"I appreciate the fact that Fraleigh and Motorola are honest in
their disdain for software developers. Unlike Apple — who
tries to hide how developer-unfriendly its mobile platform is
— Motorola readily admits that they seek to leave developers
as helpless as possible, refusing to share the necessary tools that
developers need to upgrade devices and to improve themselves, their
community, and their software. Companies like Motorola and Apple
both seek to squelch the healthy hacker tendency to make technology
better for everyone. Now that I've seen Fraleigh's old blog post, I
can at least give Motorola credit for full honesty about these
motives.
"I do, however, find the implication of Fraleigh's words
revolting. People who buy the devices, in Motorola's view, don't
deserve the right to improve their technology. By contrast, I
believe that software freedom should be universal and that no one
need be a "mere consumer" of technology. I believe that every
technology user is a potential developer who might have something
to contribute but obviously cannot if that user isn't given the
tools to do so. Sadly, it seems, Motorola believes the general
public has nothing useful to contribute, so the public shouldn't
even be given the chance."
