The Importance of Open Software and Firmware

With its surface down, instion required you to use an ap, and that now obviously means the ap doesn't work. Many of instion's waol switches were actually electrically part of the circuit, so they'l still continue to operate as dumb switches - just very expensive ones. It really highlights the importance, not only of open soft ware, but also open hardware and firm ware too. I would like to see open firmware become more of a standard. Maybe we need to influence people in governments to mandate this vender lock in of hardware to be illegal somehow. But it has a lot of money to be made in forced obsolescence, isn't there? Whyn gene