Locked bootloader?

Not sure. But I guess, it'll be closed.

My guess is that it would be locked as well... I did some GoogleFU but beyond random speculation there wasn't much to be found in terms of high quality information. But judging from Motorolas tendency to protect their system to the last man or last bit as it were I don't think you'll see an unlocked bootloader in the frist wave of DORID Bionics (See: https://www.nextpit.com/en/android/blog/395796/Motorola-Open-Bootloader-Provided-with-Software-Update)

A lot of the speculation that the Bootloader might be unlocked came from a report back in the spring, which claimed that Motorola would change its bootloader policy. When they released the Photon right after that though, its bootloader was still locked. What does that tell you about their policy?

Hopefully there will be an update out sometime in the future.

Okay major noob question here but what is a bootloader and why should I care?

Okay basicly it's the bit of code in you phone that tells it to load the operating system when the phone is booting up. If you want to use a dumb metaphor: Pushing the power button is like an alarm clock ringing in the morning. It wakes you up but it doesn't get you up and moving on its own. For me at least its normally the list of things I need to do before work that gets me awake. Its kind of the same with the bootloader. After you press the power button, its the bit of code that helps the hardware on your phone/computer/whatever load its operating system and get moving.

If your a normal user you dont need to deal with it. Its only improtant for loading custom roms/ android distributions on phones that werent designed to support them.

The companys often keen the bootloaders locked because well even though Android is open source, that doesn't mean they want you to throw away the OS they spent so much time working on. IF you have more questions about rooting give this forum a try.

you can go to motorola websites page for your phone, look for developer resources. you will find info for getting an unlock code for your phone. you will have to run a command from your computer to get a id number and send to moto along with waiver of warranty and moto will send unlock code. i have done it, it works