Thanks Christos Hohlidakis for helping make this happen, nice post. Like you, we develop software for our business and need total control over our devices. Why ACER would do such a hard lock on 3.2 has us amazed.
The problem with anyone that does NOT allow rooting is missing the business world! Not everyone that runs a tablet/cell is a consumer.
Just think of a business where the company has hundreds of employees which they issue cell phones and tablets to. Now why should my devices (some with data plans) have facebook/chat/social programs loaded? Why would you want your employees to install software? Why should they be able to destroy company data by erasing it accidental or on purpose? We do not provide these devices to employees so they can twitter or facebook their days away.
Rooting allows us to remove all the stuff we do NOT want run by an employee on company tablets. Secondly, we can install our company sales applications so it can not be removed and is secure. Then we remove root.
A perfect business requirement for one of our apps, is for a hospital that wants to use tablets to control medical records (or clinics). A person walks in, the clerk hands them a tablet with all the forms on it and their medical records. Mr TimmyDean, please have a seat, review these forms, fill out current information, and sign them. When done, click transmit and your records will be sent to the Doctor's tablet which will be used during your visit. Anyway, you get the point, do you think you can sell such an application 'Heck yes' but we don't make hardware so you have to go buy the tablets from someone else and you better be able to tell the hospital how to secure the heck out of them and by gosh, when you demo it to the hospital management team you better NOT have facebook and Internet icons showing up.
Anyway, off my soapbox (well not just yet)
MFG should do this: All tablets have root and a default password.
1. You need to physically connect the tablet to your computer. Once connected via a cable, you now need to enter the default password.
2. Now you set your password, heck maybe that's forced upon you if you insist on forcing something.
Rules:
a. You cannot get root unless you physically connect it therefore someone cannot do it via an application.
b. If you forget the root password then you have to use the OEM reset keys which wipes it clean.
c. To keep from using the same factory password for root on all devices, assign the password to the device serial number.
Bottom-line, anyone having a Linksys router knows what I'm talking about. You get a default password and if you forget it, you wipe it clean with the paperclip reset, but Linksys doesn't stop me from changing anything I want.
Also, for anyone that says it breaks the warranty, I say BIG DEAL and do the MATH. I sell the medical records application to a hospital and they save millions in cost each year. So what if because they rooted it they cannot get ACER to warranty repair a $400 tablet.
