I'm early enough my career to not at all find it trite. Open-source has certainly been the most exciting and fulfilling aspect of my software work so far. If I was thrown back to the 90s with knowledge of 2020s open-source culture, I'd be frustrated as hell.
I didn't fully appreciate how important open-source is as a 21st century movement until I read The Cathedral and the Bazaar this year. Hearing the open-source development story of SQLite also blew my mind a little.
I can see why you're so energized by open-source firmware.
Yes! The final two frontiers (or, among the final two frontiers, anyway) of proprietary software are firmware and EDA software. I am (as you noted!) very bullish about both, and I think that open firmware + open EDA will lead to a new golden age of HW/SW co-design -- it's a great time to be a software engineer, and it's only going to get better!
I didn't fully appreciate how important open-source is as a 21st century movement until I read The Cathedral and the Bazaar this year. Hearing the open-source development story of SQLite also blew my mind a little.
I can see why you're so energized by open-source firmware.