mttc If the law would really prohibit getting root permissions on my PC, that would be a disaster and should not be accepted by any owner or company. On mobile devices it seems to go in this direction, which would mean passing root permissions to big companies in the US or China.
The original post was speculation that a EU directive about radio firmware would force makers of phones to lock their bootloaders. My point was that laptops contain radio firmware too. The EU directive does not appear to contain an exemption for laptops. So if some people believe that the EU directive about radio firmware requires phones to have locked bootloaders (to be clear, I do not believe this), then those people should also believe that the EU directive requires laptops to have locked bootloaders. If some people believe that the EU directive does not require laptops to have locked bootloaders, then I would encourage those people to also believe that the EU directive does not require phones to have locked bootloaders.
mttc First manufacturers start dropping the possibility to Unlock bootloaders such as Samsung, Oppo, Xiaomi.
Over the years some phones have had unlockable bootloaders and others have not. That was true before this EU directive and, so far, appears to be continuing despite the EU directive (I believe I have read that the Pixel 10 bootloader is unlockable).
Overall:
- The text of the EU directive does not appear to require locked bootloaders on phones, on laptops, or on anything else.
- Both before and after the EU directive, some phones have unlockable bootloaders and others don't.
So I believe the premise of the original post is incorrect and it's not clear there is any need for further discussion along those lines.