Hexus has posted part 1 of their Free and Open Source Software article series

You've just bought your brand new sleek sports car, you get it home, and then you ask yourself what it looks like under the bonnet. You mess around for a good half hour, before realising that it's welded shut. "Odd," you think, "I'll check the handbook." A friendly message tells you that the bonnet is welded shut in case anyone steals the advanced "engine" technology to make their own cars. Not only that, but every time you wash it, you have to ring up the dealership to ask for permission to drive it again.

Far fetched? Not exactly.

Software has been written under these rules for many a year. Knowledge is power, they say, and companies have a vested interest in keeping the power for themselves. Not everyone who buys a car wants to know the advanced theories behind the internal combustion engine, but they might have a pretty good idea of what goes where, and how to fit some turbos to it.

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