Unless regulators enforce (at the very least) that hardware documentation sufficient to produce open source firmware/drivers must be supplied with that hardware, no - probably not.

Drivers and firmware are the biggest hurdle outside of locked bootloaders for competition in the operating system space.

Examples; Anything Apple (MacBook, iPhone), anything Samsung, anything Google, the list goes on.

There _is_ open hardware, but it has poor performance / battery / build quality and the vast majority of users will not accept that.

IMO "the right to repair software" is essential and this duopoly is a function of explicit monopolistic practices.

Maybe LLMs can help open the "reverse engineering" Pandora's box - but we have yet to see that realised - at least for drivers / firmware

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redox99 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I'd consider that solved with LLMs (the capability is already there and will only improve). The only remaining hurdle I'd say is hardware attestation.

	▲	apatheticonion 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I hope so. We haven't yet seen LLM-led reverse engineered firmware, but here's hoping!

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rimliu 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

so that's basically we don't know how to make the good hardware, let's force those who know give it to us.

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apatheticonion 3 hours ago | parent [-]

That's one way to look at it. I applaud Apple and co for what they have created, but even drugs have patent expiries, eventually becoming generics.

I'd be fine with that model - let them make money for 5 years recouping their R&D costs, then they must offer documentation so the community can repair / maintain the hardware themselves.

I personally see it as falling under "the right to repair" and selfishly, I know we can do more with the hardware than they are demonstrating. It's endlessly frustrating that we are not allowed to and then the devices just disappear forever.

	▲	lotsofpulp 39 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		>I applaud Apple and co for what they have created, but even drugs have patent expiries, eventually becoming generics. In the US, all patents have 20 year terms (from initial patent filing). Of course, patents don’t tell you how to make something, so it’s not sufficient anyway for something like smartphones or medicine.