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Samsung Removes Bootloader Unlocking with One UI 8

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Re: Samsung Removes Bootloader Unlocking with One UI 8

#21

Post by jemmyw »

crinkly wrote: post #5
sn0n wrote: post #4

dont worry, samsung knows only 300 people will actually care. As for me, I already swore off Samdung for their whole Samsung account bs and apps they bundle and won't let me remove (or disable).

Yep. Everyone I know who bought a Samsung anything (TV/Phone/Washer/Dryer) last time said it's their last Samsung product. Samsung sure know how to piss off customers.

I've got a Samsung dryer and when it had a fault with the door sensor they got it fixed pretty quickly. I had better service from them than Bosch or Miele - I replaced a Bosch dryer when I was totally fed up of trying to organise Bosch to fix it and being told it was at least a 6 week wait - Samsung half the price, and surprised us that it is a better dryer (faster, easier to use etc).

I don't love their phones, though my wife has one. However, again on the service front, when my samsung S7 had a problem they fixed it pretty quickly. When my iPhone 5 came with the wifi not working it took weeks to convince Apple that it was actually broken and get a replacement.

All anecdotal of course, and probably varies a lot by location and over time.

Re: Samsung Removes Bootloader Unlocking with One UI 8

#22

Post by charcircuit »

account01011100 wrote: post #20
charcircuit wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You still own the device even if the bootloader is locked. It's like saying you don't own a CPU because you can't add your own instructions. There are always going to be limits to what you can easily customize for a device.

Adding cpu instructions is something that you can't physically do, however unlocking the bootloader is something you can do via software, and if a vendor chooses to lock it down they're basically taking away your ability to do anything you would want to do with a device. Sadly this is has been the case for a while and it's probably going to continue being the case.

You can physically do it with a microcode update. Nothing is being taken away since this change is for new products. They just are not providing an additional feature to these products.

Re: Samsung Removes Bootloader Unlocking with One UI 8

#23

Post by aeblyve »

The writing's been on the wall for custom ROMs in general for a while, so I've been starting to think about a mobile phone vendor I could actually have a decent business relationship with. I.e. use their stock ROM and be fairly happy with it.

Any opinions? Samsung was a candidate for their somewhat unified ecosystem. Maybe even apple.

Re: Samsung Removes Bootloader Unlocking with One UI 8

#24

Post by rickdeckard »

altairprime wrote: post #10

Given the timing, it’s likely related to: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44705240

Unlikely, bootloader unlock is a controlled process and state of the OS for many years now.

The procedure explicitly hands over the responsibility of OS-integrity to the end-user, it's not Samsung's responsibility after that and the user needs to confirm that.

It's much more likely that the cost/benefit profile to develop/maintain/support that feature and its related unlock-process is simply not sufficient, all while several of the biggest customers explicitly require unlock to NOT be supported.

Re: Samsung Removes Bootloader Unlocking with One UI 8

#25

Post by DobarDabar »

aeblyve wrote: post #23

The writing's been on the wall for custom ROMs in general for a while, so I've been starting to think about a mobile phone vendor I could actually have a decent business relationship with. I.e. use their stock ROM and be fairly happy with it. Any opinions? Samsung was a candidate for their somewhat unified ecosystem. Maybe even apple.

Check Nothing

Re: Samsung Removes Bootloader Unlocking with One UI 8

#26

Post by bestouff »

aeblyve wrote: post #23

The writing's been on the wall for custom ROMs in general for a while, so I've been starting to think about a mobile phone vendor I could actually have a decent business relationship with. I.e. use their stock ROM and be fairly happy with it. Any opinions? Samsung was a candidate for their somewhat unified ecosystem. Maybe even apple.

Whatever floats your boat. I'll remain with the latest vendor making custom OS possible.

FYI Pixels still allow flashing custom ROMs, they've just slightly inconvenienced developers.

Re: Samsung Removes Bootloader Unlocking with One UI 8

#27

Post by sellerie »

aeonik wrote: post #17
lordofgibbons wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do anyone know why GrapheneOS doesn't support fairphone?

I can't find the link, but a couple days ago, they said in a thread here it was due to their lack of support of some important security features, and remarked that it didn't look like they were even interested in supporting them.

You cant re-lock the bootloader with a custom key which grapheneos considers a cornerstone of their security model.

Re: Samsung Removes Bootloader Unlocking with One UI 8

#28

Post by plqbfbv »

aeonik wrote: post #17
lordofgibbons wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do anyone know why GrapheneOS doesn't support fairphone?

I can't find the link, but a couple days ago, they said in a thread here it was due to their lack of support of some important security features, and remarked that it didn't look like they were even interested in supporting them.

https://www.androidauthority.com/fairphone-gen-6-us-graphene...

Re: Samsung Removes Bootloader Unlocking with One UI 8

#29

Post by frizlab »

aeblyve wrote: post #23

The writing's been on the wall for custom ROMs in general for a while, so I've been starting to think about a mobile phone vendor I could actually have a decent business relationship with. I.e. use their stock ROM and be fairly happy with it. Any opinions? Samsung was a candidate for their somewhat unified ecosystem. Maybe even apple.

Apple is good out of the box, and has a strong ecosystem.

Re: Samsung Removes Bootloader Unlocking with One UI 8

#30

Post by rickdeckard »

It is really a pity, as this means Android OS is closing down.

Without supported Consumer Hardware available on the market in sufficient volume, even less end-users will use an alternative OS, which will affect quality and size of the alternative OS-market and fragment the remaining users even more.

This will put the future of the entire alternative-OS ecosystem firmly back into the hands of Google. If they start further restricting BL-unlock on the Pixel-series to e.g. only Google Developer Account-Holders, the whole ecosystem will finally close down.

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