Re:The people who criticise Richard Stallman... (Score 1)

Of course, the automotive analogy might be bad as well. Just ask any "Shade Tree" or "Back Yard" mechanic. Most curse the day they decided to computerize the engine, thus locking them away from manual adjustments.

Actually its worse than that. Its locked for a reason ; the automotive industry needs to (or is forced to) meet ever more stringent emmissions requirements, while delivering better economy with the same level of power in order to compete effectively. At the same time warranty and service interval timescales continue to rise/extend as manufacturers use them as a USP (or one of many).

That is why under the hood are 'no user serviceable parts', and why letting anyone apart from an authorised servicer touch it invalidates everything .... gotta control the emissions and the 'reliability'.

Hang on ... thats what it is like with certain Liunx distros from the commercial players - roll your own kernel, and sorry.... thats unsupported.