https://www.salesiancollege.in/eu-enforces-android-bootloader-restrictions-from-august-1/ suggests EU directive 2014/53/EU prohibits bootloader unlocking as of a few days ago.
For me and probably quite a few others, this comes out of left field.
Is it as dire as it sounds? Anyone know more?
Found grapheneOS’s view on this - they don’t expect issues based on this.
(salesian college looks like a regurgitating content farm or something to tip news crawlers)
this here is a sane version for german speakers or straight wikipedia (EN). This was in the news ~2019/2020-ish with FSFE / OpenWrt comments.
This article:
https://tweakers.net/reviews/13604/makers-van-custom-roms-luiden-noodklok-europese-commissie-moet-ingrijpen.html
Seems to go in another direction, getting the EU to force bootloader unlocking from manufacturers!
It also mentions that Samsung removed the option to unlock the bootloader, is that true? Would be quite a thing…
According to different sources it’s true that Samsung removed this option in their new version. This also means if you update now on an existing device to the new version of Samsung, you will never be able to install an alternative ROM on these devices later. You buy it now and it’s locked basically forever.
Regarding an intervention by the European Union, I wouldn’t count on that. It’s just a statement/whish by some of the open source alternative ROM producers and I don’t know how well they are heared by the legislators. It looks more like a lengthy legal battle against these big companies.
I was always a happy user of Samsung smartphones because I like the hardware, but in the long run I think it’s no longer sustainable to support this company.
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