Linus on "convenience computing"

Interesting comments on convenience vs complexity from (Linux creator) Linus Torvalds on emerging devices. For someone as key to the development and propagation of open and free software he is commendably relaxed about the philosophy/ideology - yet arguably has achieved more than anybody through the wide reach of his Linux kernel. Rest of the interview interesting too.

--Do you think about the notebook Chromebook Google? It is an irony of open source software have made an open system while leaving the user as "slave" of a single company?
--You really have a very negative world-view, don't you?
--No, I don't have a negative world view, I am just journalist! :-)
--Hey.. Much of my family are journalists (mom, dad, uncle, grandfather..)
--But it is not ironic?
--I don't think you need to be pessimistic even as a journalist. I'm not sure where chrome will go, but at the same time it's very clear (just look at all the cellphones and tablets), that most non-techies really don't want a general-purpose "computer" – there seems to be a fairly large base of people who really don't want to maintain their own computer setup, but want to get access to the most common things - web browsing, email, some text processing, photo management etc. And while tablets may be sexy right now, I think a lot of people do want the keyboard and mouse. Writing stuff on a tablet really isn't all that great. So I think a chromebook makes sense in that kind of area. Why would that make anybody a "slave"? It's about convenience. Are you a slave to the electricity company just because you depend on them (and have to pay them) making electricity available to you?

Source: marianoblejman.com