4 ms·

It sure would be nice if we could just purchase such unlocked devices directly. You used to actually control the devices you purchased. Then mobile comes along

by Reelin 8y ago

It sure would be nice if we could just purchase such unlocked devices directly. You used to actually control the devices you purchased. Then mobile comes along and so far we've seen locked OS accounts (rooting), locked bootloaders, and locked basebands. Now there's locked ME or PSP. This is getting ridiculous, as well as difficult to keep track of. Perhaps we need some sort of "Fully Unlocked" certification to indicate that a device you're considering purchasing would actually be yours?

kazagistar 8y ago
That would only be a useful certification if anything was certified with it.
- KAMSPioneer 8y ago
  I can't tell if you and GP are being tongue-in-cheek about FSF's RYF certification or not. Either way, you got a sad laugh from me.
  - Reelin 8y ago
    A very depressed sort of tongue-in-cheek, but I sometimes forget that there's no tone of voice on the internet.
drb91 8y ago
> Perhaps we need some sort of "Fully Unlocked" certification to indicate that a device you're considering purchasing would actually be yours? Maybe we should make it impossible to advertise a product as being purchasable if you also aren't purchasing rights to the software (and the ability to modify it). Just remove ownership from the equation entirely unless they can demonstrate that the user has full control of the hardware.
- gmueckl 8y ago
  That would be a pyrrhic victory at best. True ownership of comsumer devices is de facto a thing of the distant past. If you degraded sales to rentals by law, manufacturers would immediately try to jump onto that train and come up with ways to extract even more momey from customers. How would you feel for having to pay your CPU manufacturer for the actual CPU time spent on your personal desktop computer at home? Of course, each core counts separately. Can't have you pay less for running properly paralellized programs, now can we?
  - drb91 8y ago
    > That would be a pyrrhic victory at best. True ownership of comsumer devices is de facto a thing of the distant past. Only because consumers are not offered an honest choice. Anyway buying by the cycle would fall squarely into non-ownership, would it not? In any case, this type of pessimism IS a clear loss for consumers.
fghtr 8y ago
Like this one? https://fsf.org/ryf https://fsf.org/ryf "The "Respects Your Freedom" computer hardware product certification program encourages the creation and sale of hardware that will do as much as possible to respect your freedom and your privacy, and will ensure that you have control over your device. "

by Reelin 8y ago

kazagistar 8y ago

That would only be a useful certification if anything was certified with it.

KAMSPioneer 8y ago
I can't tell if you and GP are being tongue-in-cheek about FSF's RYF certification or not. Either way, you got a sad laugh from me.
- Reelin 8y ago
  A very depressed sort of tongue-in-cheek, but I sometimes forget that there's no tone of voice on the internet.

drb91 8y ago

> Perhaps we need some sort of "Fully Unlocked" certification to indicate that a device you're considering purchasing would actually be yours? Maybe we should make it impossible to advertise a product as being purchasable if you also aren't purchasing rights to the software (and the ability to modify it). Just remove ownership from the equation entirely unless they can demonstrate that the user has full control of the hardware.

gmueckl 8y ago
That would be a pyrrhic victory at best. True ownership of comsumer devices is de facto a thing of the distant past. If you degraded sales to rentals by law, manufacturers would immediately try to jump onto that train and come up with ways to extract even more momey from customers. How would you feel for having to pay your CPU manufacturer for the actual CPU time spent on your personal desktop computer at home? Of course, each core counts separately. Can't have you pay less for running properly paralellized programs, now can we?
- drb91 8y ago
  > That would be a pyrrhic victory at best. True ownership of comsumer devices is de facto a thing of the distant past. Only because consumers are not offered an honest choice. Anyway buying by the cycle would fall squarely into non-ownership, would it not? In any case, this type of pessimism IS a clear loss for consumers.

fghtr 8y ago

Like this one? https://fsf.org/ryf https://fsf.org/ryf "The "Respects Your Freedom" computer hardware product certification program encourages the creation and sale of hardware that will do as much as possible to respect your freedom and your privacy, and will ensure that you have control over your device. "