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What benefits? Only "benefits" that I can see are distributed very unevenly - strong entities like Microsoft can extract patent fees from Linux users, despite they contributed almost nothing. On the other end users like you and me are blocked from fixing the software built on GPL components on the devices they own. Which was the very situation GPL was intended to prevent.

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Pretty much, why can't I run a modern kernel on the average device running Linux, whether that be an IP Camera, or a smartphone? Why are we forced to run ancient, unpatched & insecure software by Qualcomm, LG, Samsung & Google?

Technically, you can run new also insecure software by yourself on most Samsung Exynos devices at the very least, including the bootloader. Includes new kernel versions. See: http://linux-exynos.org/wiki/Main_Page

Qualcomm is much more iffy, there is some work on integrating support to mainline but it's only beginning.

You lose the warranty bit and still cannot replace FCC-approved modem firmware, because certification reasons.

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