That is not the correct analogy. Offcourse you can customize it. Just like you can customize or mod the game.
But you won’t get the actual designs to the bicycle. You will not get the blueprints to send to a factory to create exact duplicates or with your modifications.
Releasing the source code would allow anyone to copy AND modify or extend the game as they see fit. Including all the inner logic that is normally compiled away.
Piracy or a compiled release without DRM (like GOG) only allows you to play the game and maybe modify some parts of it through modding after a significant amount of effort.
Honestly the default config is good enough to prevent brute force attacks on ssh. Just installing it and forgetting about it is a definite option.
I think the default block time is 10 minutes after 5 failed login attempts in 10 minutes. Not enough to ever be in your way but enough to fustrate any automated attacks. And it’s got default config for a ton of services by default. Check your /etc/fail2ban/jail.conf for an overview.
I see that a recidive filter that bans repeat offenders for a week after 10 fail2ban bans in one day is also default now. So I’d say that the results are perfect unless you have some exotic or own service you need fail2ban for.
We are running the above pi tests with an extra (Gradle based) build plugin so that it only runs mutations for the changed lines in that pull request. That drastically reduces runtime and still ensures that new code is covered to the mutation test level we want. Maybe something similar can be done for C or C++ projects.
There are inverters that support battery backup, recharging from solar and grid power that are supposed to go between your grid tie-in and the rest of your house. Quite a ways more expensive, but the battery capacity is probably relatively cheap compared to UPS power and is essentially a backup for your entire house.
The one I read about a while ago was a Growatt that is basically an all in one box. Can provide power from batteries, recharge from solar or grid power, feed back excess solar power to the grid, etc, you name it. And I can imagine other brands producing the same solution.
I’m lucky enough to live in a country with almost no power cuts though. I think we have at most 1 a year for max 10 minutes. So can’t say I have any experience with it myself.