow lock down, and they complied. Sony's actions on PS3 is a good study on open/locked down computers, ever thought about why they ended up locking it down completely? HTC for a period supplied tools to unlock their phones after popular demand. Guess what? When they discovered how little the tinkering community was, they removed the tool. Why shouldn't they, they lost practically no business, and ensured that all HTC phones continue to run their version of Android in the process. Ever heard of vertical integration? Short story, we need something more than just the goodwill of manufacturers to keep computers open, and GPLv3 is today our only means to do it. You are of course free to reach another conclusion, but please try to behave civilized.

BSD

Posted Mar 1, 2016 9:00 UTC (Tue) by Cyberax (✭ supporter ✭, #52523) [Link] (4 responses)

Unlocked (i.e. not sold through carriers) HTC phones can be rooted with fastboot.

But don't let that dissuade you from ranting...

BSD

Posted Mar 1, 2016 12:45 UTC (Tue) by Del- (guest, #72641) [Link] (3 responses)

> Unlocked (i.e. not sold through carriers) HTC phones can be rooted with fastboot.

No it can not. You probably mean to say that HTC has re-introduced their unlock tool, but some carriers still lock them down. Indeed, so it seems (I was unaware):
http://www.htcdev.com/bootloader
I am very happy to see that, and I hope more manufacturers will follow. Not holding my breath though.

> But don't let that dissuade you from ranting...

Now that is beneath you. If you have a case, just state it. I know you enjoy a good discussion just as much as I do.

BSD

Posted Mar 1, 2016 18:21 UTC (Tue) by Cyberax (✭ supporter ✭, #52523) [Link] (2 responses)

> No it can not.
Yes, you can. I have an HTC phone bought at a retail store, it's lying on my desktop right now. I simply unlocked it with fastboot.

> You probably mean to say that HTC has re-introduced their unlock tool, but some carriers still lock them down.
Nope. Fastboot is the standard tool in Android-world for bootloader manipulation.

Carriers definitely can lock it down if you lease your phone, not buy it.

> Now that is beneath you. If you have a case, just state it. I know you enjoy a good discussion just as much as I do.
Sure, a little bit of trolling is good for health.

BSD

Posted Mar 1, 2016 23:11 UTC (Tue) by mathstuf (subscriber, #69389) [Link] (1 responses)

As little(?) as 14 months ago, a Moto X from Verizon was not unlockable. Motorola would not gives the codes for Verizon phones. Now, they might have changed thos since, but last I heard the line was being neglected for updates. Guess I made the right choice in waiting for the new Nexus line to come out (stuck on Verizon; every other carrier has shit coverage where I need it).

BSD

Posted Mar 1, 2016 23:29 UTC (Tue) by dlang (guest, #313) [Link]

14 months can be a long time in this business.