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I am the first to avoid buying any device with a locked bootloader, but.... how exactly is an unlocked bootloader after 4 years of use going to help to reduce e

I am the first to avoid buying any device with a locked bootloader, but.... how exactly is an unlocked bootloader after 4 years of use going to help to reduce e-waste? It's not magically going to convert the phone into a Raspberry Pi anymore than Debian is going to suddenly port itself to a 4-year-old platform. And even that would reduce e-waste only by a rounding error. Now, guaranteeing Android updates 4 YEARS, or more, that would be something...

webmobdev 5y ago
how exactly is an unlocked bootloader after 4 years of use going to help to reduce e-waste? It allows you install a different operating systems. When newer versions of Windows ran slower on old systems, many people switched to Linux to use the same hardware for some more years. And we do have different mobile OS too today. The free LineageOS also has breathed new life to many an old device. Jolla, a Finnish company, even sells licenses for their Sailfish OS ( and https://jolla.com/sailfishx/ https://jolla.com/sailfishx/ ) for Sony Open Devices ( https://developer.sony.com/develop/open-devices/ https://developer.sony.com/develop/open-devices/ ). They supported their first phone with 7 years of free OS updates. ( https://blog.jolla.com/jolla7/ https://blog.jolla.com/jolla7/ ).
- AshamedCaptain 5y ago
  And absolutely none of these platforms will start working on 4-year old Samsung hardware because of an unlocked bootloader. In fact, the bootloaders can be unlocked right now on most Exynos devices, so why can't I run Jolla on a Samsung device?
  - webmobdev 5y ago
    And absolutely none of these platforms will start working on 4-year old Samsung hardware because of an unlocked bootloader. It is a chicken and egg problem - if there is no market to port an OS to a device, work to port it will be limited. LineageOS is doing a pretty decent job in supporting a lot of devices. All that said, the lack of any OS is no excuse to lock bootloaders.
def_true_false 5y ago
Yeah, I would rather trust some random dude from xda than the phone vendor to keep their promise of keeping it up to date. In fact you can easily get a 4 year old device and put Android 11 on it, you just have to avoid the vendors who intentionally make it hard.
perryizgr8 5y ago
Samsung already does 4 years updates I think. It's very good, probably better than most other phone manufacturers. But it's a joke compared to how long you can keep using a good laptop.

webmobdev 5y ago

how exactly is an unlocked bootloader after 4 years of use going to help to reduce e-waste? It allows you install a different operating systems. When newer versions of Windows ran slower on old systems, many people switched to Linux to use the same hardware for some more years. And we do have different mobile OS too today. The free LineageOS also has breathed new life to many an old device. Jolla, a Finnish company, even sells licenses for their Sailfish OS ( and https://jolla.com/sailfishx/ https://jolla.com/sailfishx/ ) for Sony Open Devices ( https://developer.sony.com/develop/open-devices/ https://developer.sony.com/develop/open-devices/ ). They supported their first phone with 7 years of free OS updates. ( https://blog.jolla.com/jolla7/ https://blog.jolla.com/jolla7/ ).

AshamedCaptain 5y ago
And absolutely none of these platforms will start working on 4-year old Samsung hardware because of an unlocked bootloader. In fact, the bootloaders can be unlocked right now on most Exynos devices, so why can't I run Jolla on a Samsung device?
- webmobdev 5y ago
  And absolutely none of these platforms will start working on 4-year old Samsung hardware because of an unlocked bootloader. It is a chicken and egg problem - if there is no market to port an OS to a device, work to port it will be limited. LineageOS is doing a pretty decent job in supporting a lot of devices. All that said, the lack of any OS is no excuse to lock bootloaders.

def_true_false 5y ago

Yeah, I would rather trust some random dude from xda than the phone vendor to keep their promise of keeping it up to date. In fact you can easily get a 4 year old device and put Android 11 on it, you just have to avoid the vendors who intentionally make it hard.

perryizgr8 5y ago

Samsung already does 4 years updates I think. It's very good, probably better than most other phone manufacturers. But it's a joke compared to how long you can keep using a good laptop.