A modern smartphone is mostly a general-purpose computer designed to run arbitrary software with a couple tightly integrated and/or regulated bits. That's very different from a DSLR, which is designed to take pictures.

That said, a camera with a fully open software stack would be fun.

>These are specialized hardware+software gadgets designed to a particular purpose, which is very different from being a development platform.

Then I shouldn't be able to install software on it at all. For any given device either its functions are fixed, or they're modifiable at the sole discretion of the owner. There should be no middle ground.

Why shouldn't I be able to reflash my fridge? I own it. I did this with my vacuum robot for example.

It doesn't have to be easy or convenient, but it shouldn't be impossible.

A smartphone is not a specialized hardware or software, it's a general computation device.

Its just a completely bogus argument. Its not a fucking smart fridge, come on

Just a nit …

As this is HN - a very thoughtful and technically astute demographic - it’s very unlikely that your parent, or others reading, own a “smart fridge”.

Yeah, this is the sleight of hand. They used to all be computers, now we have reduced freedom to "development platforms". No. It's hardware, I bought it, I should be able to run any code I want on my DSLR (and I do), my fridge, my oven, my smartwatch, anything I own.