A new tool developed at the University of Washington has the potential to make all software effectively open source — in a way. Rather than manipulating the software’s code, however, the application — dubbed “Prefab” — hijacks what it displays and makes it customizable. “Microsoft and Apple aren’t going to open up all their stuff, but they all create programs that put pixels on the screen,” explained project leader James Fogarty. “And if we can modify those pixels, then we can change the program’s apparent behavior.”
