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While I wholeheartedly agree that unlocking a bootloader and leaving
instructions for rooting a device in a pastebin do not constitute a
warm embrace of the FOSS ideal, I would vote with my wallet to
support (small) steps in this direction by RIM. Yes, Android
presents an open and extensible framework for making the device
your own, but this community didn't appear overnight. It took
several years to develop to the point where now hardware vendors
like HTC provide tools to unlock devices in the field. The key is
to have the mod community reach a critical mass where the people who
produce the devices recognize and respect the modders. As you point
out very nicely below, this does not require a very large community
as the modders tend to be the 'tech gatekeepers/advisors/support' of
their immediate social circles: spouses, kids, parents, relatives,
neighbours...<br>
<br>
Of course, to truly win over the modders, one has to allow more than
changing wallpaper and moving icons- they will want at the guts of
the system. I can understand that RIM might not want to allow too
much tinkering with the internals of its messaging system and that's
OK. In fact, I can see this as an opening where they can have two
lines of products: the fully-locked enterprise device and the
unlocked, hackable dev device. Same hardware, same base software,
where the dev community does the beta work and vets (much needed)
new ideas for the enterprise line (think Red Hat/Fedora). Possibly
the switch to QNX will allow for this kind of bifurcation with a
codebase the community can get its hands on. Certainly a change in
approach along these lines will turn a lot more heads on the release
of BB10 than just casting yet another candy-bar phone into the sea
of options.<br>
<br>
The question is if there are sufficiently many interested modders to
take up this kind of project even if the corporate side gives them
all the tools. It sounds much like the last days of Palm, no?
Maybe there really is room for only one "open" mobile device OS - an
argument I do not buy. Definitely, a change of this scale would
have been easier to push through with 20% market share.<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
On 07/24/2012 05:12 PM, Chris Irwin wrote:<br>
<span style="white-space: pre;">><br>
>> Background: working for RIM, I'm looking for evidence to
show bosses that<br>
>> we should sell unlocked devices.<br>
>><br>
><br>
> Sim unlocked, or bootloader unlocked?<br>
><br>
> If the former, I'm seriously surprised RIM doesn't sell SIM
unlocked<br>
> devices.<br>
><br>
> If the latter... WAIT, let me put a disclaimer in here:<br>
><br>
> ***<br>
> I know RIM is a great Canadian company, and employs lots of
people local to<br>
> this list (and probably a few on it). RIM has some
interesting technology,<br>
> I'll admit that. I have a couple friends that work there,
too. So I don't<br>
> mean this to sound as harsh as it may come across in text.
But in the<br>
> interest of it hopefully sounding like constructive
criticism, I'll offer<br>
> my opinion.<br>
> ***<br>
><br>
> It will take a lot more than an unlocked bootloader to
interest me in a RIM<br>
> device. What benefit would there be? When I was shopping for
my phone,<br>
> there was never a moment that I considered an iPhone, Windows
Phone or<br>
> Blackberry, and it wasn't due to bootloaders. Even though
actual Android<br>
> development (and WebOS until nowish) was not steered or
influenced by the<br>
> community, it was still open enough to play and change
things. Android is<br>
> almost entirely open, which allows for some great
customizations and<br>
> changes. Sure a few parts of WebOS were closed source, but
the technology<br>
> used (the entire UI was HTML+Javascript) and open &
common components<br>
> (Linux, Pulseaudio, etc) allowed some great modifications and
changes, even<br>
> if somewhat more limited than with android.<br>
><br>
> I could never grab the source and recompile my kernel on a
blackberry. Or<br>
> build a customized version of the OS that adds new features
(look at<br>
> Cyanogenmod, or any other ROM, and compare it to AOSP).<br>
><br>
> As a person who wants to tinker with his toys, Blackberry
offers none of<br>
> the stuff that interests me. Open bootloaders wouldn't change
that --<br>
> Unless Android/OpenWebOS/something-interesting was ported,
and I doubt<br>
> there would be enough interest to hack together drivers (it's
hard enough<br>
> getting android running well on a touchpad, or getting ICS
running on GB<br>
> devices, and those had code dumps!).<br>
><br>
> To put it a different way (I haven't seen a car analogy
lately): Why bother<br>
> opening the hood if I still can't change the oil.<br>
><br>
> Now, granted you can say "Well you're not the mass market
consumer", and<br>
> you're right. But folks like myself have influence on those
mass market<br>
> consumers: my Mom, for example, has a Galaxy S2 (SIM locked,
bootloader<br>
> locked, no root. Hackable, but not the point). She actually
was also<br>
> considering the blackberry (torch? the touchy/slidey one),
particularly<br>
> because she could BBM with people at work. But after
discussing how if she<br>
> ever has trouble I can only help her with an Android device,
that pretty<br>
> quickly changed her mind toward getting the S2 and a SMS
package instead.<br>
> She doesn't care about locks or root, but she does care about
having a<br>
> device that she knows is good, and I literally had no
experience or advice<br>
> I could offer toward the blackberry. She didn't want to
experiment with her<br>
> money and be reliant on tech support for help.<br>
><br>
> My wife got a Galaxy Note (ditto on locks) instead of an
iPhone for a<br>
> similar reason, and she's an exclusively apple/itunes/ipod
user. That<br>
> should be the easiest sale you can possibly get! But she
wasn't willing to<br>
> risk spending a considerable amount of money on a device she
might not like<br>
> (especially since she'd have to live with a smug "Gee, that's
too bad.<br>
> Works fine here").<br>
><br>
> So because RIM and Apple don't cater to me, there were
*three* sales that<br>
> went to Android (side note: My mom was previously a very
happy Palm Pre<br>
> user. Guess why.). Also, they'll have those phones for three
years until<br>
> their contracts expire. In the last three years I've
purchased three phones<br>
> and two tablets, and am considering a third. But no, I'm not
a mass market<br>
> person, I'm *five* of them :)<br>
><br>
><br>
><br>
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