On Tue, Jun 3, 2008 at 12:07 PM, ffm <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Why were G1G1 machines shipped with firmware, kernel, and reflash locks > enabled? (see http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Developer_keys ) > > Theft is not a good reason, as they do not require activation leases. > > It only seems to be a bother for people who want to help out with the OLPC > project.
The original reason is that it allowed our G1G1 users to more fully exercise/test our secure boot paths, which are used in our deployment countries. This helps G1G1 users be more representative testers, and did successfully flush out security logistics issues like the ones you seem to be complaining about before they became a big issue for deployment countries. A secondary consideration was that secure boot is tied to "pretty boot", since we assume that if you are a developer you won't be scared of boot messages. A non-tech-team charge was to ensure that G1G1 machines looked pretty while booting. This seems trivial to us, but was in fact a big concern for non-developers involved in the program. These issues can probably be revisited before a second G1G1 program, but my personal feeling is that we eventually do have to make the antitheft security stuff "just work" and not get in ordinary people's way (if you're a developer, you should be able to acquire a developer key easily and you should do so). Having G1G1 use a subset of these features allows more extensive testing and thus helps us produce better software for deployment countries. So, contrary to your statement that "it only seems to be a bother for people who want to help out with the OLPC project", having security enabled is one of the direct ways that people who want to help out *are in fact already doing so*. [And complaining about security when it gets in your way, within reason, is also directly helping out. =) ] G1G1 has always had slightly mixed goals, because N% of the people buying G1G1 machines are developers, and ~(100-N)% are parents or grandparents of small children. I believe N is well below 50%, based on devel@ traffic. Machines sent out via our developer program are always shipped out unsecured. We assume that G1G1 developers have the ability to request a developer key and disable security, and we recommend they do so; the security features are not meant for them. --scott -- ( http://cscott.net/ ) _______________________________________________ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel