Pi owner here as well. I'm genuinely disappointed at how closed that Broadcom chip actually is, compared to the open/hackable machine I thought I was getting.

"Google publishes that code under the Apache licence, but derives it from Linux source protected by the General Public Licence version 2 (GPLv2) claiming to remove all copyrighted components before changing the licence."

I don't follow this. They're saying that they take the GPL-ed Linux source, and strip out all copyrighted parts. Wouldn't that be all of it? The GPL only works because the code is copyrighted to the developers.

I'm just holding out hope that "real" computers will at least remain available to those who know what they're looking for. Might get to the point where we have to build them from scratch in our basements again...