[Security Discussion] iunlock:
Hello everyone. It's been a while and I must say, having gone through some of the old posts on here has been really refreshing. It would be nice if there were more like minded people to support this great thread.

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about the future of Android. With Chainfire moving on in re-positioning himself in this game and with all the Knox crap going on with Samsung devices etc....where are we headed? A proprietary nightmare equivalent to the iOS?

I wanted to run somethings by you all to get some input. Please know that I greatly appreciate your input and that these questions / concerns that are being mentioned is specific to Samsung -> because of it running TouchWiz (No I won't go CM on a Note as that defeats the purpose of getting a Note for its functions.) -> because of the whole nightmare with trying to get Xposed to work properly on Touchwiz -> and of course, because Android is headed down a dark path with all its SELinux crap mingled with Knox getting buried deeper into layers of just rubbish causing nothing but a scary future for Android.

As a fan of Samsung devices, particularly the Note series, I am wondering if I should stock up on the T-Mobile (unlocked bootloader) Note 4 that still has KitKat 4.4 on it while I can? It has come to the point where once the device has been upgraded to Lollipop 5.1, there is no way to roll back down to KitKat 4.4 without running into major issues, if trying to run a Kitkat based ROM. I'm talking specifically about the bootloader. LP 5.1 seems to be the dawn of the era for Android freedom. For any Note 4 users, the latest you can go is LP 5.0.1 in order to be able to safely roll back to KitKat 4.4. Once you go over LP 5.0.1, you're bootloader is doomed and you're stuck as there's no going back. (Again, I'm not talking about just being able to roll back to KK 4.4, as it's obvious that you can. What I'm referring to is the LP 5.1 bootloader that's the issue.)

It has begun....Now all the TM Note 4's are being shipped out as a (t3) model, which is all running LP 5.1 so if anyone wanted to flash back down to KitKat 4.4 (ANK4) to run a custom ROM, they're doomed. Jerks....

I'm not a fan of Lollipop at all, but can live with it as long as I can run xprivacy and a VPN without issues. Honestly, those are really the only two apps I care about on my business line. (My personal phone is an older Samsung device running 4.2 and it's flawless.)

1. On a scale of 1 through 10 (1 being the least and 10 being the most), what would you rate the intrusiveness level of these three software versions:

JellyBean running 4.2 = 1

KitKat running 4.4 = 5?

Lollipop running 5.0.1 = 8?

Lollipop running 5.1 = 10+?

The reason I'm asking is because I want to know if there's really a huge difference in the intrusive factor between KitKat 4.4 vs Lollipop 5.0.1 or 5.1? For the first time ever I've skipped out on upgrading to the Note 5 because of Lollipop and its known issues with xposed mod on Touchwiz. Like I've mentioned above I need to be able to successfully run Xposed -> Xprivacy -> VPN without any issues. So for this scenario, would KK and LP rank about the same in terms of, "....if you're just wanting to run xprivacy and a VPN, then it doesn't really matter if you go with KK or LP as they are both about the same in the intrusive factor?" Or is this not true and KK is actually noticeably, "safer?" than LP? Oxymoron I know, but you get the drift....

For the business line, I don't need it at a, "...gotta wear a tin foil hat," status....Of course I would like to have all the privacy and security that I can get, but not to where I'm going to be shutting off my connection etc...ROFL. It's a ******* business line.

2. Would I be able to accomplish the same level of security / privacy to where KitKat 4.4 = Lollipop 5.0.1 / 5.1? Or would LP still be heck of a lot worse due to its Knox, SELinux etc... ie.... Is it definitely better to just stay with KitKat and to forget Lollipop all together?

3. Do you think the era of having the freedom to customize Android phones by rooting, ROM's etc..... are coming to an end? Has it come to an end with Lollipop 5.1 for Samsung devices?

4. Regardless if the carriers / google decide to lock the bootloader from here on out, do you think someone will eventually be able to come up with a work around? What seemed impossible before, became possible....but are we at a whole new level here with the lock downs? To my understanding the encryption is HUGE to where it'd be literally impossible to get past the wall..... Where do we stand?

5. Among Samsung Note devices, I love the Note 3 on JellyBean and the Note 4 on KitKat 4.4. - Is the Note 4 on KK 4.4 with the untouched bootloader, the last of the mohicans? In terms of flashing custom KK based ROM's and having that true Android experience....

6. Android M .... getting worse for developers, but is there really a light at the end of the tunnel?

I would really appreciate some feedback guys....thanks in advance.

Cheers to the few, the proud and us being folks who at least care enough about security/privacy to not want to hand over our sensitive info on a silver platter to anyone who want's it.