I _do_ care that I can install whatever OS I like on my smartphone should I need it sometime, and I did vote with my money: I bought a SonyEricsson because they offer the possibility to unlock the bootloader. Right now, however, the most important thing to me is that it just works, as I don't have any other working phone, so I'll stick with the stock Android for now. Therefore, it is _also_ important to me that I have the possibility to obtain root privileges on the stock distribution, as this allows me to run any user mode software, which is sufficient for most of the things I might want to do. I'm not saying people shouldn't use SELinux on their device when they choose to, but I think having control over how the stock firmware works (i.e., having root access) is useful even with an unlocked bootloader.
Posted Jan 21, 2012 7:45 UTC (Sat) by rqosa (subscriber, #24136)
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> having root access) is useful even with an unlocked bootloader.
It's true that it makes it more convenient, but it's not a requirement for ensuring that the user controls their own hardware.
(What's more, one could argue that, in the presence of untrusted user-space software, having an enforceable security policy in the OS is required to ensure that the user maintains control over their hardware.)