Comment Re:The future is now. (Score 1) 155
The trouble with software not coming from the wild is it means there era of the hobbyist programmer is over.
There will always be hobbyist programmers. We are slowly transitioning from the Wild West (a free for all where anyone can participate) to a mature technology (a cartel of established players), but that doesn't mean hobbyists will go away.
Hobbyists are their own worst enemy. Crackers are just hobbyist programmers using their skills for evil. You give freedom to the general public and you're going to get evil along with the good. Take the freedom away and you take away the good along with the evil. We have been searching for a way to keep it under control, without success. It's not like murder or theft. With a computer you can do a LOT of damage instantaneously, and computer crimes are notoriously hard to track down. It's more like nuclear missile technology. You can be a nuclear hobbyist, and there used to be nuclear hobbyists, but nobody is going to let you build a bomb.
Really the public wants the hobbyists brought under control. We romanticize gunslingers and pirates as folk heroes, but we don't tolerate them. Same with hobbyist hackers.
There are still electronics hobbyists in this age of surface mounted custom chips. There are still automotive hobbyists in an era of integrated microprocessor controlled engines. There are still video hobbyists in an era of encrypted hdmi. Nothing is stopping you from taking up telegraphy in an age of satellite TV and the internet.
Hobby programming will continue, and you'll pay extra for the privilege. Computers used to cost a pretty penny, and a hobby quality machine (not locked down) will again be a premium, high-cost, niche item, just like it was in the late 70s. But it will never go away.