from MazonnaCara89@lemmy.ml to technology@lemmy.world on 01 Aug 2025 07:21
https://lemmy.ml/post/33992840
Samsung has decided to proceed with the Bootloader blocking also in Europe, a move that has caused a lot of discussion. Behind this choice is a European regulation that will come into force in August 2025 and which risks changing smartphone usage in Europe forever. This is why other manufacturers may soon follow suit.
From 1 August 2025, new provisions will come into force RED Directive (Radio Equipment Directive), which redefines the compliance requirements for all radio devices sold in Europe. This is a significant change, not so much for the amount of regulations introduced, but for the effect they will have on the entire Android ecosystem. The issue revolves around three articles that impose specific protections: against network interference, personal data compromise, and digital fraud. These are, in themselves, sacrosanct rules.
But the crux comes with the interpretation prevailingEach device must ensure full compliance not only with the hardware, but also with the software that controls the radio modules. This is where the bootloader comes in. Unlocking it essentially allows you to replace the original operating system with an alternative one, such as LineageOS or GrapheneOS.
But these systems, if they modify the radio drivers even minimally, invalidate the CE certification. An uncertified device can no longer be legally marketed or used, at least according to the most stringent reading of the law.
This scenario has therefore led Samsung to protect its devices. Not on a whim, but to avoid any software modifications falling under your legal liability. If a user installs a ROM that interferes with radio frequencies or compromises communications security, the manufacturer (and in some cases the importer) may be held directly liable.
RED does not explicitly talk about unlocking the Bootloader or custom ROM, but it opens one regulatory space in which the margins for maneuver are they narrow. And in doing so, it provides a solid argument for those who have been trying for years to close the loop between hardware, software, and services. After all, customizing the operating system also means breaking away from proprietary services and, therefore, from the model that ties the user to the brand.
Samsung is just the first to move, but it’s hard to imagine it will be the only one. Starting in August 2025, it’s very likely that other manufacturers will follow suit, at least for the European market.
threaded - newest
Oh, fuck. Call the French, they have the most active civil society that actually can burn a thing or two during a week or two. That is the craziest law ever, denying the most basic human rights! That is literally a prohibition of DIY of any kind.
Haha i’m glad we’re known for that in the eu
I’ve read once that the reason Eltz castle in Germany (a kinda often encountered on the Web nice-fantasy-looking piece of fortification) was spared by the French from burning is because one of the family members was a French officer. There’s plenty of ruins around.
OK, speaking about protest - you guys are also known for the Napoleon code, the guillotine, the freedom-equality-brotherhood stuff, de Saint-Exupery, so mostly good things. I mean, there are also de Sade and Dienbienphu, but shutting up.
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You connect a wire to a battery and you just created an illegal transmitter!
Yes. I guess no more nine volt batteries in Europe. Or maybe we should focus on banning the sale of assorted lengths of wire.
It feels like a generation from now, doing what was common in the US during the creation of Apple and Microsoft will be considered terrorism.
@balder1991 @Lembot_0004 "Working on electronics in your parents' garage? What are you, some kind of terrorist?!?"
Fuck smart phones and neo feudalism. This is theft of ownership with a criminal complicit government. I applaud all Luigi’s these people deserve it. These are the killers of democracy. If your device only runs factory filtered stalkerware garbage, all democracy is dead. All information is easily filtered by this proprietary shit. Freedom of the press is a bullshit tiny niche of the broader requirement for a fully informed public. The fucking “press” is bullshit to highlight. You must have fully informed citizens and you may not choose how that information is shared or disseminated between citizens. This is not democracy. People are so fucking stupid.
Notice how the article implies Samsung and other corporations don’t want to do this, even though it’s something they’ve wanted to do for a long time? They almost certainly lobbied and ghost wrote most of this legislation to begin with; now they play the victim, even though they’re a perpetrator.
Jesus, how do you people always come up with the most inane conspiracies. I have a company that manufactures devices that communicate wirelessly. The new RED is a huge pain in the ass, along with the CRA.
Absolutely no company pushed for this. The new legislations and directives cause a ton of additional work and obligations for companies, e. g. software has to be certified as part of the compliance check, things that were previously approved via self-reports now involve trusted 3rd parties, and reports of violations to government bodies are now mandatory.
And you know what, even though this costs a bunch of money that could go elsewhere and the whole thing is so new that even the certification bodies have no idea what is going on, even though we have to setup completely new processes, spend endless hours documenting things, I still appreciate both initiatives.
As an end customer, I would love if e. g. the software that runs on the mobile payment terminal taking my card info is certified. I would love if the developer of the software running on the PLC on my shop floor has to check CVEs, inform me about security issues and has to deliver 5 to 10 years of updates.
Not a fan of Samsung and their shitty software, but they’re simply preemptively covering their ass, nothing more.
I’d also still want to unlock my bootloader. I’m sure the whole legal situation will become less muddled, enabling just that.
It’s already disproportionately difficult to just root a Samsung phone, so this change perfectly fits the pattern. (Posting this from a new Samsung phone that I’m desperately trying to root.)
I just don’t buy android anymore. It sucks. Apple you always sucked too. Annoyingly society kinda requires me to have a phone so I will just get what ever someone else is throwing away or is very cheap second hand.
Reject their devices is the only real choice you can make. Don’t give them money.
Like how the cellular module is proprietary and locked down, even on something like a Librem phone. Or like how DVD players had to use proprietary software to force comply with DRM.
If I remember correctly, the cellular chip is also closed source on the BraXPhone. This was one of the criticisms that I heard.
This was the only reason I liked Android over iOS: the CFW community. I’ve been running some sort of CFW since Android 4.0. Now, the charm has gone. GrapheneOS, SailfishOS, e/OS, LineageOS, iode OS, and even CyanogenMod – I’ve used them all. Each one has its own target group and use case. I hope it turns into the better one again. It’s like forcing a PC to only run the OS it’s delivered with.
I also used rooting at the beginning (Android 4.0 to 7.0) but realized that it is a little bit of a security problem, so I later used cfw without rooting the device. But root was a lot of fun, like cpu scheduler tweaks, apk patches or system mods. TWRP simple backups and restores. System Application removal (daim Facebook App…… 2014 users will remember)
That’s coming. Everything else has been locked down.
I'm also convinced that we'll be herded ever more toward cloud computing. That is, we'll all have our "desktop" on the cloud and thin clients to access it.
Don't get me started on the dystopia I see coming from that.
Yup. It’s another product they’ll try to turn into a service so you’re locked in forever. Allowing people to pay once for their products is bad business.
Copyright and patents abolition would solve this.
You gonna pay this subscription or you are going to die
Yea I can see it becoming a legal requirement for hardware to be certified and monitored to make sure it hasn’t deviated from an approved configuration. Think of the children, it could be used for crimes if not. Self hosting will completely die and any chance of digital freedom completely killed.
whether thin clients will prevail depends on the network costs and the CPU costs.
if the network costs become really low, shuffling more data around between user-device and server might be doable, but as long as network costs are non-negligible, it won’t happen.
In a lot of places, fast Internet is ubiquitous and cheap.
Yeah there's going to be a few places that will be problematic. But most can get access to fast Internet now I think.
Also for non gaming the data requirement isn't so much.
I'm not talking about short term. It's a medium to longer term thing. But it will start to become commonplace soon I reckon.
idk, we’ll see.
If you don’t control the device, you don’t own the device.
This sounds like bullshit.
Ok, but I’m not marketing my LineageOS phone and I don’t believe Samsung can be responsible for me using it. It sounds like phones with custom ROM will simply lose CE certification (unless the custom ROM is itself certified). Samsung obtains the CE certification and sells certified phone. Making them responsible for anything that happens after that (besides regular updates) is something completely different than what this article talks about. It would basically mean that Samsung has to make sure that their devices cannot be hacked/rooted but ensuring security of hardware and software is something completely different and is covered by different laws. Even the RAD website clearly says this:
“In 2021, the Commission decided to pause the initiative following the announcement of the Cyber Resilience Act (CRA), due to potential overlaps. In 2023, it was agreed that cybersecurity requirements would transfer from the Radio Equipment Directive (RED) to the CRA.”
So I will have to import hardware or cease buying smartphones altogether. MiFi router tethering with WiFi tablets and dumbphones are quite enough.
Wifi tablet will also be non-bootloader unlockable
Dumbphones don’t need wifi, they don’t have data
There is less reason to demand certified blobs for WiFi because send power and frequency range is much lower. If there is no open hardware to run open source software I will stop buying it.
In terms of the radio rules. The radio has always had its own firmware on android phones. The rules could be implemented using hardware fuses and restrictions on signed firmware updates for those specific systems.
That is they make the "single model for the world" as is generally economically the best option in many cases. And before shipping to distributors it's stamped with the region and the fuses for that region are blown. Now it doesn't mean it cannot be used elsewhere. But it means that it will follow all rules for the certification stamped on the device.
That would mean that any firmware for the main operating system cannot command it to do anything outside of the limits defined by those rules. So it's not really a technical reason not to allow custom bootloaders.
But of course, probably the manufacturers generally don't want you to be able to remove their firmware that is often filled with sponsored required app installs. So this is a convenient way to pretend their hands are tied.
Thank you for sharing this, @MazonnaCara89.
Personally, I find it very regrettable that Samsung is taking this draconian step. 😠
I have a follow-up question: Does this mean that I will no longer be allowed to use devices with free and open-source modifications when traveling to the EU? Are existing devices grandfathered in?
Does this mean no more visits to the EU for me, or just no buying tech in the EU? @Lembot_0004 @eleitl @ExLisper @LeTak @tabular
So what? Linux computers are not compliant, can not use wifi, or what? I don’t see how that prevents unlockable bootloaders, other than being used as an excuse by the manufacturers.
Any device that transmits radio frequencies wont be able to be sold in the EU.
The only way a manufacturer can be sure that won’t happen is to create their hardware such that it isn’t usable unless it can be sure its in an environment which won’t do that.
Currently, that would mean a machine running Secure Boot and Windows 11 using driver signing.
Linux wouldn’t be able to fake the verification to the hardware, due to not having the keys, and so could not create drivers for any hardware designed this way.
Hold up so theyre banning flippers and portapacks etc?
Oh yeah, almost certainly; and software defined radios of all types.
It’s a bullshit argument and this article is a classic example of a shitty journalist pretending that a new law overrules every other law in existence.
The whole smart phone thing is such a lesson in letting go of the rope.
Once you let corporations get away with a little, they will eventually take everything.
Every time we lost a bit of control me and a few of enthusiasts were screaming, but the regular populace just shrugged…
Even on reddit you’d have to argue with idiots “oh just use Bluetooth headphones! Oh who needs sd cards, just use the cloud! Oh who needs rooting, it’s not needed”
I swear to god if Windows / OS were invented today 80 of people would just shrug as all control of their PC was taken away.
I agree with essentially everything you’re saying but can’t wrap my head around the last sentence. Would you mind elaborating so I can add more fuel to my rage?
I think they mean that if the standard OS was Linux instead of Windows, and therefore everybody had full control of their computers, that if windows was suddenly released and installed on all pc’s instead of Linux, people would still shrug and be fine with it.
The Linux forums would probably be even more insufferable for a while, considering an influx of newbies to what’s basically a power user sphere.
Not an arch user clearly
He means that windows is built on a fairly open system that allows too to install and manage your own drivers, updates, etc. Over the last several years MS has been trying to lock this down and be more like a managed service/phone, not a computer you own.
If the PC were to be invented today, he’s saying it would be like a phone with limited freedom and most people wouldn’t care. He’s right and that’s sad. We take for granted what we have with older versions of Windows and Linux. It is being pulled away from us and that’s why I’m trying to move off of Windows instead of go to 11.
I feel like an open system starts with the hardware. It doesn’t help that we have open software if we don’t control the hardware that it is running on. Maybe that’s a thought of relevance for the future.
I have long contended that the computer industry is course-correcting with Android/iOS/mobile. They realized their prior “mistake” of letting people actually own, control, and modify their devices. Apple and iPhone is the worst in this regard.
Also, for any of said idiots who may be reading this. If you see someone bitching about functionality being removed that you yourself don’t need, the correct response is to just not respond. You don’t have to gargle corporations balls. Removing things isn’t making your phones cheaper/better. There’s no reason to defend it.
Some of those things have some minor benefit to some users. There are plenty of people who like the reduced thickness that removing some of those features provides.
The issue is that corporations like money, and the big money guy (apple) removed those things and made more money so all the other guys figured they could too if they just copied that. Now all of us have to deal with the reduced functionality and options.
it’s like modern chat clients. can’t do even 10% of the stuff a chat client could do 20 years ago and yet here we are. everyone on their fb messenger, and literal businesses refusing support tickets sent outside of metas platform.
Yeah, incredibly minor. My phone has all the features that have subsequently been removed from newer models and is still only 6mm thick. I have a case on it and it’s still fine. But regardless. If people want thinner phones without that stuff, fine, make them. What we are bitching about is that there are NO options with the functions we want and practically everything has the same minuscule feature set these days. We want a variety of choices.
Of course, I personally think the biggest failure of Android is the apple-ifying of the phone design. There are exceptions, but it feels like every flagship is trying to just make an android flavored iPhone.
Yea that’s what pissed me off the top of most. Google / Apple fanbois gargeling corporate balls
Isn’t that actually the case? I know of these issues. And around me, I talk about them (without being pushy I hope). At work, the privacy issues with windows are seen as glaring warnings. But beyond that… I’m pretty sure the vase majority of people don’t care. Some are probably even enthusiast to have a “new update”, having no idea what it means.
I’d argue that especially on Reddit, you’re always up against brigades, claques and other coordinated actors pushing corporate or state narratives on the naive parts of the populace. In hindsight, it’s really awfully obvious.
You’re absolutely right. It’s also incredibly susceptible to snowballing. The early votes matter the most on who’s opinion wins out, and those are super easy to rig.
Not a coincidence that this comes I to existence just after TPM requirements. They want to lock everyone into using only government approved software. The death of freedom and liberty.
As far as I know our contractual law prevent being liable for damage caused by users own usage of a hardware or software. This is why tor browser developers arent in trial as liable for some scams that some users do using their software - because of their contract policy. So this excuse is jot valid - they locked bootloader jot because they are obligated or fear trial just because they do not luke private os which prevent them from harvesesting users data
Potentially overreaching law is great excuse for an organization to make an unpopular change. Now it’s not their fault, they had to do it.
Yes, firstly they remove headphone jack because of “security protection” then they remove bootloader settings for “security protection” LOL
You will be secure and you will like it!
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Layman: “Does it have five gees or four like my old one?”
Chat message scanning can come in October, age verification is also introduced in various countries. Things are getting serious.
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WTF just happened in Europe in the last few months. We used to be some sort of (dimmly lit) beacon of user freedom and privacy considerations. Now, I know there’s been a push for new legislations that basically fuck individual privacy over, but last I checked it was just a proposal. And now we’re doing a fucking 1260° turn toward full stanglehold on everything.
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this is more or less the impression I get. Like all the shitheads are seeing just how much disgusting illegal shit trump is getting away with and thinking “I could do that too!”
I think it’s the rise of all the nazis - Lepens in France, Hitlerjugend Jimmy in Sweden, Orban,…
I’m not so sure about this. According to this article, in austria at least, it was the SPÖ (center) and ÖVP (center-conservative) parties that voted for surveillance, but the Grüne (greens/center-left) and FPÖ (far-right/nazis) that voted against it.
It would be far better to say the party that is bought and sold by corporations
Horrible ignorant propaganda infection to say this. Especially including Orban in your list. This is center, EU controlling, parties doing this. The “bad parties” are ultra conservative and anti immigrants, but their truly establishment-fear inducing characteristic is that they are anti-NATO warmongering. CDU, in Germany, has no problem imposing “populist” AfD inspired anti-immigration/muslim laws.
These laws/policies are not “populist fascism” support for oppressing liberals. No one is demanding their phones be locked, and supporting political candidates who will do this. This is just expansion of “Republicrat” establishment fascism that no one ever asked for.
You saying “this is all Putin’s fault” is just part of establishment fascist narrative of “you must be oppressed by war only budget, or Russia wins”.
There’s also this article from yesterday: Austria legalises state spyware amidst strong opposition
i wonder what changed. these regulations are certainly a threat. they justified it with the “threat of (islamistic) terrorism”, though i don’t know what’s really going on there.
Big war in 2027
feddit.org/post/16373509
What’s really worrying me is this:
<img alt="" src="https://discuss.tchncs.de/pictrs/image/ce540e8f-a6ca-46ef-ac5a-a647464c6681.webp">
i.e. wars are waged because somebody is bored
As funny as the comic is, I am convinced that it will never get to that point, because an asshole with a thirst for power will always exist and be stronger than a bored asshole. Therefore war will keep, as it has always been, being motivated by power.
Lame, not boring. Some people believe in war.
Supposedly this time it was pride that has prevented peace, I would say on both sides.
With Russia on Nato’s side, there would be another Eight-Nation Alliance and China would be split, however ethical that would be.
feddit.org/post/16410454/8030302
I think at the deepest level the elite still believes in the Iliad and they want this war.
I mean, Mexico has never been a beacon of privacy or regulations (just for super specific technologies that were implemented first, mostly banking ones), but the government has also been pushing weird changes to how they handle surveillance and personal identifications, giving more power to the authorities while they’re exempt for most of the transparency laws (everything they do, even public infrastructure is managed as some kind of ‘state secret’).
I am scared.
Wait, what does that mean for USB LTE devices? Devices that you can attack to a desktop computer to give you mobile internet. Last time i checked, they’re widely available.
Would these become illegal as well?
IIRC they’re already doing this in China. I got hold of a chinese phone a while ago, and there was no way to install your own OS on it, you just had to use what came pre-installed, and i don’t know how much state-sponsored surveillance was on that.
Are people still doing this? Android is pretty open these days as stock
Is it?
Android uses Apache License 2.0, which means vendors can modify and distribute without publishing their modifications, like include proprietary blobs and other proprietary code.
It’s like using Google Chrome instead of Chromium.
Yes you can debloat the system, but many system apps can’t be disabled without breaking the system, and ROMs based on AOSP the code can be reviewed or modified and built it yourself.
Xiaomi and mostly stock ROMs these days come bundled with ads, and apps that collect user data, even with debloat or DNS blackhole isn’t 100% private or better than a custom ROM.
That’s why Graphene and CalyxOS exist.
Graphene and CalyxOS are not long for this non-unlockable bootloader world
Android is far less open than it has ever been.
Wait - is this about all radio devices or only mobile connectivity ones?
I.e., is WiFi affected as well? Or does it only affect internet that you access through your carrier?
The article says:
Which technically would also affect WiFi.
Good luck applying this sorta lockdown to PCs.
Secure boot force enabled with preset certificates would essentially do that.
Except that would require a rewrite of the PC spec which I’m not sure would work out too well given the existence of loose mainboards for custom builds which ship with no OS by default and expect you to supply the OS yourself, ditto for niche manufacturers like Framework who also offer the option of letting you supply your own OS.
Some systems can bypass secure boot
Only if the motherboard vendor allows you to. Imagine buying a Dell or Asus laptop and being forced to only run Windows.
So on most motherboards secure boot is just fake secure boot to satisfy windows?
No. Thankfully (at the moment) vendors are allowing us to install other OSes, but if a vendor really wanted to lock you down to Windows all they’d need to do is hide one option in the bios. I’m uncomfortable with the idea that there’s no technical reason preventing the PC industry from getting as locked down as Android phones did over time.
I seem to recall owning a microsoft tablet that could not have secure boot disabled. Why do you suppose it would be hard when (much like phones) there are already products (like chromebooks) that have done this?
Forcing SecureBoot platform-wide would kill the loose PC parts market.
Loose mainboards don’t ship with an OS by default and typically ship with SecureBoot disabled by default as well, it would be pretty hard to force an OS on something that has no OS installed by default unless it’s forced in ROM.
Although, I suppose lose PC parts could simply be banned and custom PC builds could be criminalized, and only completely soldered-down prebuilts could be legally allowed to be sold in their borders with force-enabled SecureBoot and Pluton blocking non-Windows OSes.
…Right as the EU is trying to get away from Windows for their government stuff.
Do any “ROMs” or linuxes do this? Seems like you could get an “illegal USB bluetooth/wifi dongle” for shenanigans purposes instead. This all seems like such a pointless distraction that can only be to ensure that manufacturer backdoors are ensured as unescapable.
I have never installed a ROM that touched the radio.
In fact most ROMs I’ve used warned against touching the radio because of the risk of damaging the device.
sorry for Gemini link to prompt below, but google itself doesn’t provide any top page links to answering the question, or questions about “software wifi to radio conversion”. GrapheneOS does not provide the functionality. Seems like only process to transmit/receive at a different band is to use hardware that bridges from wifi signal to radio signal.
It is generally not possible to directly modify the WiFi frequency on a smartphone to an arbitrary frequency. Smartphones are designed to operate within the standard WiFi frequency bands (2.4 GHz and 5 GHz) and their corresponding channels. While you can influence which band your phone connects to (e.g., prioritizing 5 GHz for faster speeds), you can’t arbitrarily set the frequency. Why you can’t set an arbitrary frequency: Hardware limitations: Smartphones are built with hardware that supports specific frequency ranges (2.4 GHz and 5 GHz in most cases). Protocol compliance: WiFi communication relies on specific protocols (like 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax) that are tied to these standard frequency bands. Router configuration: While you can configure your router to broadcast different SSIDs for each band (e.g., “MyWiFi_2.4GHz” and “MyWiFi_5GHz”), the phone’s connection is still limited to the supported frequencies. What you CAN do: Prioritize a band: You can influence which band your phone connects to by adjusting settings on the phone (if available) or by configuring your router to have separate SSIDs for each band. Choose the right band: For faster speeds, prioritize the 5 GHz band when it’s available. For better range and wall penetration, the 2.4 GHz band is better. Optimize router settings: Ensure your router is set up to broadcast on the desired bands and consider channel selection for optimal performance. In short, while you can influence the band your phone connects to, you cannot arbitrarily set the WiFi frequency on your smartphone.
After RTFAing, this seems to be Samsung just using an excuse to lock down their phone, rather than any specific order from EU telling them to.
PC Computers are next
This is why the big deal with TPM
Why TPM is never a removable security device
Why you can’t save your old PC with a usb TPM device,
even though they are low power serial text devices
And TPM itself is just the thin side of the wedge.
It will grow more and more capable as an encrypted instructions processor
Eventually applications will run enough of their code
as encrypted instructions that they will become impossible to pirate.
This means application on your offline computer will be just as revocable as cloud application
and they will no longer be transferable, cryptographically tied to the processor core
Here is a taste of the future
You CAN’T Jailbreak Your PC
The days of “it’s my hardware, I’ll run what I want” are over.
TPM 2.0, Secure Boot, and Microsoft Pluton are forming a closed execution environment.
Try to run an unsigned OS, and it will simply refuse to boot.
Your motherboard no longer listens to you.
It listens to Microsoft and OEMs.
You Will Own Nothing, and Even That Nothing Is Tied to Your Old PC
TPM stores your encryption keys in a non-exportable way.
Your files, apps, and even your OS activation are now bound to your specific machine.
Want to move them to another system?
Too bad. The TPM won’t let you.
Even if you own both devices.
Installing Linux Will Be Illegal (Functionally, If Not Yet Legally)
Secure Boot + Remote Attestation is the death knell for freedom-focused OSes.
Digital preservation will be technically impossible.
Encrypted execution + hardware-tied software =
No way to archive.
No way to emulate.
No way to restore.
Games, apps, creative tools, all gone when the keys expire or the vendor shuts down.
It’s like that Apple ad crushing musical instruments but for your entire digital life
adage.com/video/crush-ipad-pro-apple/ (I couldn’t find it unedited on youtube sorry)
You Have No Mouth and Can’t Say NO
Vendor lock-in is no longer a commercial strategy.
It’s cryptographic reality.
Because your software won’t run without it.
A hardware-enforced, cryptographically sealed cage.
If we don’t fight back, there will be no root access left to reclaim.
What a fucking bleak run down. But it is the direction things are barreling towards.
Writing this the warning of Cory Doctorow about an upcoming “War on General Computing” was ringing in my head !
And also this video
www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EmstuO0Em8
But he doesn’t talk about the TPM and cryptoprocessor threat or the “war on general computing”, it was in another video that I can’t find right now
I also can’t find the Apple Ad where they crush a piano and other instruments of creation under a giant press to make an ipad
I remember seeing that ad. It was super depressing. I hate what the tech world is coming to, why my next phone will be a dumb phone, I’m trying to buy dvds and keeping my circa 2017 vehicle running for as long as possible
The future is here but it’s not evenly distributed.
Hopefully we can stay alive in the future’s shadow.
But if it doesn’t run Linux I am not going to buy it
Microsoft is fine if you don’t buy computers anymore
It won’t miss you in particular
This is what’s going to happen with PCs
lemmy.ml/post/33992840/20208076
And the Linux foundation will just sit by letting it happen? Or Valve for that matter, they appear to have anticipated this risk over a decade ago.
RISC-V’s time to shine! (IIRC it is open source instruction set).
RISC-V you are our only hope,
only use open source BIOS
Never factory bootloader-lock !
And time to hold on to old devices. They’ll become like old cars: the only ones the owner can fully control.
Storage and processors don’t last forever. As parts break down, you won’t be able to replace them. Need a new hard drive? Sorry, it’ll only talk to motherboards that shake its hand.
It is an open source architecture but it doesn’t prevent the OEM from adding anything to it to prevent user from doing anything on it. They can add TPM, locked bootloader with fixed signing key stored on board. They can add microprocessor inaccessible to anyone but OEM. They can add spyware, malware. All this without any need for declaring it or need to make it open source.
The only change RISC V brings is there is no need to pay for a hardware architecture, benefitting the manufacturer. Rather than bringing freedom to the user.
Yes, Valve saw this possibility back in the days of Windows 8
But look at phones, the supply chains mostly delivery bootloader locked and unlockable devices.
And now the latest windows require TPM 2.0
It requires TPM 2.0 to be married to the CPU, non user removable
Microsoft Pluton is an early version of a crypto processor.
They are putting the pieces in place slowly
and they have all kinds of good reasons
“why this isn’t something you should worry about”
They probably want that, but also at the same time, that would kill software development.
Only approved AIs and humans carrying a corporately issued developer license will be allowed to develop software.
They would like it if only their employees were the only priesthood of all software development
Is this also the end of Software-Defined Radio in Europe?
and by extension possibly secure router firmware like OpenWRT too?
And meshnets that don’t go through corporate infrastructure?
Yes, good example!
The EU is pretty disappointing.
Did you read the directive? eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2014/53/oj/eng
what an utter bullshit! will the manufacturer be also directly held liable if someone uses a phone of their brand to make a picture about me without authorization! of fucking course not!
fuck samsung, and all the manufacturers that follow suit, because this is just not needed.
but also fuck the red directive’s decision makers for their unsatiable creep of wanting ever more power over our devices! this is exactly like saying, that there is this illegal thing, and if you are not doing it, but just have the slightest ability to do it, that is also illegal. what the actual fuck! get off my fucking phone you scumbags!!
This is really badly written, and that particularly annoys me because the subject matter is actually important.
Oh. I better make no mistake and update to Oneui 8 when it comes in my phone.
Do these stupid legislators not understand when they are being played for fools? Who gets to such a position without knowing what protectionism is? Unless it’s simple corruption?
Lately I’m more and more disappointed in EU legislations. Especially having to live with them…
EU went from frontrunner of internet privacy to asking for a gooner license.
It’s up to us to keep it free. It is one of the last lights in this world, and it must NOT go out!
There’s so many lobby groups and national interests pulling in various directions that it’s not really surprising to have both simultaneously.
TBH I’m still surprised GDPR ever made it through against the cries of every corporation on earth.
I mean, this is corporations using decent regulations as an excuse to do something they’ve probably already wanted to do.
Some of you need to become Politicians, I’m being genuine here
I don’t understand why the user doing what they want to their own possessions has any impact on the original manufacturer.
Samsung isn’t selling flashed devices as far as I know…
Has anyone verified what this article says?
Here’s the directive in question: eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2014/53/oj/eng It doesn’t seem to imply what the article implies.
Also, here are some things from the discussion on HN
I think it’s Samsung that interpreted the rule at their advantage in a way that sends more devices to the landfill
<img alt="" src="https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/9ab81363-8cfb-4172-8e12-932d5c3e9b35.gif">
“This scenario has therefore led Samsung to protect its devices.”
oh golly, poor korean mafia.
I hate the fact that the more technologically literate you are, the more you run away from it.
A smartphone with latest android, Gemini, google pay, a smartwatch, ChatGPT and a smart home?
Nope, I would rather have a Linux phone that is mostly incompatible with what is expected of modern smartphones, no AI please! Google pay? Only cash or monero! My watch is very smart, it can telle the time for a few years without a recharge, and nothing else!
Luckily now, the hardware is advanced enough that a linux phone is on the edge of being viable. If I can’t unlock a bootloader and compile my own android rom, I won’t be using Android. What’s interesting the open source alternative, like fdroid is really fully replacing the play store for me.
I am currently on Android as well, but in recent months with more and more OEMs disabling unlocking the bootloader, and google somewhat abandoning AOSP, it seriously seems like my next phone would be a Linux one, which is cool but it sucks.