I do agree with you. The current state of things is pretty great.
I have a phone, laptop, desktop, and steam deck. I control the software that runs on all of them, at least down to the bootloader/kernel. If I want to patch a kernel, I can do it. And aside from the phone, I can probably run the majority of the games that have ever been released (on any platform), on any of them.
I worry about two things in the future:
Will be able to buy modern hardware without the software it runs being restricted?
Will online services used by software be accessible without hardware based attestation?
I have similar worries. I think there will always be some kind of free hardware, but it might be limited to slower arm or risc-v chips. But I doubt there will even be a situation where you can’t have control.
Your second point is not something I’ve considered, but now I’m worried about it and can totally see that being a thing.
I do agree with you. The current state of things is pretty great.
I have a phone, laptop, desktop, and steam deck. I control the software that runs on all of them, at least down to the bootloader/kernel. If I want to patch a kernel, I can do it. And aside from the phone, I can probably run the majority of the games that have ever been released (on any platform), on any of them.
I worry about two things in the future:
Will be able to buy modern hardware without the software it runs being restricted?
Will online services used by software be accessible without hardware based attestation?
I have similar worries. I think there will always be some kind of free hardware, but it might be limited to slower arm or risc-v chips. But I doubt there will even be a situation where you can’t have control.
Your second point is not something I’ve considered, but now I’m worried about it and can totally see that being a thing.
More services I don’t give a shit about would not be surprising.
But a lot of these problems have an obvious answer in legislation.