[Uhhrrr]

I get it - not everyone has the bandwidth to worry about these things. But that is what makes RMS all the more valuable. Because the alternative is toys you can't fix yourself, and software which you can't fix yourself. Eventually every third party goes out of business and then you're stuck with useless bits.

Or worse, the trusted software company goes out of business and it turns out they were gathering up all sorts of data, and you didn't know that because it was closed source, and the way you find it out is that someone buys it all at the bankruptcy auction and you start getting a dozen calls a day and your identity gets stolen.

Also - seriously? You never fix your kids' toys?

[gargoiler80]

Yes, I fix my kids toys. But I don't require the manufacturing details to do that.

Just as I don't need source code to modify/analyse software.

[Uhhrrr]

You use a hex editor?

[dllthomas]

Not that it defeats your broader point, but there are certainly better tools than a bare hex-editor for reverse engineering and hacking binaries.