[sojmq]

The Venn diagram of "devs" and "users who would like to tinker with the firmware of their iphones" is pretty much a circle.

Most users don't have time to do that; if the software of their phone doesn't work they'll get another phone, not another software.

[wahern]

The usual retort to this argument is to analogize devs to mechanics: most car owners don't want to tinker with their engines, but even car owners appreciate the freedom to choose their own mechanic, and assume the mechanic has the ability to utilize and access to alternative parts.

[arminiusreturns]

Why stop at phones, what about x86 too? When does it stop? I side with freedom, and say phones should be more free, instead of making excuses about why they aren't. This is why I fully support pinephone and Librem 5's work, however imperfect. The right to repair, in my opinion, inherently requires the right to root. Firmware in particular is behind, (which is why I have some holdout hope for power and risc/mips architectures in the future), but we can still fight for software freedom at least.