Fewer programmers interested in hardware?

I see far too many programmers these days who use macbooks and prebuilt desktops. They've never assembled a computer or installed a different OS. Why is this? I thought programmers were interested in tinkering with things. I feel more and more like I'm out of place when I talk about how I assemble and overclock computers and install GNU/Linux distros.

This is specialization and abstraction in progress. I can formally prove the theoretical mathematics behind computers and computation but don't ask me to have a look at your computer to check for viruses, I won't know how to do it.

>>3,4
The move toward SoCs is a growing threat to hardware openness. It is now possible for a single chip vendor to provide a complete system with all code required to run user applications in a filesystem image; no source or datasheet need be provided to the end user. The sort of documentation and support that every systems programmer used to enjoy is now a privilege granted only to NDA'd employees of the largest hardware and software companies.

Ironically, it is the availability of a decent free and open source operating system (Linux) that makes this possible. Back in the bad old days, chip companies who had no hope of making an OS anyone would want were effectively forced to open up their specs so others could do that job for them. Today, they just add the bare minimum of binary blobs needed to get Linux to run and call it good. Want a manual? What manual; you need to place an order for a few million dollars worth of chips before their field engineers will so much as talk to you.