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Debian Running On the T-Mobile G1

Posted by timothy on from the teaching-the-android-to-fetch-and-sit dept.

chrb writes "Following hot on the heels of the G1 root exploit, Jay Freeman now has Debian ARM running on the G1. The RC30 update has fixed the root hole, but with utilities and images already available to replace the flash image with your own signed code, it looks like the manufacturer-hacker arms race is on."

2 of 127 comments (clear)

  1. I'm confused... by maestro371 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I thought the whole point of the G1 was that it was an open platform. Why on earth is there a "manufacturer-hacker arms race"?

    1. Re:I'm confused... by R3d+M3rcury · · Score: 4, Interesting

      It depends on your definition of "platform," I believe.

      Android is open software platform in that you can do whatever you want within Android. But that doesn't make the G1 an open hardware platform, where you could install a different operating system.

      OpenMoko is an open hardware platform.

      Now, personally, I see no reason why T-Mobile would care whether you're running Android or Debian. Google might care because they want you running those nice Android apps which interface with Google because that's how they're paying for Android development. But I'm not sure that they have any kind of agreement which would require the makers of the G1 to make sure that the phones are tamper-proof.