this post was submitted on 12 Mar 2026
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Sigh. I haven't actually run a non-standard firmware for a while now, but I'm finding the mindset of a lot of these big companies exhausting, the relentless push for them to control every aspect of everything. Particularly when they're charging huge amounts for the device and to my mind at least can't claim they've somehow subsidised the hardware.
The only answer is regulation. We need laws that say, if you own a device, you can do anything you want to it, including wipe it, hack it, resell it, etc.
If they want to control your device, or lease it to you provided you pay a monthly fee, etc, they need to say "Lease", "Rent" or similar, not buy.
And they shouldn't be able to void your warranty for it - voids should be limited to the parts of the device you mess with. Like, if you flash your phone, they should be able to say, we can't give you support, including how to re-install the original OS...but if your battery fails and it shocks you, they should have to replace the battery under a warranty.
We also need laws that say, if you pay for a device, that device itself, can't have ads. So like, when talking about Android TV boxes, they can put recommendations on the homepage, but not ads, and those recommendations can't be paid. Now, if you open youtube, they can make you watch ads.
Yeah I agree! In general, a product should be either software or hardware, and companies shouldn't have say on the other one. If you're selling hardware (phone, TV, computer) you have no right to lock the software. If you're selling software (apps, games), you have no right to lock it to a specific hardware.