I understand that hardware and software are different, but I think the making the analogy of open hardware to Linux is fair. This author can’t get past that. He comes up with lots of “buts” and his many buts have inspired some “buts” in response.
BUT: the expense of change is highly variable depending on where you are in the release cycle. If you want to change software just before a release it is much more expensive and traumatic than making a change during the development part of the cycle. This is also true in hardware development. Changing a connector during the design would be just as cheap and painless as in the software world. Changing it close to release or while the part is ramping up production would and should be expensive, just like with code. Code will require retesting and repackaging which could push the release date and future development cycles back. Nothing is free, the analogy is working.
...