What's the deal with KNOX??

[jonebk12]

From time to time while reading forum posts and other online comments, I come across statements such as: "KNOX is the reason the [insert Samsung device] will be my first and last Samsung device, blah, blah, blah!!" The thing is, NO ONE ever explains their reasoning or elaborates on why KNOX is such a complete deal-breaker for them. From what I understand, KNOX is just some corporate security software. Per Wikipedia: "Samsung Knox provides security features that enable business and personal content to coexist on the same handset." Can someone please give me a reasoned and rational explanation for why people hate this security software and refuse to buy Samsung devices because of it? I honestly am clueless here as to why this benign-sounding software is so evil.

 

[atg284]

From time to time while reading forum posts and other online comments, I come across statements such as: "KNOX is the reason the [insert Samsung device] will be my first and last Samsung device, blah, blah, blah!!" The thing is, NO ONE ever explains their reasoning or elaborates on why KNOX is such a complete deal-breaker for them. From what I understand, KNOX is just some corporate security software. Per Wikipedia: "Samsung Knox provides security features that enable business and personal content to coexist on the same handset." Can someone please give me a reasoned and rational explanation for why people hate this security software and refuse to buy Samsung devices because of it? I honestly am clueless here as to why this benign-sounding software is so evil.

I dont know the detailed specifics but I whent through this debate when I bought my Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 tablet. From my understanding, if you root and/or flash a custom rom there is an E-Fuse that trips and can never be fixed. Once this E-Fuse is tripped, samsung will no longer recognized the warranty. I have read that if you have squaretrade or asurion insurance then this doesnt matter. but if you need to have work done by Samsung then you will have no recourse. Again I am not 100% but that is the gist of what I got from when I was reading about it.

With that said, I have not had a need to root or flash a rom on the Note 10.1 2014 tablet. I think it is wonderful in its own right. But others want/need to have their things rooted/rom'd. If you dont care about either I would not worry about it.

 

[UJ95x]

From time to time while reading forum posts and other online comments, I come across statements such as: "KNOX is the reason the [insert Samsung device] will be my first and last Samsung device, blah, blah, blah!!" The thing is, NO ONE ever explains their reasoning or elaborates on why KNOX is such a complete deal-breaker for them. From what I understand, KNOX is just some corporate security software. Per Wikipedia: "Samsung Knox provides security features that enable business and personal content to coexist on the same handset." Can someone please give me a reasoned and rational explanation for why people hate this security software and refuse to buy Samsung devices because of it? I honestly am clueless here as to why this benign-sounding software is so evil.

Most of the people complaining about it are those that want to root/modify their device and install custom ROMs or recoveries. Knox blocks most attempts and often prolongs the amount of time it takes for devs to find workarounds for unlocking the bootloader (Needed for root). It also blocks attempts at firmware downgrades, so you're stuck with it once you have updated to an Android version 4.3+
Haven't heard complaints from any of my friends with Samsung phones (they don't root, unlock bootloaders, etc.)

 

[jonebk12]

Ohh ok, so it's all about rooting. Gotcha. I guess that's why I didn't understand the controversy; I've never rooted a phone. Thanks!

 

[katmandoo122]

In addition to rooting, Knox was essentially vaporware for a really long time and not particularly secure. Sammy announced Knox but then never really finished it. Now they've announced Knox 2.0 and some people are understandably skeptical. Still, it's pretty much a requirement these days if you want mass enterprise business so I hope that 2.0 is better than their last effort.

 

[GrooveRite]

I think I will be just fine then. I haven't experienced KNOX since I rooted my S3 before the OTA 4.3 upgrade. I'm pretty much ready to move on from rooting myself. Android has matured enough for me not to customize my experience any further.

 

[thegrants82]

I think I will be just fine then. I haven't experienced KNOX since I rooted my S3 before the OTA 4.3 upgrade. I'm pretty much ready to move on from rooting myself. Android has matured enough for me not to customize my experience any further.

Me too but for some reason a clean wipe and root is the first thing that I do right out of the box. Rooting for me is more of a habit then anything else.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[GeekNews]

I dont know the detailed specifics but I whent through this debate when I bought my Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 tablet. From my understanding, if you root and/or flash a custom rom there is an E-Fuse that trips and can never be fixed.

First I've ever heard of that one. I know there was a lockdown feature that tripped after a certain number of flashes but I never really investigated that too closely since I don't root.

In addition to rooting, Knox was essentially vaporware for a really long time and not particularly secure. Sammy announced Knox but then never really finished it. Now they've announced Knox 2.0 and some people are understandably skeptical. Still, it's pretty much a requirement these days if you want mass enterprise business so I hope that 2.0 is better than their last effort.

Yes and no. The majority of the issue was that most carriers never fully implemented it. They allowed the backbone of the services to run for enterprise, however they never added the front end for consumers. This also added to a lot of the confusion users had. I had the full implementation on my VZW GS4. I rarely used it but it was a cool feature for use if you were using your phone for both business and personal use. All the work stuff was sandboxed and secure and in compliance with any password protection whatever they needed.