If the servers are running. If the servers deign to give permission to own the device you purchased. If they correctly recognize that this device is owned by the user. After I've purchased the device, the seller has no right to withhold ownership, and the existence of enterprise devices doesn't change that in the slightest.
This is incorrect. Have you considered that the delay between getting the device and getting it connected could be well outside of the return window or people could be purchasing them in countries without such consumer rights?
Who buys a brand new phone but also has no internet connection for weeks? Do they have all the apps they need pre-downloaded? I don't think that's a big group.
Who said it has to be brand new to the end user? It might sit in a box for years getting sold back and forth as a commodity before anyone opens that box.
Have you ever hear of the concept of a “gift” or the even more exotic “person in a foreign country”? It’s shocking that the connectivity addiction is so strong that you’re even asking this question.
If it's a normal gift, then the recipient won't have any roms or bootloaders they need to install. To get those they will need internet, at which point they can unlock the phone.
> or the even more exotic “person in a foreign country”
What's the problem? Are they buying a phone they won't get a plan for, and can't find anywhere with wifi, and they have no home internet? But they still want to unlock the boot loader because... why?
If that ultra-niche scenario is not what you have in mind, then please explain.
It's quite common for people from elsewhere in the world to buy electronics in the US, Europe, Japan, etc and then bring them back to their home countries for a fraction of the cost of what the official or unofficial importer(s) want. That's why you end up with all sorts of region-locking nonsense, companies trying to protect their importers who have a monopoly on distribution of a particular device.
And it depends on the user being willing to connect it to the (public) internet without a firewall in between.
I wonder if any of the countries that implement a country-wide firewall block this domain. That would disable bootloader unlocking for the entire country.
We're talking about a cell phone though, right? A device that sooner or later is going to be connected to a cellular internet that will track it relentlessly?
I'd imagine the demographic that is buying the cell phone and then not intending to use it as a phone is not one that Google is losing a lot of sleep over serving poorly.
So you don't own it when you buy it. At best Google still owns it and they graciously allow you permission to change the bootloader after you submit to their terms of service. Also, better hope their servers are online and reachable, and that you have functional internet.
This is honestly the most overblown issue I've ever seen on HN. How many people are buying a brand new in box pixel to install a custom OS on and do not have an internet connection anywhere, not even a free public wifi? I'd be shocked if this impacts even a single person.
At this point it's being angry for the sake of it.
I can totally imagine a situation in which, in the future, someone buys a new old stock pixel phone and can't replace the OS because the bootloader can't be unlocked because the servers don't exist anymore.
A few years ago I bought a Nokia N900 which was at the time a 10 year old phone. I did this to use it as a daily driver.
Without community support the phone would have been useless. But, more importantly, if the phone required an internet connection to some server in order to let you replace the stock OS then it would have been a brick because Nokia's servers were long gone by then.
That being said, all things considered, the most important argument here is not of the practicality but the principle.
You handed over money for a piece of hardware but you can't make full use of the hardware until you let the phone talk to the manufacturer once. Thats completely insane irrespective of how small of a perceived issue you think it is.
