G2 Detects When Rooted and Reinstalls Stock OS

RandyDownes writes "And you thought the Droid X's kill switch was bad. HTC and T-Mobile's new G2 can detect when it's been rooted and responds by reinstalling the factory OS. This seems like a violation of the Apache license Android is licensed under and is especially ironic given Eric Schmidt's recent statement about not requiring carriers to give consumers the option to install Google's own version of the OS. Schmidt called it a violation of the principles of open source." Update: 10/06 17:47 GMT by S : As readers have noted, the G2 is not from Motorola. Here's a better source, and here's the XDA Developers thread discussing the issue.

Comments

Glad I don't have a smartphone

[vlm]

Yet another example of why I am sooooooo glad I don't own a smartphone and won't be buying one soon.

You know how women like those drama tv shows, but discussing the shows bores everyone else to death? Yeah, smartphones are like that.

Life's better when you ignore that whole segment of the marketplace (smartphones, I mean, not women)

Re:It's not open source

[Blakey Rat]

Hey, how about a solution to the problem that doesn't involve time travel? And being a condescending prick?

Re:Someone here's messed up bad

[sarhjinian]

There's a difference between "What is good, ethically", "What is good, commercially?" and "What is good, from a design perspective".

Android is harder to develop for because of the number of variants. It has a less unified presence in the market, and less brand identity, and has more trouble "selling" itself. Individual makers of handsets aren't making as much money per unit as Apple.

This is all aside from the philosophy of the matter. If philosophy is important to you, great, wonderful, but Android's design and go-to-market decisions are proving problematic. It's the same tradeoff Linux makes: you get the freedom to make the system open, but you lose the cohesive environment and marketing power.

I'm sorry that reality offends you so much.

I do derive a not-small amount of schadenfreude from watching Android fans crow endlessly about freedom, only to have the carriers and handset-makers cripple their offerings in ways Apple doesn't even broach.

For the record, I have Nokia E71, so no, not an Apple fan. But it's nice to see that we can have a rational discussion about a platform without devolving into petty bickering. Or not.