So I was getting caught up on my reading at Daring Fireball this afternoon, and came across John Gruber’s piece from a couple of weeks ago, The Kids Are All Right. Leaving aside the fact that Gruber is ever-so-slightly dating himself in that piece, I have to admit to an eerily similar experience growing up. My Atari 2600 showed up as a “family Christmas present” when I was about 8.

My exposure to computers prior to that time had been hanging out in the local Radio Shack while the long-suffering employees kindly let me tinker with the TRS-80s. In fact, I’d go so far as to check out books on programming from the local library and then bring them with me to Radio Shack to experiment. The Atari 2600 was one of the first pieces of computer technology that entered my home (my father’s TI-58C notwithstanding) — and in fact in those days Atari even marketed it as the “Atari 2060 VCS” for “Video Computer System.”

I specifically remember finding the hidden easter egg in Adventure in the early eighties (all on my own — there was no Gamefaq or Wikipedia in those days) seeing the programmer’s signature and desperately trying to figure out if there was a way to access the source code or any other hidden features through that screen. In fact I probably spent more time playing around in that one hidden room to look for additional secrets than I did actually playing the game.

The fact is that it’s never been only about hardware tinkering. Sure, I had fun hacking around inside PCs, building a Z80 system from scratch, and so forth, but there was also plenty of room for software tinkering even back then, and it had nothing whatsoever to do with how physically open the computers or other devices were.

Today these opportunities have only expanded, with many more software development platforms available, more secrets to discover, and more opportunities to share and collaborate on findings. Back in 2007 when I was fiddling with my first-generation iPhone and trying to get it unlocked to work up here in the Great White North, I learned more about the iPhone OS than I ever would have with a screwdriver and soldering iron.

I don’t care how many screws you put into the casing of any modern device — there’s nothing in there that’s much worth looking at any more anyway, and that’s not Apple’s fault, but rather the inevitable result of progress. I have great respect for Cory Doctorow, but in this case he’s tilting at windmills; to put the power and capabilities of an iPad into tinkerable hardware it would likely end up being the size of a large suitcase, at best. The Makers among us may be okay with that, but I’ll pass — I’ve already had a Compaq Portable and really have no desire to return to those halcyon days.