Oculus on Thursday released an unlocked build of the Oculus Go operating system that will provide “full root access” to more than 2 million existing devices, a move that will help make the hardware future-proof.
The update will ensure that Go hardware running the unlocked operating system no longer checks for Facebook’s signature at the kernel level, allowing developers to create new versions of low-level system software for the entire Android-based operating system. There will also be room for easy sideloding of apps outside the Go Store interface.
In an update a month ago, Oculus “Consuting CTO” John Carmack stated that an unlocked build of the Oculus Go operating system will be released, adding that it is an attempt to guarantee that Go hardware will remain fully functional in the future, which will “allow a randomly discovered shrink wrapped headset twenty years from now [to] be able to update to the final software version, long after over-the-air update servers has been shut down.”