[38]

> People that want to build their own furniture will do so no matter what the end-user environment is. Most people just don't want to.

I would rather have 10% of the population programming than 5%. replace those numbers with whatever is more accurate, but the point stands.

if we can create devices and operating systems that make programming easier, why not do that? why purposefully make it more difficult, or make it difficult by not prioritizing developer experience? do we want a society of consumers, or one of empowered and informed users?

[fulladder]

> I would rather have 10% of the population programming than 5%.

Why? I'd rather have a society where everyone is able to achieve their full potential, whatever that may be. If only 1% (or 0.1%) of people are uniquely good at writing programs, then that's who should be writing programs.

Maybe what you're saying is that we live in a world where writing programs is an essential skill, so let's make sure it's not unnecessarily difficult for artists to write programs. But with sufficiently good tools, I don't really see why an artist would spend time writing programs instead of more directly creating art.

[cglong]

Pretty much everyone dabbles in art, even if very few are good at it. The same can't be said of programming.

[dpkirchner]

Creating apps -- native or otherwise -- has never been easier, so I think we're doing pretty well there. Devices are indeed locked down but I would guess that most people, even programmers, don't care as long as they can create most of the user interfaces they can imagine.

[mbakke]

How can we make better operating systems if devices are locked down? How can hobbyists keep the hardware useful when the manufacturer no longer cares?

Devices must remain open for the kernel programmers and hardware hackers of tomorrow to follow their curiosity and develop their potential.

[paulryanrogers]

I'd argue more things are easier to do than ever, yet making them distributable has narrowed. Before you could ship floppies from your garage, partner with a publisher, shareware, or sell to local shops. Now you have to pay gatekeepers, or train users to do dangerous things.