NO Root For Note 5 or Galaxy S6 Edge + EVER! Thanks To Knox!

[pc747]

I have the Note 4, and I follow it closely. As of now, there is NO permenant root, only temp. The Developer version is the only one to have perm root, because of its unlocked bootloader.

I wish the Note 4 had perm root, but I honestly don't see it happening. So it looks like I'm going to move to the new Nexus 6, or the Moto X Pure.

Well if you want a good camera then the Moto X Pure may be the way to go as I am seeing reviews putting it up there with the Galaxy 6 and iPhone 6. I doubt the Nexus will have a good camera as nexus devices have not been known for their cameras. But then again Motorola was not known for their cameras either and apparently put out a good camera. So it is possible that the Nexus 6P could do the same.

 

[akhenax]

I think it's a good thing that Samsung Knox prevents root.
1. This is a what a secure phone should do, prevent people from gaining control over sensitive data if the phone is stolen.
2. I know what phone not to buy if I want to root.

If company XYZ gives employee a phone to use for work, and company puts certain things in place to protect their IP, then a user should not circumvent that with root.

 

[Sydman]

I kind of agree with everyone. Yes Knox enabled devices should prevent root, however, we should be able to control turning Knox on/off and do what we want to the devices we pay ~ 700 for.

Although I also agree that rooting is not as important as it used to be. Coming from a Nexus 6 with rooting and flashing the updates, it is kind of nice having a device I can just use and it runs great.

Still, principles dictate that I paid for the phone, and should be able to do whatever I want with it (as the FCC has ruled in our favor). It is like if they prevented people from doing those drop test, or scratch videos, we can break them if we wish.

 

[mountainbikermark]

I kind of agree with everyone. Yes Knox enabled devices should prevent root, however, we should be able to control turning Knox on/off and do what we want to the devices we pay ~ 700 for.

Although I also agree that rooting is not as important as it used to be. Coming from a Nexus 6 with rooting and flashing the updates, it is kind of nice having a device I can just use and it runs great.

Still, principles dictate that I paid for the phone, and should be able to do whatever I want with it (as the FCC has ruled in our favor). It is like if they prevented people from doing those drop test, or scratch videos, we can break them if we wish.

Unless I slept through another ruling they only said carriers unlock cross carrier ability, not boot loader.

Support Our Troops !!!
<><
Beast Mode 4

 

[Sydman]

Unless I slept through another ruling they only said carriers unlock cross carrier ability, not boot loader.

Support Our Troops !!!
<><
Beast Mode 4

Was not talking about boot loader, was talking specifically about root. I thought they made it not illegal to root your device for software purposes.

"Computer programs that enable wireless telephone handsets to execute lawfully obtained software applications, where circumvention is accomplished for the sole purpose of enabling interoperability of such applications with computer programs on the telephone handset."

 

[akhenax]

I kind of agree with everyone. Yes Knox enabled devices should prevent root, however, we should be able to control turning Knox on/off and do what we want to the devices we pay ~ 700 for.

Still, principles dictate that I paid for the phone, and should be able to do whatever I want with it (as the FCC has ruled in our favor). It is like if they prevented people from doing those drop test, or scratch videos, we can break them if we wish.

I use to agree with that @Sydman . Now, I'm thinking, that if you paid for a phone that didn't have or was not suppose to have root capability, or a phone with a locked bootloader, then you got what you paid for.

I would rather pay for what I want, a phone that can be rooted.

 

[pc747]

I think it's a good thing that Samsung Knox prevents root.
1. This is a what a secure phone should do, prevent people from gaining control over sensitive data if the phone is stolen.
2. I know what phone not to buy if I want to root.

If company XYZ gives employee a phone to use for work, and company puts certain things in place to protect their IP, then a user should not circumvent that with root.

I kind of agree with everyone. Yes Knox enabled devices should prevent root, however, we should be able to control turning Knox on/off and do what we want to the devices we pay ~ 700 for.

Although I also agree that rooting is not as important as it used to be. Coming from a Nexus 6 with rooting and flashing the updates, it is kind of nice having a device I can just use and it runs great.

Still, principles dictate that I paid for the phone, and should be able to do whatever I want with it (as the FCC has ruled in our favor). It is like if they prevented people from doing those drop test, or scratch videos, we can break them if we wish.

You guys both make good points. But akhenax brought up a good point I didn't think about before in that if a company buy a phone for its employees. With BlackBerry no longer being the goto for corporate phones and apple cleaning up. Samsung wants a piece of that money. And for a company phone I agree it should not be able to be rooted especially considering the sensitive nature of company data. Yes Sydman you are right that if a person pays you should be able to root your device. But in this case I side with Samsung given the nature of the device and the market they are going for. And that market wants a phone that some garage dev is not able to exploit over a weekend of eating Doritos and smoking out. What I would hope in the future is that manufacturers make this information clear upon purchase so no one buy one only to later hear that rooting still be nearly impossible.

 

[Sydman]

I use to agree with that @Sydman . Now, I'm thinking, that if you paid for a phone that didn't have or was not suppose to have root capability, or a phone with a locked bootloader, then you got what you paid for.

I would rather pay for what I want, a phone that can be rooted.

I bought this phone not caring about root, and not being able to root it does not adversely affect me. I still wish they would give us the same access across devices. With the option to enable higher security features for enterprise markets.

My company develops software that manages iDevices, and we are looking now at developing for Android and Chrome OS. That Knox thing is a big deal for Samsung to enter the business marketplace now that Blackberry is dive bombing.

So I get it, but still, I am torn right down the middle on this one.

 

[pc747]

I bought this phone not caring about root, and not being able to root it does not adversely affect me. I still wish they would give us the same access across devices. With the option to enable higher security features for enterprise markets.

My company develops software that manages iDevices, and we are looking now at developing for Android and Chrome OS. That Knox thing is a big deal for Samsung to enter the business marketplace now that Blackberry is dive bombing.

So I get it, but still, I am torn right down the middle on this one.

Do like @bkdodger and get something like that for work and go with a nexus for play. Yeah it sucks hauling around two devices but at least you know you have one that is dependable and another you can go crazy with. Having my nexus 5 as a play device is a huge deal. If something happen or if I want to play around with an unstable ROM I can do so not needing to worry about what I'm going to do if something I need does not work. Yeah I can flash a backup but restoring takes awhile and when doing something critical can cause you time and money. Imagine an employee saying they blew a multi million dollar deal because they had to restore a backup after something went wrong on their cm ROM.
And yes we all know to have common sense and not use the company phone to run cm on but you know someone will feel they know better and flash what they feel is a cleaner and better software for the company phone.

 

[Ollie]

I'm curious as to how much of a difference it is to produce bootloader locked phones versus bootloader unlocked phones?

The market for rootable phones just isn't there for OEM's to care about them.

On the other hand though, how hard would it be to have a Yes or No popup on the phone during first boot that would allow you to choose one or the other? If you select Yes to the question of "Would you like to be able to root your phone?" it could prompt a warning message about insecurities, voided warranties, etc etc and then send a code to the OEM to register your warranty as void.

 

[Vepaot]

My admiration for Samsung rose and fell with S3. The S1 and S2 were both garbage devices...my ex got an S2 because my friend and I were always bragging about how we did all kinds of modding to our phones, his being an HTC and mine being the trusty old Bionic. I still remember her face lighting up when she showed it off to me the first day she got it, and the frustrations I had trying to get anything to work properly on it. But then the S3 came out and it was a solid piece of tech that stood apart from its predecessors.

It's just a shame that after that, Samsung's pokes at Apple quit being funny and started being ironic as they emulated the company they were trying to best. And now we are here because Sammy had a very aggressive and successful advertisement campaign going for so long. They took over the market and now that they're on top, they can do whatever they want and tell the customers to suck it. It's deplorable, but not unexpected.

 

[Narsil]

I'm hard-pressed to believe that the market for locked-down phones due to proprietary corporate information is that large compared to the average-joe privately-purchased phones and small businesses that don't care.

The US government defines a small business as a business with less than 500 employees. Less than one-half of one percent of all businesses in the U.S. are "big" businesses. Of the 99.95+% of all businesses in the U.S. that employee less than 500 people, 73.2% of them are sole proprietorships, meaning they have zero employees other than the business owner. Only 19.5% of small businesses are even incorporated.

If they're marketing to the government, then maybe. In that case, make a government-model phone that isn't available to joe public.

My problem with the idea that "my phone does everything I want it to do without root so root is no longer necessary" is that what do you do when some new amazingly awesome app comes out that does require root.

Are you going to just go drop $500+ on a new Nexus (if they're even available since root is no longer necessary or popular)?

The ability to have root-level access to your own phone shouldn't even be an option that's open to discussion. It should be as ridiculous as asking if your new 2016 automobile comes with seat belts.

<edit> Here's some U.S. business stats if you want the source of my statistics. {Link}

 

[Sydman]

My problem with the idea that "my phone does everything I want it to do without root so root is no longer necessary" is that what do you do when some new amazingly awesome app comes out that does require root.

Very well said, and to answer your question, I will be sad. Honestly though, as happy as I am with the Note 5 as is, I would root my phone just to kill the terrible At&t boot animation and sound. I have to cover my phone speaker whenever I reboot at work, frustrating.

 

[pc747]

they can do whatever they want and tell the customers to suck it. It's deplorable, but not unexpected.

I agree with majority of your post but this I slightly disagree with. In the early the years of android when it was an obvious fanbase to rooting and roms and companies (ie Motorola) went out of their way to tell customers to buy elsewhere, I would see that as telling customers to suck it.
But the market base for their devices are meant for business customers and you can see that with their features and apps. Though those of us who like to rom may want the device to be unlocked, Samsung shifting their focus to a broader market base will cause them to conflict with us.

The only issue I have with Samsung, which is really an issue for the carriers, is the fact a Samsung device's storage is half full out of the box with Google bloat, Samsung bloat, and carrier bloat, which all do similar things. At least give customers the option to choose which email client, messaging app, browser, etc they want to use and allow them to remove the rest.

 

[dezymond]

I miss the days of what Android used to represent.