The exynos chipsets are a nightmare for device maintainers. The kernel source certainly helps, but the binary blobs for the device drivers, HAL, RIL, hwcomposer, etc. are still going to have to be hacked around.
This, also the RIL randomly dies (no signal, or mobile data disconnects), the compass is broken on some phones (although not the I777, I think) and a handful of other small things.
In general, yes. But if you spend any time using larger APIs, examples of "how to do basic task X" become much more important. Examples of usage are a key part of any (large) API documentation.
For example, if the method foobar() in class Foo does what I want, how am I supposed to find it? Especially if the library has hundreds of classes spread across multiple namespaces.
You've obviously never tried to write wrappers for exynos blobs. The exynos chipsets and/or binary blobs are a nightmare to work with, and the main reason why the GS2 (and probably S3) have so many problems with CM. When it's not a Samsung-designed SoC (eg. OMAP or Snapdragon), it's a lot nicer. Sure, it's fairly easy to get a custom OS running on an exynos chipset, but getting it running well is... well...
I don't know about "power features". I haven't been able to use Hyper-V (my hardware is too old) but I do like that you can now mount ISOs and VHDs directly from explorer, the new file transfer dialog, task manager and multi-monitor taskbars, to start with.
Storage spaces looks quite interesting too.
I'm with you here. I use Windows 8 day-to-day. Metro isn't terrible, but it does suck for mouse or touchpad use. I don't think Metro is an improvement on Windows 7, for the most part.
The things I really like in Windows 8 are (almost) completely unrelated to Metro: the new task manager, file transfer dialogs, VHD/ISO mounting, better file association usability, the right-click menu on the "metro" button on the desktop, multi-monitor taskbars
Also, it really annoys me that Windows 8 supposedly supports EAP-TTLS (finally), but I've never been able to get it working. I still have to use SecureW2 to connect to my university's wireless
What a salt does do, however, is make rainbow tables impractical. It doesn't need to be private, you can store it in plaintext in the same table as the password hashes.
On average, perhaps, but I'm sure you can easily find Android devices that cost more than the Apple equivalent, for example. Also, I know men who own iPhones that have never touched a woman in their lives.
You haven't noticed Google Now? It's on the lock screen. That was the largest new addition in Jelly Bean, IIRC. Jelly Bean is an incremental upgrade, so there are less new features compared to 2.x to 4.0; it's more comparable to the upgrade between Froyo (2.2) and Gingerbread (2.3).
New features that I noticed: Extended notifications with additional actions (eg. SMS messages now show the entire message in the notification and have separate Reply and Call buttons), Google Now, smoother UI ("Project Butter"). I barely noticed the "dismiss all" button as it's been in AOSP builds since at least Gingerbread.
I'm not so sure you can do everything in ICS on a Gingerbread phone using just apps. Things like notification swipe-to-dismiss were added in AOSP gingerbread builds, but you won't get Jelly Bean's extended notifications, or "Project Butter", or even hardware-accelerated UI.
Obviously you're doing it wrong, because I never experience what you're describing on much more modest hardware. Youtube videos "skip" when I switch to fullscreen if they switch resolution (eg. from 360p to 1080p) but otherwise the transition is smooth on my Core 2 Duo at 2.33GHz with 2GB of RAM. My Android phone (running an aftermarket Jelly Bean ROM, not overclocked) never has any of the issues you describe, the SD card mounts once at boot and then never unmounts, even when connected to the PC, not is it anywhere near laggy in normal use, and it's noticeably smoother when heavily loaded than an iPhone 3GS, 4 and possibly the 4S.
People who care about open source drivers to the point where they won't use ATI or NVidia on their personal machines (me).
Are you aware that there are open-source drivers (ATi ones even have 3D) for ATi and nVidia?
While I can understand avoiding nVidia if you don't want to install a proprietary graphics stack, why avoid ATi/AMD when there's serviceable open-source drivers for all but the latest cards?
Indeed it can, but my guess is that this is primarily a way to beat antivirus heuristics rather than definitions (there are fairly simple ways already to beat signature detection)
I thought "return oriented" hacks were essentially just overwriting the return pointer from a defined location to malicious code? This looks like an evolution of ROC.
My guess is that it's a way to try and beat antivirus heuristics: None of the "gadgets" appear to do anything bad and can if fact come from "trusted" programs, but the combination of actions can be anything but innocent.
I don't think a "locked-in" Google ecosystem is going to happen. At least not any time soon. Google benefits immensely from not having to make or market hardware running Android. It's still primarily in the search and advertising businesses. Android and other "hardware" is simply a means to get targeted advertising and Google search to the consumer.
The "google" solution would have all these devices made by google.
Nexus phones are made by Samsung at the moment and Nexus Tablets by ASUS. Chromebooks are also made by other hardware vendors. The only "Google" device that is "made" by Google, AFAIK, is the Nexus Q
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If anyone collects data on you it's inevitable the government will try and take it
Fixed
Maybe it's because UEFI and Secure Boot are not the same thing.
That is correct. AFAIK, Secure Boot is an optional feature of UEFI
The exynos chipsets are a nightmare for device maintainers. The kernel source certainly helps, but the binary blobs for the device drivers, HAL, RIL, hwcomposer, etc. are still going to have to be hacked around.
Crime (felony in the US) vs Civil Offense, I guess?
This, also the RIL randomly dies (no signal, or mobile data disconnects), the compass is broken on some phones (although not the I777, I think) and a handful of other small things.
The two aren't mutually exclusive. For example, I've seen fast, yet bloated and unmaintainable C++.
In general, yes. But if you spend any time using larger APIs, examples of "how to do basic task X" become much more important. Examples of usage are a key part of any (large) API documentation.
For example, if the method foobar() in class Foo does what I want, how am I supposed to find it? Especially if the library has hundreds of classes spread across multiple namespaces.
Samsung doesn't do bad
You've obviously never tried to write wrappers for exynos blobs. The exynos chipsets and/or binary blobs are a nightmare to work with, and the main reason why the GS2 (and probably S3) have so many problems with CM. When it's not a Samsung-designed SoC (eg. OMAP or Snapdragon), it's a lot nicer. Sure, it's fairly easy to get a custom OS running on an exynos chipset, but getting it running well is... well...
I don't know about "power features". I haven't been able to use Hyper-V (my hardware is too old) but I do like that you can now mount ISOs and VHDs directly from explorer, the new file transfer dialog, task manager and multi-monitor taskbars, to start with. Storage spaces looks quite interesting too.
I'm with you here. I use Windows 8 day-to-day. Metro isn't terrible, but it does suck for mouse or touchpad use. I don't think Metro is an improvement on Windows 7, for the most part.
The things I really like in Windows 8 are (almost) completely unrelated to Metro: the new task manager, file transfer dialogs, VHD/ISO mounting, better file association usability, the right-click menu on the "metro" button on the desktop, multi-monitor taskbars
Also, it really annoys me that Windows 8 supposedly supports EAP-TTLS (finally), but I've never been able to get it working. I still have to use SecureW2 to connect to my university's wireless
I'd be surprised it Metro UI elements weren't largely XAML.
What a salt does do, however, is make rainbow tables impractical. It doesn't need to be private, you can store it in plaintext in the same table as the password hashes.
iOS updates are 600MB? That's easily 5 times the size of the Jelly Bean update for my phone. Do they include the assets for every device or something?
On average, perhaps, but I'm sure you can easily find Android devices that cost more than the Apple equivalent, for example. Also, I know men who own iPhones that have never touched a woman in their lives.
It happens in the Android world too. More due to the manufacturer's skin hiding the newer features than because the hardware can't support it, though.
You haven't noticed Google Now? It's on the lock screen. That was the largest new addition in Jelly Bean, IIRC. Jelly Bean is an incremental upgrade, so there are less new features compared to 2.x to 4.0; it's more comparable to the upgrade between Froyo (2.2) and Gingerbread (2.3).
New features that I noticed: Extended notifications with additional actions (eg. SMS messages now show the entire message in the notification and have separate Reply and Call buttons), Google Now, smoother UI ("Project Butter"). I barely noticed the "dismiss all" button as it's been in AOSP builds since at least Gingerbread.
I'm not so sure you can do everything in ICS on a Gingerbread phone using just apps. Things like notification swipe-to-dismiss were added in AOSP gingerbread builds, but you won't get Jelly Bean's extended notifications, or "Project Butter", or even hardware-accelerated UI.
Obviously you're doing it wrong, because I never experience what you're describing on much more modest hardware. Youtube videos "skip" when I switch to fullscreen if they switch resolution (eg. from 360p to 1080p) but otherwise the transition is smooth on my Core 2 Duo at 2.33GHz with 2GB of RAM. My Android phone (running an aftermarket Jelly Bean ROM, not overclocked) never has any of the issues you describe, the SD card mounts once at boot and then never unmounts, even when connected to the PC, not is it anywhere near laggy in normal use, and it's noticeably smoother when heavily loaded than an iPhone 3GS, 4 and possibly the 4S.
Someday linux devs will resign themselves to the fact that linux is (somewhat) great for servers and terrible for almost everything else.
Remind me how being the core of the most-used mobile operating system is "terrible for almost everything else"
People who care about open source drivers to the point where they won't use ATI or NVidia on their personal machines (me).
Are you aware that there are open-source drivers (ATi ones even have 3D) for ATi and nVidia?
While I can understand avoiding nVidia if you don't want to install a proprietary graphics stack, why avoid ATi/AMD when there's serviceable open-source drivers for all but the latest cards?
Indeed it can, but my guess is that this is primarily a way to beat antivirus heuristics rather than definitions (there are fairly simple ways already to beat signature detection)
I thought "return oriented" hacks were essentially just overwriting the return pointer from a defined location to malicious code? This looks like an evolution of ROC.
My guess is that it's a way to try and beat antivirus heuristics: None of the "gadgets" appear to do anything bad and can if fact come from "trusted" programs, but the combination of actions can be anything but innocent.
I don't think a "locked-in" Google ecosystem is going to happen. At least not any time soon. Google benefits immensely from not having to make or market hardware running Android. It's still primarily in the search and advertising businesses. Android and other "hardware" is simply a means to get targeted advertising and Google search to the consumer.
The "google" solution would have all these devices made by google.
Nexus phones are made by Samsung at the moment and Nexus Tablets by ASUS. Chromebooks are also made by other hardware vendors. The only "Google" device that is "made" by Google, AFAIK, is the Nexus Q