End of an era if true. I certainly won't be buying a Xiaomi phone again if so.
Which manufacturers currently support bootloader unlocking?
EDIT: I'll answer my own question and include Motorola, although the custom rom scene looks a bit sparse.
this post was submitted on 07 Oct 2024
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I think OnePlus still does.
Pixel
Well this has been one of the major selling points for me with Xiaomi. Always looked at the custom ROM and modding scene, like it is not just getting stock ROM, it is having freedom to do to your device what you want. Like applying a firmware that undervolts your CPU for better battery life
If y'all are missing the trend, let me spell it out.
The corporate vision of the future is rent and subscriptions everything. Own nothing and be under their complete control. End encryption, end software and hardware freedom to any usable degree.
Google will eventually follow suit and then... I guess grapheneos will move but for how long?
I'm really worried for the future of FOSS.
they seem to want to kill it so hard. how can we stop it?
Genuinely I don't know. I'm studying Physics and Computer Engineering for this purpose. I obviously can't change the world alone but hopefully others do as able to make a change.
Legislation is #1 but it seems all our politicians are bought and even the good ones get corrupted. Decentralization seems to be the best bet. But hardware is so utterly centralized because of its complexity and of course greed and monopolies.
I don't even know how it would be possible, but maybe one day we could have something like consumer grade fabricators and electronics made out of materials that are 3d printable. Again, I'm not knowledgeable yet to understand if this is even a remote possibility but... It would be cool.
Oh well.
At least it's a good motivation for me to go for a more sustainable device in the future like a Fairphone even though these do come with their own issues. But of a shame though, this Redmi Note 8 was my favorite phone and the good experience would have drawn me to Xiaomi again, but the official support has long ended so without bootloader unlocking, this perfectly working device would have become e-waste long ago for security reasons. Unbelievable how much value I got out of this 130€ phone.
I remember when Android was new, one big argument in its favor was that custom ROMs existed. It makes only little sense to me manufacturers want to get rid of that option, except for the part that this ensures that you can't remove the bloatware from their devices anymore.
I wonder why they're doing this? I don't miss the era of locked bootloaders, though I preferred that to the modern difficulty of passing safetynet checks with root. Lately that's a bigger problem than bootloader unlocking ever was iirc.