Comment Re:But isn't there room for both? (Score 3, Insightful) 965
To risk a car analogy, most family saloons just "go" without needing much maintenance (perhaps changing the oil every now and then, I don't drive so I could be losing my credibility here). But you can still open the hood if you want to. So the enthusiasts can tinker, fixing problems themselves and souping their vehicle up if they choose. Or you can take your car to anyone who can fix it, at any price. But the way the computing market is going would be like sealing the hood of your car shut, so only registered dealers have access. This takes away the rights of the consumer and stifles competition. Sure, most people don't want to go at the guts of their car like a necromancer, but there's a difference between having a right and choosing to exercise that right.
Look at the printer market. Printers will not work with an ink cartridge sold by a competing manufacturer. High technology is used to achieve this, so its clearly intentional. The reasons they will give is "so we can give you the best service
Now the printer market looks bad, but the software market is worse. Not only is it impossible to pick and choose the components to use with your own property (in cases such as Apple's censored app store), but its probably also illegal (see the DMCA).
Today, we have (generally) two alternatives: closed or open. There are advantages and disadvantages to each, but I dread to think what the closed-source options would look like if open-source wasn't there to counter-balance it. Fortunately, the roots of computing was always very much in the "hobbyist" camp, and the market rests on this fact. But after a couple more generations of Apple-toters, a computer will be like a policeman in the palm of your hand.