"Apple wants the computer to become like a household appliance, closed to outside modification:" i think you're putting the cart before the horse, there.

i'm not sure where i read it, might have been in one of pg's essays. the author pointed out that, in the early days of the car, you had to be a car expert to own and operate one. they would break down all the time, your only hope was to know what to do when that happened. eventually cars were refined to the point where any and everybody can have one.

computers are on that same trajectory.