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Why don't cell phones have BIOS? (self.technology)

submitted 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) by obbeel to c/technology@lemmy.world

45 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Why, instead of safely entering a BIOS setup, does the cell phone brick when installing the Custom ROM wrongly? Wouldn't this protection be better for users? I mean, this could be done through ADB.

Also, do you think it's possible that this way of doing things will come to the computer, with ARM hoping to gain a good share of the market and all?

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[–] kent_eh@lemmy.ca 30 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Phones just don't have UEFI, because 99.999% of the time it will run only one operating system: the manufacturer's flavor of Android.

And the manufacturers very much want to keep it that way.

They do not want you to be able to make those changes, and intentionallyput roadblocks in your way.

[–] aodhsishaj@lemmy.world 13 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

Unified Extensible Firmware Interface isn't how we spell planned obsolescence and that doesn't add up to infinite profit sooooo yeah.

Can't have you replacing the OS on that thing. Adding security patches and a new battery on that. Just wouldn't be fair to us billionaires and our R&D department. We have to justify all this labor somehow.

[–] Mjpasta710@midwest.social 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

You can replace the OS on most Android devices.

Specifically- devices made by Google have been unlocked allowing replacement of the software.

You still have to put together a working kernel and drivers, environment, etc.

Not much stopping folks from doing that though.

GrapheneOS, Ubuntu, and others have made headway for some devices.

Each device potentially uses different hardware implementation and features.

[–] aodhsishaj@lemmy.world 4 points 4 months ago

Graphene is targeting only google pixel devices.

Ubuntu touch and Ubuntu phone have been picked up by I think postmarketOS

I think AOSP is the best bet for the largest majority of Android users.

Kernel dev is a fun hobby.

[–] Mjpasta710@midwest.social 11 points 4 months ago

Or, maybe writing firmware and code that doesn't make money is the opposite of profit.

Where is the incentive to write code that reduces security and costs money they won't recover ?