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Comment by binyu | Hacker News Reader

> This is ignoring the fact that the main reason retired phones are e-waste is proprietary firmware blobs and locked-down systems

Couldn't Google somehow fix this? Since they control the substrate (Android) and they would be doing it for their convenience

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Unfortunately it is a bit more complicated than that. All these phones run firmware, bootloaders, libraries under license from SoC providers, who package components from other vendors under a license themselves. Opening up the bootloader can be done, but two things have to happen: either the phone is crippled of various functionalities or the manufacturer is in breach of license because all the binary blobs become open and can be reverse engineered. No one wants to go through all of this for a few hundred people who are interested in running their home assistant on an exotic device.

I haven't ever heard of an SoC supplier demanding that the device's bootloader must be locked. Are you sure that this is happening? I've only ever seen devices delete first-party blobs, presumably of the manufacturer's own volition.

Unisoc mandates locked bootloaders, but it's true, the majority doesn't care, they just want to sell the SOC

They're literally doing the opposite, right now you can't install a custom operating system, but in the near future you won't be able to install custom apps either: https://keepandroidopen.org/

You can install a custom operating system on (a non-carrier-locked model of) every phone Google has ever made.

What do you mean you can't install a custom operating system? The bootloader is unlocked on google phones, isn't it?

This website is full of false FUD.

Why would they?

They're actively working on closing the ecosystem even more (no more sideloading), DRM features, etc.

Maybe they'd do it for themselves, but they clearly don't want you, the customer, to do whatever you want with the device you bought and paid for.

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