[swatcoder]

FYI: your common sense idea conflicts directly with other HN members' comparably sensible idea that devices are the property of their owners and shouldn't have any vendor or regulatory constraints on how they're used and what runs on them. And of course the middle ground people will say that users can just have the option to unlock their devices, and contrarians will respond to say that any unlock feature becomes a vulnerability to plain-as-day social engineering and therefore defeats the purpose. etc etc

You never know which comments get attention, but you might just see your upvote count bounce all over the place today!

[pessimizer]

A rooted OS can still be on your side, and it's still the burden of the OS to structure how it protects and informs you about what the programs installed on it are doing. This still requires regulation, because the people who produce hardware don't share with the public (and with the people with the skills and interest to create non-user-hostile software) the information necessary to run that hardware, artificially restricting the market to their business partners.

The problem is that the government doesn't want you to have control over your phone either.

[tgflynn]

> because the people who produce hardware don't share with the public (and with the people with the skills and interest to create non-user-hostile software) the information necessary to run that hardware, artificially restricting the market to their business partners.

That's a claim that needs some supporting evidence.

To my knowledge the vast majority of hardware documentation is publicly available.

[salawat]

I'd like a copy of the following :

  -Broadcom processors/GPU's documentation/specifications
  -John Deere's ECM/BCM datasheets/specs
  -Nvidia's firmware documentation
  -Full, unredacted documentation of 'all' opcodes in x86_64 from Intel

I assure you. Your knowledge is dead wrong.

[pessimizer]

Do you think that people aren't porting Linux to phones the second they come out is because they don't have the time, skills or desire? It's because they have to reverse engineer everything.

[winternett]

Understandable, Allowing phones to be rooted is an essential freedom that should be protected as well to protect the art of individual innovation and in driving constructive (positive) market competition.

I'm okay with imaginary online point fluctuations, it's a small price to pay. Thank goodness it's not a reflection of anything real like my personal savings... hah.