I think we're mostly agreed... I prefer open-source for the reasons you outlined. I feel that closed-source, proprietary releases can be a little scary and I wish that more commonly used software was truly open. You say "Inability to Control = No Provable Security". I agree completely. Trust isn't about proof, you're simply BELIEVING that the controller of the source knows what they're doing, has your security in mind, and is on your side. If you a trust a source completely, you don't need provable security. If you've been burned before and are unlikely to trust, you'll want more control because you he no confidence in the "security" that they say it has. Sometimes you can't afford to control, and you're willing to trust someone, even if it's only a little bit of trust. By the way, I definitely used to trust Apple more than I do now -- I now trust them with few things.

I know this is Slashdot and all, but still:

This doesn't make it secure. It just means that if someone's made a mistake, or inserted a backdoor, you've missed it. Control != Security -- sometimes it just creates a poor illusion of security. If you don't have control, you have to trust someone to provide security. Depending on who it is and what their experience is, I often prefer to trust.

Regardless, one of the big issues that I've seen in this area is that although yes, you CAN jailbreak iPhone or install custom firmware on whatever device you want, you want the ability to deploy commercial-off-the-shelf stuff to users in the field with a 10 second install from the app store. They want to leverage the existing distribution network for the product and application distribution for software packages. They want to piggyback off the commercial world with minimal development effort and cost. What you're proposing a better model from a secure perspective, but is massively more expensive.

I'm red/green colorblind...

I noticed this recently when whiteboarding at work: I can see the bright yellow marker on the whiteboard clearly as can be (it really stands out) but my co-workers can barely see it unless they're within a few feet and even then, they're squinting. I can read it from across the room.

I was trying to figure out why this was and had no idea. Any thoughts?