about as open as a TV remote smashed on the side of the highway after it's been run over by around 1000 eighteen wheelers.

C-3PO is proprietary. How do I know this? George told me it is supposed to be the first warning sign that Anakin is evil.

Just because you can open the can doesn't mean it comes already open.
That some people can run Linux on a PS5 doesn't make the PS5 open hardware.

Look at it from the perspective of 1977 or just before, when the scripts were written. I wasn't alive back then, but from what you read, it was a time when (real-world) devices came with manuals, schematics, block diagrams, and if they were missing you could probably find them or get them from the manufacturer.

Apple I and II are just hitting the market, with a strong background in DIY culture, and in the unlikely case you had access to one of these (or something like an Altair 8800 etc), you'd probably know how to fix a blown cap with a soldering iron.

Maybe I'm glorifying the past here but, Star Wars was written at a time when things, including computers, were expected to be repairable. So what you're writing really only makes sense from a contemporary 2020-ies perspective, nobody would have raised an eyebrow at that detail in 1977 ... probably.

How well would he/it do in today's Robot Wars, I wonder.

There are tons of protocol droids in universe. He cobbled scrap bots together. Clever, but he didn’t invent or program it. More like fancy legos

Star Wars has a data transmission problem in that software isn't easily distributed across the galaxy.

Its much more likely Anakin found the programming or just a part with the "OS" installed and put it into a bunch of spare protocol droid parts. Maybe it took some tinkering but I don't think he did a bunch of low level stuff as he's a slave without real education, and I don't believe anything of that level of skill comes up again.

Also noted, I don't think the droids in Star Wars are 1 for 1 "operating systems" as we know them as they (can) have advanced personalities in a way that our software certainly doesn't do.

Unrelated question: is there any scene in any of the Star Wars where C3PO does anything useful? Like translate something or advice on protocol or something? I remember it kind of walking around and commenting on things but I don't remember it ever actually do anything. R2D2 hacks stuff, helps pilot things and delivers holographic messages but is 3CPO anything other than a toy? Some sort of next generation Furby?

This is exactly the content I want from the internet. Thank you.

Open Source was not invented yet, back then.

The internet doesn't exist in SW, so likely things are based on physical modules; so he probably scavenged, repaired, or assembled a physical module that embodies the droid's mind and everything is more or less hard-coded. And because the internet--and perhaps copyright law--doesn't exist, he doesn't need to activate the module with a central server.

I don't really even think programming is touched on, it's more just based on electronics. Software isn't really at thing.

[Edit: I mean, obviously software exists, but it doesn't function like real software does in the world. Tech is largely based on droids, which are delightfully physical and embodied for a visual medium, and droids are more like artisanly-modified cars than software that can be updated and copied. That is to say, the technology in Star Wars takes a lot more cues from mechanics and electronics than it does from software and programming. It is a markedy and consciously retro type of future (or should I say "past?").]

It is a universe where DRM tied to a central server is impossible. It is likely the software beyond the OEM is cracked to hell and modified far beyond its original purpose. After all, the Millennium Falcon's nav computer is repurposed droid software.

No, the prequels just have shitty writing.

The parts could be proprietary, but with an interface that Aniken reverse engineered and jerry-rigged together..