There should be a legal requirement to make documentation available for all unsupported Chromebooks to unlock the boot loader and allow for installing an alternative OS. Furthermore, they should be required to release engineering docs.
They should also be required to support it for X (exact time is up for debate) years after they stop selling it so you have some minimum amount of time that you know the device will be supported for no matter when you buy it.
And not just software vendors, but chip and board manufacturers with at least security fixes for at least the same length of time, but maybe like X+2 years to account for devices being released after the initial components
You want to lock down bootloaders and installed software while you’re supporting it? It depends on how you manage it how much I like or dislike it. But any software on a device you don’t support should automatically enter public domain and you should be required to unlock it.
There should be a legal requirement to make documentation available for all unsupported Chromebooks to unlock the boot loader and allow for installing an alternative OS. Furthermore, they should be required to release engineering docs.
They should also be required to support it for X (exact time is up for debate) years after they stop selling it so you have some minimum amount of time that you know the device will be supported for no matter when you buy it.
And not just software vendors, but chip and board manufacturers with at least security fixes for at least the same length of time, but maybe like X+2 years to account for devices being released after the initial components
And Android and whatever else.
You want to lock down bootloaders and installed software while you’re supporting it? It depends on how you manage it how much I like or dislike it. But any software on a device you don’t support should automatically enter public domain and you should be required to unlock it.
@housepanther @Remontoire this but covering all devices
Agreed, though I thought that all ChromeOS devices could be bootloader unlocked.
That could very well be the case and I could be wrong. I kind of operated under the assumption that Chromebooks are heavily locked down.
More information on ChromeOS devices and developer mode.