Folks have been concerned that the upcoming (Thursday!) Motorola Droid X would be in the same situation as the earlier Motorola Milestone, in terms of having a similarly locked bootloader. In fact, it appears that the answer is an unfortunate yes.

There have been reports that people who have pre-release devices and needed ROM updates were stymied by Motorola. Rather than installing the updates themselves, they had to return the devices to Motorola for flashing. While unclear why, it seemed to point to this "feature."

According to Droid developer Stephen Bird, the X indeed has a signed + encrypted bootloader. While he's not sure yet, he's pretty sure it will be the same as on the Milestone.

He did say that the Droid X will be rooted, so that those apps which require root access will still be usable. However, custom ROMs will be out of the picture. Folks have been trying to crack the Milestone's bootloader to enable custom ROMs for months, unsuccessfully.

Of course, most people will just open the box and use the device. For those who really want custom ROMs, however, this is a disappointment. Readers, the device is still a beast. Will this change your mind about buying it?