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Huawei Will No Longer Allow Bootloader Unlocking On Its Android Handsets (androidauthority.com)
Chinese smartphone maker Huawei has long made it easier for users to unlock the bootloader on its phones. But that is changing now. Android Authority: Earlier this month a support page, which detailed ways to unlock a bootloader, disappeared without any explanation from the company's websites. In a statement, the company said, "In order to deliver the best user experience and prevent users from experiencing possible issues that could arise from ROM flashing, including system failure, stuttering, worsened battery performance, and risk of data being compromised, Huawei will cease providing bootloader unlock codes for devices launched after May 25, 2018." It added, "For devices launched prior to the aforementioned date, the termination of the bootloader code application service will come into effect 60 days after today's announcement. Moving forward, Huawei remains committed to providing quality services and experiences to its customers. Thank you for your continued support."
Sorry, but this is in no way, shape or form a 'right'. Governments should not get involved in this. Vote with your wallet. If people want phones whose bootloader they can unlock, they should stop buying Huawei phones immediately.
We've seen it with SIM-locking. Voting with your wallet doesn't work in an oligopoly case. There are very few carriers and they all lock their phones. Fortunately, in many countries, the government stepped in and banned SIM locking. Nothing of value was lost and it is better for the consumer and increased competition.
"Thank you for your continued support."
There is no support. I don't have much influence in the phone world, but all that I have will now be directed at convincing people away from you.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
And 9-11 was a libtard job, duh! ae911truth org
I won't be sad when the current round of political stupidity ends.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
It certainly wouldn't be the first time a government used a "national security" blanket excuse to covertly force something down a company's gullet.
Voting with your wallet only works if there are alternatives and if it would actually change anything.
e.g. if there is a big, huge outcry because a company does something that the general public does not want (e.g. child labour, appartheid, ...) then it might work and change policies. If you, as an individual do it, they do not care.
So what if they do not have a few thousand customers that are not buying their stuff. There are enough who do. The other companiessee this and do the same.
The fact that I do NOT want to change the bootloader does not mean I do not want the right to do so.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
There is nothing magical about their OS build either, other than that it is bundled with crap-ware and may never get a security update. Also, if having one company control your data service, hardware AND software isn't anti-competitive, I don't know what is. Monopolies can be vertical as well as horizontal.
Support Right To Repair Legislation.
Sorry, but this is in no way, shape or form a 'right'.
It is "right to repair". I can repair or replace OS with a third-party offering and is not locked-in to OEM provided options.
I'd like to add that networks are built on the common property of wireless airspace. We have granted the government the authority to license the access to the airspace, which the carriers must pay to use. The carriers benefit from something that belongs to the people, and they can continue as long as they operate in a way mutually beneficial way. But careful oversight and regulation of a business using a common property is important to insure that their behavior remains in the public's interests.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
It kinda sounded like "You don't want to buy our stuff. You want to buy stuff from someone who isn't going to place limits on you doing what you want with your own device."
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
No. Most bricking comes from trying to get around the lockout in the first place. Remove the lockout and the bricking won't happen.
on Apple iPhones, there is not really the expectation of being able to put Android on it.
Why not? If I want to try? Or develop my own OS?
How is it any different whether it's a pocket-sized computer (aka phone) or a full computer (laptop/desktop)?
By your logic, there no expectation to wipe Mac OS and install Linux or BSD on an Apple laptop either.
This is not a tiny, miniscule issue. People have more smart phones than they have cars. This massive fleet of mobile computing devices is going to have security issues that get exploited sooner or later and the handset manufactures aren't going to do jack to close the holes. They want old phones to become trash and force everyone to buy new phones whenever they decide it's time to make some revenue. If this behavior is not monopolistic, anti-competitive, and counter to the public's best interests, then WTF is?
A bootloader locked phone is like a car with the hood welded shut. Most people don't know or care about what's under the hood until it breaks. And once it does, they have a reasonable expectation of being able to take it to the nearest repair guy to get it working again.
Locking the os prevents morons from bricking their device and demanding a new one.
It also prevents smart people deleting the crapware, installing an adblocker and firewall.
I wasn't impressed when the government told me to avoid them, but now Huawei itself is telling me to avoid them.
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
Governments should not get involved in this.
You owe many of the comforts of your technology precisely because of government involvement. Everything from being able to repair your car, to not voiding your warranty when looking in the case, it is all thanks to the many laws on the books that protect you.
Vote with your wallet
This works only in a free market. Very few of those exist.
You have no idea indeed. That CPU is supported does not mean that you can run the OS on it because in embedded device world all the chipsets and all are variety of different incompatible ones. "provided proper driver support" is real hard to come by. So no, theoretically ARM OS won't run on any ARM devices. You might have different meaning to "theoretically" from others.
This. Huawei only guarantees two years of updates, so if you aren't planning to replace your phone at least every two years, you'll end up on an out-of-date, security-compromised OS with no way to upgrade. If you can unlock your bootloader, you have the option of installing LineageOS and getting several more years out of the device.
Bootloader locking serves an important purpose, but it should not be legal to deny consumers the ability to unlock their own devices. And that goes for Apple, too. If bootloader unlocking were required by law, no doubt the Android port to iPhones would get updated, not to mention that you'd have people doing things similar to XPostFacto/MacPostFactor, getting newer versions of iOS to run on older hardware.
Right now, locked bootloaders are turning technology into disposable junk, destroying the resale market, and creating an e-waste nightmare. That alone should be ample reason for the government to get involved.
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r_naked demanded:
If a phone can't be unlocked so I can install whatever OS I want, then it should not be allowed to be imported into the USA.
They try to give some bullshit about how it is to protect the network, but that is a load of horseshit.
It is, indeed, a load of horseshit.
What's important to grasp here is that it is, in all likelihood, the Chinese government that has ordered Huawei to lock their bootloaders, in order to keep end users from deleting the same Chinese government spyware that led to ZTE being barred from exporting their phones to the USA (and which the idiot has defied his own intelligence agencies to announce that he's going to help ZTE get export licenses to resume).
If you buy a new Huawei phone from here on out, you'd best assume the Chinese government is getting copies of everything on it, and listening in on every transaction that you use it for - including calls, texts, social media interactions, and so-called "encrypted" communications (which aren't encrypted at the keyboard, at all) ...
Check out my novel.