The dirty little secret about Google Android (ZDNet) [LWN.net]

The dirty little secret about Google Android (ZDNet)

Posted Aug 23, 2010 18:46 UTC (Mon) by mmcgrath (guest, #44906)
Parent article: The dirty little secret about Google Android (ZDNet)

This will encourage the use of alternatives like CyanogenMod

to post comments

The dirty little secret about Google Android (ZDNet)

Posted Aug 23, 2010 18:50 UTC (Mon) by jspaleta (subscriber, #50639) [Link] (5 responses)

Only if as consumers we are _allowed_ to jailbreak the locked down android phones. I imagine the same market pressures that is encouraging ISP's to nickel and dime people for software features is also going to encourage them to fight back..hard..against any policy which would give consumers the right to jailbreak. I expect legislative lobbying to closedown jailbreaking as a legal activity.

-jef

The dirty little secret about Google Android (ZDNet)

Posted Aug 23, 2010 19:36 UTC (Mon) by SEJeff (guest, #51588) [Link] (2 responses)

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/07/feds-ok-iphone-j... Good luck getting that reversed.

Jailbreaking

Posted Aug 23, 2010 19:47 UTC (Mon) by corbet (editor, #1) [Link] (1 responses)

Unfortunately, reversing that ruling could prove all too easy. It will reverse itself in three years unless it's explicitly renewed. "Fixing" it sooner than that simply requires an act of Congress - a last-minute amendment to the farm bill or something will do it. I would not be at all surprised to see an attempt at that made.

Jailbreaking

Posted Aug 24, 2010 4:44 UTC (Tue) by drag (guest, #31333) [Link]

Well plus you have to take into account is that the only reason people have to put up with this crap in the first place is specifically because the goverment.

If it was not for the rules, regulations and (more importantly) the enforcement that the USA government provides for corporations against individuals then all this jailbreaking and restrictions that companies like Apple or Motorola try to implement would not be even worth the effort. There literally would be a industry that would develop that would exist solely to help individuals work around DRM and other technical restrictions.

The jails and DRM does not work because people like Apple or the MPAA/RIAA will it into existence... it works because the government is willing to enforce their will at the point of the gun, if push comes to shove.

So it's extremely unlikely that the government is going to provide a sort of long term relief since they are core to the problem in the first place. They may provide little hand-wavy gesture like linked above to placate people in specific cases, but it's a hollow non-the-less.

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For us what is important is just not to give companies that collude with the government to remove our freedoms money. That is the #1 control you have over them and is far far more effective then any sort of law that can possibly hope to get passed any time this decade (or two or four).

That is if you have a choice between something like the Motorola Droid-X or iPhone vs a Samsung Galaxy-S then for god sakes don't get the Droid-X or iPhone... your not only part of the problem, your are making things worse. Your dollars are literally justifying those corporation's negative behavior.

I've heard good things about the Galaxy-S stuff.... but I don't know how much the carriers have stomped on the platform. At least the i9000 is a decent in terms of openness. No OpenMoko, but in terms of what is on the market it seems to be a good platform.

I've seen stuff like this:
http://laforge.gnumonks.org/weblog/2010/08/21/#20100821-p...

So... it seems decent enough, but please do not take my word for it.

The dirty little secret about Google Android (ZDNet)

Posted Aug 23, 2010 23:35 UTC (Mon) by literfizzer (subscriber, #31274) [Link]

Fortunately, most if not all Android phones to date seem fairly easy to reflash with any of a number of alternative Android images with the carrier crap and restrictions removed and useful stuff added.

The dirty little secret about Google Android (ZDNet)

Posted Aug 31, 2010 14:07 UTC (Tue) by juanjux (guest, #11652) [Link]

There is "Geeks Phone", a phone maker that encourage unlocking and installing custom firmwares, even supporting Cyanogen stable releases:

http://www.geeksphone.com/en/

They only need an interesting phone (their current "GeeksPhone One" is a little outdated) to have my money.