I can't even get replacement parts for my still in production toaster oven, much less things that stopped being produced 3+ years ago. Honestly, I think softwa

I can't even get replacement parts for my still in production toaster oven, much less things that stopped being produced 3+ years ago. Honestly, I think software has had noticeably better support than hardware - hardware is typically "no" or "here's a different replacement" or "do it yourself (if that's even possible, oh and that voids the warranty)". Software often gets free, easily applied by everyone patches for a couple years or more, and those patches are often available for a decade or longer, even beyond the lifespan of the company, thanks to (sometimes sketchy) alternate hosting sites, which also supply it for free. But to the broader point: I think the cause may be that much of software is built with the intent of it being one-shot. Build to a target as fast as is reasonably possible, then abandon it to do a better job next time. And because there will be numerous flaws with such a quickly-produced thing, make sure to hide your shame, along with hiding your competitive advantage that others can duplicate for free because there is zero material cost. So, broadly, the current status quo makes sense. But yeah, it has downsides. I sure would like open-source everything though. That seems to be the only way out.