On 12/05/2011 11:44 AM, [email protected] wrote:
Consider, however, exactly what you're talking about here:  You're
granting random code, written by "someone", to run as root on a device
with no real administrator tools, which holds all your phone numbers and
email accounts, and can directly cause you to lose money (ie, a
premium-txt dialing trojan).  It's totally possible for a root app from
the market to install undetectable crap in your phone, and it can be
nearly impossible to get RID of that crap later.  Root enables
everything up to kernel modules and from that point the sky is the
limit.

While we're ranting: this is one of the major reasons I don't like the so-called "smartphones". Sure, you've paid whatever jacked-up price for the device, but you really don't have the right to use the device which YOU PAID FOR as you see fit. They gouge you for fees, yet you probably don't even own the rights to YOUR OWN data. Sorry, the thing that brought me into the FLOSS community is probably *more* open specifications than it is open source. I'm not a programmer, so the code itself is less use *personally*, but the practice of openly and freely documented data and file specifications benefits me every day. I've been at too many companies where their data, etc were locked in proprietary formats, and somehow the locked-down format of smartphones seems a few dangerous steps backwards.

The idea that you have to hack your smartphone (or any other similar device) to gain functionality that by all rights should have been yours in the first place is simply unacceptable.

_______________________________________________
Mid-Hudson Valley Linux Users Group                  http://mhvlug.org
http://mhvlug.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mhvlug

Upcoming Meetings (6pm - 8pm)                         MHVLS Auditorium
 Dec 7 - An Intro to Chef
 Jan 4 - Recovering the Brownfield: Revitalizing Open Source Projects
 Feb 1 - Home Networking Made Simple with Amahi Home Server

Reply via email to