I help seniors with technology issues
Question: why does the market fail so miserably in this respect?<p>Why are all consumer grade electronics running closed sourced questionable code that you cannot alter? I need a laptop, a table and a phone. I have been looking for over a year and I cannot find anything I like.<p><pre><code>  0. I don't want arbitrary software running on my personal devices, fullstop. 
  1. I want to be able to run my preferred free software.
  2. I want my preferred free software to be able to access all installed hardware and use it to its full capabilities.
  3. I don't want to pay a $1000 premium to be able to do this.
</code></pre>
This is one of the biggest market failures of our generation. All we have is fake choice, but not a single manufacturer wants to deliver plain open hardware. If you look at buying a car you will end up in exactly the same situation. In fact all consumer hardware of all sorts has the same problem.<p>RMS was right back then, but the problem has recently become much more serious. Back then it was only about laptops. Now I have to worry about my fridge spying on me.