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[ghostofcain]

Reading around it's got to me that people don't understand why, some of us use, Android. I come from a PalmOs  background and one of the main points I liked was the tools we had available to change our experience, hackers (or modders if you prefer ) like Shadowmite gave the power to fundamentaly change our OS experience.

Today there are two camps, the locked down OSes like iOS from Apple and WM and the Open FOSS environments like Maemo and Android. Now take the issue of carrier updates to the OS (or manufacturer updates ala Apple) You as the end user are at the mercy of the carrier (or manufacturer) except with FOSS you are free to roll your own update.

I am not advocating that we all become coders like Cyanogen or Shadowmite but the freedom is there and that's the fundamental difference, we are encouraged to tinker, hell the Bootloader of the Nexus One is unlocked by design.

Now I am the first to admit I know squat about Javascript programming or WebOs for that matter but it doesn't matter as other people out there do and care enough to do something about it!

IMHO the situation that has arisen with theIphone 4, shows the weakness of the closed system, with Android if you don't like the way the system works out signal strength do something about it, or find someone else who cares enough to do something.

That my friends is why I see FOSS OSes as the future, and yes it's not gonna be easy for developers, as when you give users the FREEDOM to alter there user experience they will and cause headaches for devs, but hey our time is coming.

Thanks for listening

[Robin24k]

To be honest, I don't see why it's such a big deal. Locked OS versions are more organized, and the result is usually a more quality product. iOS is a different story though, that's totally locked down.

As with most things, moderation is key. iOS and Android are at the two ends of the scale, so I'm sticking with the middle...Windows Mobile. With CAB files and registry edits, that's about all the tinkering I need or would be interested in doing.

A couple weeks ago, I spent several hours trying out an HTC Incredible that a vendor provided, and not considering the Google parts of it, I cannot imagine using it on a daily basis. I would probably pick going back to BlackBerry over Android. It's almost like the iStone...over-simplified, lacking complexity.

[ghostofcain]

Granted for the less geeky user a locked OS will possibly give a smoother user experience,out of the box, but better?.

[Robin24k]

Messing with the bootloader isn't for your typical power user, that's a little over the top. If something works well out of the box, I won't mess with it.

I'm not that much against open source, but I'm not a fan of Google, and therefore not a fan of their OS. I knew I won't be using the HTC Incredible, so I tried to set aside the Google aspect of it just to try the OS out, and I still wasn't impressed. It still seems like it's half-baked and not quite ready.