Google: Go ahead and hack the Chrome Book | Hacker News Reader

Google: Go ahead and hack the Chrome Book

techcrunch.com

80 pointsMatthewB11 comments

This is good. But it's a little bit sad that we are at a point where companies have to assure me beforehand that I'll be allowed to, you know, use their products if I buy one.

Not surprising to me as a CR48 beta tester: http://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/developer-information-fo... Pretty awesome though that they are bucking the trend of locking down consumer devices.

"Bucking the trend"? I can't think of a single x86 laptop in existence that's locked down.

I'm talking about consumer devices in general. XBOX, PS3, iPhones, carrier locked Android phones, iPads, you name it.

Also, this is not an ordinary x86 laptop. I think most people would assume that considering that you cannot by default install anything on it, and that it has a verified boot sequence (will not boot an unsigned OS by default) that it would be completely locked down.

I think your list is the end. I can microwave metal. I can put a newspaper in my toaster. I can submerge my hairdryer in water and be amused as it pumps the water around.

Most consumer devices can do whatever you want. It's just gaming consoles and phones that can't. Everything else... do whatever you want.

Hell, handguns are still legal in the US, and you can use those to do some mighty antisocial dealings.

What really matters isn't what people can install or not. What really matters is if people can remotely verify if it's still locked or it's jailbroken. This gives organizations and users a choice to install whatever they want, or to have a verifiable environment.

It also gets you out of Sony's losing position, where you get neither security and you piss off people who have the technical knowledge to make your life harder.

As someone who's enjoyed building my own customized distros & livecds with homebrew packages, I'm looking forward to being able to put my own customized chromiumOS build and other distros onto a Chromebook.

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