This whole discussion on right to repair has many more layers to it, some of them not pertaining to electronics per se.
As with anything, I think there are those any movement will truly help, along with those who will take advantage and also those who will abuse it. We can speculate who fits which category; I think many of the names have already been named here.
I want to bring up another perspective for looking at the situation. Remember the whole discussion the past few days about charging cables, whether USB or Lightning or whatever? At some very basic level, this is still a repair. As mentioned, there are difficulties and traps for performing a repair as simple as replacing a worn-out cable. Do you have the right to replace your cable with another cable that you think is appropriate. What do you think if only the device manufacturer can decide what cable is appropriate and only they can perform the repair?
Electronics is not so bad compared to some other areas. We have specs available and we expect to be able to choose any cable that meets the spec. It looks like our choices and available options are narrowing down. At what level do we consider it to be our right and how does that influence our behaviours and the market?
Take the example of a farm tractor where it has grown much more insidious. You go to your local dealer to buy a tractor with a mower. The mower comes with a secure dongle that must be plugged into the tractor. The dealer installs software on the tractor that reads the dongle and automatically sets the PTO RPM, the throttle and will automatically adjust the cut height over the terrain according to the grass height you selected. So far that all sounds pretty nice. Next year you want to add a garden, so you borrow your neighbours rototiller attachment. It will not work on your tractor. It physically connects no problem. However, the PTO will not run without a valid dongle. How to do it? The only way is to go back to the dealer and buy a new rototiller of the same brand with a dongle. You are totally locked in. You bring the tiller home and it still will not operate. You forgot to take the tractor in to the dealer, pay a licence fee and get the tiller software installed on the tractor. It now costs thousands of dollars for what used to cost a couple of beers for the neighbour.
Imagine if test leads were encoded with serial numbers and functions with different leads for current and voltage measurements. There would be a revolt
![WTF? :wtf:](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/Smileys/default/wtf2.gif.pagespeed.ce.pxLiY5pjs4.gif)
It could be that bad if TE and electronics was like tractors.
One of the big problems here is understanding the impact and consequences. There is also the aspect of gaining advantages in one area (fancy mower control) balanced with disadvantages in another area (ability to customize the tractor function). Another is expectation versus reality. The expectation for the tractor was a versatile machine that can do many tasks; any long-time farmer will probably share that expectation. The tractor reality is now an effective machine at doing one set of tasks. Who caused the situation? The farmers bought these tractors. The manufacturers designed them. Probably everyone contributed to the situation to some extent. I think there is no sense in assessing blame. The farm benefit is turning out to be not much, since the advantages gained are being weighed down by the disadvantages that came along at the same time.
Rather, where is the right balance? Less and less I think things in life sit in a reasonable steady state. It seems there is always a pendulum swinging right past the sweet spot, and we never get it right. It looks like consumer electronics like phones and tablets are out on a pendulum swing right now. It is tough to right the balance because all the products have followed the pendulum and the market is captive.
What is the solution? So far my best take on it is to keep whatever was available just as the pendulum was swinging through the sweet spot, then hang on to those items forever.
![Rant :rant:](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/Smileys/default/rant.gif.pagespeed.ce.koOB_HE-VX.gif)
time for supper (maybe that is really why I had a good rant)