I’d like to think I’m buying the device, not a seat to use the device, at least if I do not want to use their software.

You can't have that with phones. You are always at the mercy of the hardware supplier and their trusted boot chain that starts with the actual phone processor (the one running GSM stuff, not user interface stuff). That one is always locked down and decides to boot you fancy android stuff.

The fact that it's locked down and remotely killable is a feature that people pay for and regulators enforce from their side too.

At the very best, the supplier plays nice and allows you to run your own applications, remove whatever crap they preinstalled and change to font face. If you are really lucky, you can choose to run practically useless linux distribution instead of practically useful linux distribution with their blessing. Blessing is a transient thing that can be revoked any time.

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the8472 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Not true on the pinephone, the modem is a peripheral module, so the boot chain does not start with it.

	▲	userbinator 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Nor the Mediatek platforms as far as I know (very familiar with the MT65xx and MT67xx series; not sure about anything newer or older, except MT62xx which also boots --- from NOR flash --- the AP first.)

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RobotToaster 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> You can't have that with phones.

Why not?

Obviously we don't have that. But what stops an open firmware (or even open hardware) GSM modem being built?

	▲	fragmede 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		There are some open firmware, or partially open firmware projects, but they're more proof-of-concepts and not popular/widely-used. The problem is the FCC or corresponding local organization requires cell phones get regulatory approval, and open firmware (where just anybody could just download the source and modify a couple of numbers to violate regulations) doesn't jive with that. https://hackaday.com/2022/07/12/open-firmware-for-pinephone-...

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direwolf20 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

The GSM processor is often a separate chip. You may have read an article about the super spooky NSA backdoor processor that really controls your phone, but it's just a GSM processor. Connecting via PCIe may allow it to compromise the application processor if compromised itself, but so can a broadcom WiFi chip.

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rvba 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Of course you can have that.

The governments can ban this feature and ban companies from selling devices with that.