I hate *hate* the a-holes who text, leave their ringers on, and sometimes even answer their phones during movies. They ruin the experience for everyone.
That said - as a few others have pointed out - there are other (far better) ways to deal with the problem.
One way to deal with the few annoying people who do this stuff is simply to shame them. Another is just to ask them politely (and, if that doesn't sway them, complain to the theater manager).
Ignoring the safety issues, it's just a rude/pussy/jackass move to take the law into your own hands and jam everyone just because you don't have the balls (or the EI) to properly deal with the people who are actually causing the problem.
To use your analogy, as it is, corn is a combination of Corvette parts, and other parts from closely related GM (no pun intended) cars.
Even more than that, because of horizontal gene transfer, there's even the odd Toyota part mixed in as well.
The only difference is that now we can easily pick and choose parts from any car (or off the shelf) to mix in at will to get the best performance possible.
We're not *quite* to the stage where we can just make parts in our own machine shop though.
Choice is hard! Paying for only the features that you want is for suckers who don't value their time!;)
You only think you're kidding.
If you like doing that sort of thing for fun, that's one thing, but if you're going to spend three hours deciding whether or not to get an option that costs a hundred buks, and you make more than 30 bucks an hour, you really are wasting your time (and even that's assuming you only value your free time as much as you're paid).
Also, most of the "choice" you get with Dell isn't really real.
They don't actually offer all that many more configurations than Apple. They just offer a bunch of configurations that look different but are almost indistinguishable.
I could be wrong, but I suspect that their primary motivation is just muddle things and confuse people. They give you the illusion of choice so that you can feel good about how you picked out exactly the specs you wanted for a price that you can feel good about, but when you really get down to the meat of things, almost all of those choices don't make any tangible difference in terms of performance... or even cost (you may disagree, but if a few hundred bucks give or take on a purchase in the thousands is going to make or break you, you probably shouldn't be buying that thing in the first place).
Funny thing about that... it's not really that much cheaper.
Sure - you can go to Dell and put together a notebook for 500-bucks... but then you look at the bus, and the CPU speed, and the graphics card, and everything else and realize that the MacBooks and MacBook Pros come standard with things that are listed as options (if they're even available) for the Dells.
Once you get the configurations closer to parity, that price difference that looked so huge ends up being pretty small - and for that small difference, you get something that's significantly better engineered (which you and I place some value in).
About the only exception I'd make to that is memory - if you go to the default Apple Store, and add memory that way, you're pretty much guaranteed to get screwed (which is sad, especially considering how easy it is to upgrade the memory in Apple's notebooks yourself).
I realize that's little comfort for someone who is looking to spend as little as possible on a computer, but if that's somebody's goal, then a Mac probably isn't really for them.
One last thing - this is probably gonna sound stupid, but I would argue that the fact that there are so few configurations for Apple's notebooks is actually a Good Thing.
If you go to price notebooks from Dell or HP or most other vendors, you have to figure out if you want a Vostro or a Latitude, or a Precision, or whateve, plus you have to pick a model number for each.... and (even after a side-by-side comparison), it can be difficult to work out exactly what's what. For people who value their time, it might actually be worth spending a few hundred bucks more just to be able to say "I want a 17-inch, so that means a MacBook Pro" and then just to quickly select the details of their configuration.
People can complain that they want more choice, but having a bunch of nearly equivalent versions of hardware isn't about choice - it's about confusing the customer with the illusion of choice, and making it impossible (or, at least, arduous) for most people to figure out what the best deal is, so they'll end up spending more money on average (because most people aren't exactly going to use the simplex method when buying a computer).
Not only that but I know quite a few MDs (including my sister) who would have bought an iPhone but the third-party lockout kept the apps they need off of the iPhone.
The Web 2.0 half-solution would be fine, but it's worthless when they work in hospitals with no WiFi and (at best) patchy EDGE.
Locking out third party apps is closing the doors to a lot of well-monied people who would otherwise love to buy an iPhone.
I am comfortable with what Apple needs to do to maintain its relationship with AT&T wrt the iPhone. Without AT&T (and I'm not saying I like AT&T), there'd be no iPhone.
I think that's somewhat of an exaggeration.
I actually have a SIM unlocked iPhone and (other than visual voicemail) everything seems to work fine on T-Mobile.
Getting it there took some doing, but Apple (or the carrier) could easily have set up the network preferences and proxies just as is done with every other GSM PDA.
I cannot believe that people who hacked their phones (or support the hack philosophy) to work outside the intent of Apple are up in arms that they've taken matters into their own hands.
I'm certainly not surprised or up in arms (though I did have a small glimmer of hope that I'd be able to follow the updates and get to use all of the new features).
When I unlocked my iPhone, I did it knowing what I was getting myself into, and knowing that I was voiding my warranty.
If AT&T had coverage where I live (or even if I could just have manually switched networks when I'm at home), I wouldn't have bothered.
So, I'll be a little disappointed that when the update comes out that allows for search, highlighting, copy-and-paste, and resolving all human conflict with a single finger tap, I won't be able to use it, but that's pretty much what I expected, and it's an acceptable loss for me (at least until I move somewhere with acceptable AT&T coverage.... which actually seems to include everyplace around me except for a one square block area that I happen live on the inside border of).
When people pay the extra money for replacement white Apple ear buds because they "look cool" instead of buying quality head phones with better quality for the same price or a set of cheapies from the dollar store.
About that.... I broke my iPod ear buds recently, and decided to try something new.
First I went with some of the Shure E4Cs that I heard all sorts of good things about. Maybe my ears are just weirdly shaped, but none of the plastic or foam sleaves felt right. Also, I could hear all sorts of noises that I didn't want to (myself breathing; bone-conducted sound from walking; electrical noise from my iPod's amp; etc.).
Then I decided to just try the el chepo Koss $5 ear buds.
They actually sounded a lot better than the Shures (because of all the missing noise), but they were uncomfortable and kept falling out.
Finally, I broke down and got another pair of the Apple Earbuds.
They were even better than the ones that came with my iPod. Molded to fit better; rid of the worthless foam cover; more sturdily built.
Given my druthers, I'd just assume not walk around with Apple ads sticking out of my ears, but having tried both extremes, they were simply the best choice for me.
Also - your price vs format comparison completely neglects quality and usability.
I don't want to play Oggs or WMAs, but I do want controls that don't get in my way. Not being as clunky or fugly as the competition doesn't hurt either.
Places like where I live (Phoenix, AZ), that could actually be a Good Thing.
It's so hot during the summer that shaded parking is a big deal. If you leave your car uncovered (even just for a little while), it's unbearable when you return (and, of course, you'll be using energy to cool it off if you turn on the AC).
Covering all of the parking lots (and maybe even freeways) with reflectors or solar panels might actually be quite a boon.
I'd imagine that the same is true in most places where there's plenty of year-round sun exposure.
Of course - if you're still worried, you could always throw solar collectors into space and beam the power down with microwaves (which - to preempt your objection - turns out to be rather safe).
I'm pretty sure that's an issue with GSM using time division multiplexing, and that it has nothing to do with the iPhone, itself (except inasmuch as it is a GSM handset).
Sorry to reply to myself but one big thing that I forgot - a better volume control
Some people complain it's too quiet... I complain that (in a quiet environment) it's too loud.
We could all be satisfied if the volume control used logarithmic scaling or something clever to allow me to turn the volume down as low as I want it (without it going to silence) and to allow the pro-deaf people to make it as loud as the hardware amp will allow.
For bonus points - add in an adjustable feature to compensate for changes to the ambient noise. Every time I walk in or out of a building, I have to manually adjust the volume, and considering that there's a mic built into the headphones, I don't see any reason why that couldn't be automated.
While I'm at it - a few more things...
Exposé
Spotlight
Undo/redo
Terminal.app
SPAM filtering for Mail (just in case that wasn't implied by the more consistent handling of Mail synchronization)
More gestures (what happened to all the cool things from FingerWorks?)
All the obvious stuff people have already said (unlocking; GPS receiver; voice dialing; per-contact ringtones; an actual API for 3'rd party apps; and, of course, 3G)
Keep my folders and rules synced with Mail.app, and keep track of which messages I've read whether I did it on the iPhone or on my MacBook.
Select, Delete, Copy, and Paste
Other people have said it but this would be huge.
Open a bookmark folder in 'tabs'
The ability to open all of the pages (or RSS feeds) in different tabs is a great feature of the desktop Safari, and should be carried over to the iPhone's Safari.
Consistent handling of orientation
For some reason, sometimes tilting the iPhone changes orientation from portrait to landscape, and sometimes it doesn't.
As much as possible, it should behave the same way, regardless of context.
The really sad thing is that I filed a bug report about that back in 2005 - which was flagged "Duplicate/2825136", but (as far as I know), it's still not available in Leopard.
This just seems like something an intern could get up and running in under a month.
In the meantime, will have to try out Transmit (I've been using Cyberduck and Fugu, but neither one is great).
You do realize that the OpenMoko project was around while iPhone was nothing but a rumour
I was not aware of that.
All I can find about it on Wikipedia is "2006", which could mean January, 2006, when nothing was known of the iPhone, or it could mean December, 2006, when I was seeing pretty detailed rumors about a touch phone that Apple was about to announce at MacWorld.
I hope you also have not been affected so much by the reality distortion field that you do not realize that the iPhone was in fact not the first touch-panel pda phone?
Of course I realize that.
Have you ever used any of them though?
The resistive touch panel PDA/phones I've tried just don't work all that well compared with the capacitive touch panel on the iPhone.
Then there's the gesture interface.
Just try the single-finger gestures on an iPhone (even the ones as simple as taps) and tell me that it's not dramatically better than an iPaq or a Treo.
Apple didn't think of either of those - they got them when they acquired FingerWorks (at least, that's the story as I understand it).
As far as I can tell after a little research, I shouldn't have brought up OpenMoko just because it lacks some version of that (maybe I'm wrong, but I certainly couldn't find any evidence that it's more than a standard single-finger resistive touch screen; by all means, please correct me if I'm wrong).
If you think that all the iPhone has going for it is looks, then I really wonder if you've ever actually tried one. The interface is incredible, and more intuitive than any other phone or smart-phone I've tried. For all the bitching I've heard about the keyboard, I've found it remarkably usable (then again, I may be biased because I've been using a TouchStream keyboard for years).
I certainly don't think that the iPhone is perfect (only 2.5G; no GPS; no voice dialing; crappy "Web 2.0" only 3'rd party software rather than an official SDK; various software issues like not having built in mail rules; goofy things like not being able to rotate between portrait and landscape when the keyboard is visible or in all applications; *cough* AT&T only *cough*).
Despite those shortcomings, it's not an exaggeration to say that the iPhone is easily the best smart-phone (or plain old mobile phone) I've ever used.
Beauty and industrial design is a plus, but the iPhone has so much more going for it than just that.
It seems to me that if either of us has been affected by this mythical "reality distortion field", it's you.
Maybe you need installable third party apps? Maybe you enjoy using an inferior interface? Maybe you'd rather trade usability for a few features that don't really matter much? Maybe it's kind of silly to ask leading questions to give people the impression that you think certain absurd things?
Of course it's not the ONLY Linux app I've ever tried. Do you honestly believe that there are people out there who would (or even could) do that to themselves?
You can call it biased and inflammatory if you want, but it's a perfect example of taking something beautiful and well engineered, copying it, and making something that's almost unusable.
I couldn't believe how bad simple things like wheel acceleration and fonts were.
I don't doubt that it was fun for you, but this is something for people who want to run Linux on their toaster. Once you remove the novelty of that, there's no there there.
iPod Linux might be a particularly bad case, but it's typical of FOSS.
If you're not happy with my iPod example, how about OpenMoko? It's like somebody went out of their way to make an iPhone clone that totally misses the point.
To be fair - I haven't used the latest versions of Open Office, Gnome, KDE, so maybe things have changed dramatically in the last year or so, but my experience with iPod Linux was absolutely typical and representative of my experience with other open source software.
Developers make shoddy, half-assed copies of closed source software and then bitch and moan when somebody points out that it's a poor imitation that totally misses the point. It's the user's fault! We're just biased against Linux!
It's probably no coincidence that the one piece of open source software I have used (and actually continue to use on a daily basis) with a UI that doesn't suck is Eclipse. In addition to having solid commercial roots, I'm sure that its quality stems in no small part from the fact that it's used primarily by developers (and even then, it leaves some things to be desired).
You say yourself that you're a longtime Linux user - well I'm sorry, but there's your problem. You're too close to this to see it clearly. You are by definition someone who is willing to put open source ahead of usability.
This is why I like OS X.
It's certainly not perfect but Apple has teams of people who sweat the small stuff. You can feel it - it permeates almost every aspect of the OS.
In the interest of equal time, it's also why I like Microsoft's Office 2007 Ribbons.
Somebody actually went out and did usability testing, and measured things like how long it takes a novice or expert to perform a given task. They moved things around, played with it, and spent a lot of time and effort on things that most of the FOSS community seems to think are hardly an afterthought.
Just for emphasis - I'm not against open source.
In fact, I would argue that by being realistic and pointing out things that can and should be fixed, I'm doing more to promote the use of FOSS than someone who turns a blind eye and pretends that it's all wine and roses.
I'm not saying that the patents don't help by providing protection (or hurt cloning, depending on your perspective).
I'm just saying that if the open source community tried to copy the ribbon interface they would botch it horribly.
Just as I'm quite certain (without having tried it) that despite being a blatant clone of the iPhone, the Meizu M8's touch UI sucks.
Heck - Microsoft couldn't even do a decent job copying ribbons from Office to Internet Explorer (not to mention that, interestingly enough, at least according to Wikipedia, they haven't even patented ribbons yet).
Patents are nice and all, but if the cloners are going to eff up the execution that badly, I don't think I'd worry so much if I were Apple, Adobe or Microsoft.
Slashdot Mirror
I hate * hate * the a-holes who text, leave their ringers on, and sometimes even answer their phones during movies. They ruin the experience for everyone.
That said - as a few others have pointed out - there are other (far better) ways to deal with the problem.
One way to deal with the few annoying people who do this stuff is simply to shame them. Another is just to ask them politely (and, if that doesn't sway them, complain to the theater manager).
Ignoring the safety issues, it's just a rude/pussy/jackass move to take the law into your own hands and jam everyone just because you don't have the balls (or the EI) to properly deal with the people who are actually causing the problem.
This sounded kinda cool when I first heard about it... but it also kinda pegged my bullshit detector.
It's interesting to hear from someone who actually knows about this stuff.
Well... I guess that's a good way to look at things at least.
I just bought a subscription to dot-mac last week because I got tired of being stuck with POP with my Gmail account.
Actually... yeah. They are.
To use your analogy, as it is, corn is a combination of Corvette parts, and other parts from closely related GM (no pun intended) cars.
Even more than that, because of horizontal gene transfer, there's even the odd Toyota part mixed in as well.
The only difference is that now we can easily pick and choose parts from any car (or off the shelf) to mix in at will to get the best performance possible.
We're not *quite* to the stage where we can just make parts in our own machine shop though.
Breeding is just a slow, imprecise way to manipulate genomes on a genetic level.
You only think you're kidding.
If you like doing that sort of thing for fun, that's one thing, but if you're going to spend three hours deciding whether or not to get an option that costs a hundred buks, and you make more than 30 bucks an hour, you really are wasting your time (and even that's assuming you only value your free time as much as you're paid).
Also, most of the "choice" you get with Dell isn't really real.
They don't actually offer all that many more configurations than Apple. They just offer a bunch of configurations that look different but are almost indistinguishable.
I could be wrong, but I suspect that their primary motivation is just muddle things and confuse people. They give you the illusion of choice so that you can feel good about how you picked out exactly the specs you wanted for a price that you can feel good about, but when you really get down to the meat of things, almost all of those choices don't make any tangible difference in terms of performance... or even cost (you may disagree, but if a few hundred bucks give or take on a purchase in the thousands is going to make or break you, you probably shouldn't be buying that thing in the first place).
...cheap hardware like Dell does.Funny thing about that... it's not really that much cheaper.
Sure - you can go to Dell and put together a notebook for 500-bucks... but then you look at the bus, and the CPU speed, and the graphics card, and everything else and realize that the MacBooks and MacBook Pros come standard with things that are listed as options (if they're even available) for the Dells.
Once you get the configurations closer to parity, that price difference that looked so huge ends up being pretty small - and for that small difference, you get something that's significantly better engineered (which you and I place some value in).
About the only exception I'd make to that is memory - if you go to the default Apple Store, and add memory that way, you're pretty much guaranteed to get screwed (which is sad, especially considering how easy it is to upgrade the memory in Apple's notebooks yourself).
I realize that's little comfort for someone who is looking to spend as little as possible on a computer, but if that's somebody's goal, then a Mac probably isn't really for them.
One last thing - this is probably gonna sound stupid, but I would argue that the fact that there are so few configurations for Apple's notebooks is actually a Good Thing.
If you go to price notebooks from Dell or HP or most other vendors, you have to figure out if you want a Vostro or a Latitude, or a Precision, or whateve, plus you have to pick a model number for each.... and (even after a side-by-side comparison), it can be difficult to work out exactly what's what. For people who value their time, it might actually be worth spending a few hundred bucks more just to be able to say "I want a 17-inch, so that means a MacBook Pro" and then just to quickly select the details of their configuration.
People can complain that they want more choice, but having a bunch of nearly equivalent versions of hardware isn't about choice - it's about confusing the customer with the illusion of choice, and making it impossible (or, at least, arduous) for most people to figure out what the best deal is, so they'll end up spending more money on average (because most people aren't exactly going to use the simplex method when buying a computer).
Not only that but I know quite a few MDs (including my sister) who would have bought an iPhone but the third-party lockout kept the apps they need off of the iPhone.
The Web 2.0 half-solution would be fine, but it's worthless when they work in hospitals with no WiFi and (at best) patchy EDGE.
Locking out third party apps is closing the doors to a lot of well-monied people who would otherwise love to buy an iPhone.
I think that's somewhat of an exaggeration.
I actually have a SIM unlocked iPhone and (other than visual voicemail) everything seems to work fine on T-Mobile.
Getting it there took some doing, but Apple (or the carrier) could easily have set up the network preferences and proxies just as is done with every other GSM PDA.
I cannot believe that people who hacked their phones (or support the hack philosophy) to work outside the intent of Apple are up in arms that they've taken matters into their own hands.I'm certainly not surprised or up in arms (though I did have a small glimmer of hope that I'd be able to follow the updates and get to use all of the new features).
When I unlocked my iPhone, I did it knowing what I was getting myself into, and knowing that I was voiding my warranty.
If AT&T had coverage where I live (or even if I could just have manually switched networks when I'm at home), I wouldn't have bothered.
So, I'll be a little disappointed that when the update comes out that allows for search, highlighting, copy-and-paste, and resolving all human conflict with a single finger tap, I won't be able to use it, but that's pretty much what I expected, and it's an acceptable loss for me (at least until I move somewhere with acceptable AT&T coverage.... which actually seems to include everyplace around me except for a one square block area that I happen live on the inside border of).
About that.... I broke my iPod ear buds recently, and decided to try something new.
First I went with some of the Shure E4Cs that I heard all sorts of good things about. Maybe my ears are just weirdly shaped, but none of the plastic or foam sleaves felt right. Also, I could hear all sorts of noises that I didn't want to (myself breathing; bone-conducted sound from walking; electrical noise from my iPod's amp; etc.).
Then I decided to just try the el chepo Koss $5 ear buds.
They actually sounded a lot better than the Shures (because of all the missing noise), but they were uncomfortable and kept falling out.
Finally, I broke down and got another pair of the Apple Earbuds.
They were even better than the ones that came with my iPod. Molded to fit better; rid of the worthless foam cover; more sturdily built.
Given my druthers, I'd just assume not walk around with Apple ads sticking out of my ears, but having tried both extremes, they were simply the best choice for me.
Also - your price vs format comparison completely neglects quality and usability.
I don't want to play Oggs or WMAs, but I do want controls that don't get in my way. Not being as clunky or fugly as the competition doesn't hurt either.
Without a doubt (not to mention the environmental impact of launching everything we'd need into orbit using chemical rockets).
Places like where I live (Phoenix, AZ), that could actually be a Good Thing.
It's so hot during the summer that shaded parking is a big deal. If you leave your car uncovered (even just for a little while), it's unbearable when you return (and, of course, you'll be using energy to cool it off if you turn on the AC).
Covering all of the parking lots (and maybe even freeways) with reflectors or solar panels might actually be quite a boon.
I'd imagine that the same is true in most places where there's plenty of year-round sun exposure.
Of course - if you're still worried, you could always throw solar collectors into space and beam the power down with microwaves (which - to preempt your objection - turns out to be rather safe).
I'm pretty sure that's an issue with GSM using time division multiplexing, and that it has nothing to do with the iPhone, itself (except inasmuch as it is a GSM handset).
Sorry to reply to myself but one big thing that I forgot - a better volume control
Some people complain it's too quiet... I complain that (in a quiet environment) it's too loud.
We could all be satisfied if the volume control used logarithmic scaling or something clever to allow me to turn the volume down as low as I want it (without it going to silence) and to allow the pro-deaf people to make it as loud as the hardware amp will allow.
For bonus points - add in an adjustable feature to compensate for changes to the ambient noise. Every time I walk in or out of a building, I have to manually adjust the volume, and considering that there's a mic built into the headphones, I don't see any reason why that couldn't be automated.
While I'm at it - a few more things...
...if they'd just support rotated keyboards in all applications...Agreed. It's just stupid that they didn't do that already with the initial release.
Better Mail.app integration
Keep my folders and rules synced with Mail.app, and keep track of which messages I've read whether I did it on the iPhone or on my MacBook.
Select, Delete, Copy, and Paste
Other people have said it but this would be huge.
Open a bookmark folder in 'tabs'
The ability to open all of the pages (or RSS feeds) in different tabs is a great feature of the desktop Safari, and should be carried over to the iPhone's Safari.
Consistent handling of orientation
For some reason, sometimes tilting the iPhone changes orientation from portrait to landscape, and sometimes it doesn't.
As much as possible, it should behave the same way, regardless of context.
OK - now that looks cool.
Thanks a ton!
The really sad thing is that I filed a bug report about that back in 2005 - which was flagged "Duplicate/2825136", but (as far as I know), it's still not available in Leopard.
This just seems like something an intern could get up and running in under a month.
In the meantime, will have to try out Transmit (I've been using Cyberduck and Fugu, but neither one is great).
Now if only they would do this for sftp.
I was not aware of that.
All I can find about it on Wikipedia is "2006", which could mean January, 2006, when nothing was known of the iPhone, or it could mean December, 2006, when I was seeing pretty detailed rumors about a touch phone that Apple was about to announce at MacWorld.
I hope you also have not been affected so much by the reality distortion field that you do not realize that the iPhone was in fact not the first touch-panel pda phone?Of course I realize that.
Have you ever used any of them though?
The resistive touch panel PDA/phones I've tried just don't work all that well compared with the capacitive touch panel on the iPhone.
Then there's the gesture interface.
Just try the single-finger gestures on an iPhone (even the ones as simple as taps) and tell me that it's not dramatically better than an iPaq or a Treo.
Apple didn't think of either of those - they got them when they acquired FingerWorks (at least, that's the story as I understand it).
As far as I can tell after a little research, I shouldn't have brought up OpenMoko just because it lacks some version of that (maybe I'm wrong, but I certainly couldn't find any evidence that it's more than a standard single-finger resistive touch screen; by all means, please correct me if I'm wrong).
If you think that all the iPhone has going for it is looks, then I really wonder if you've ever actually tried one. The interface is incredible, and more intuitive than any other phone or smart-phone I've tried. For all the bitching I've heard about the keyboard, I've found it remarkably usable (then again, I may be biased because I've been using a TouchStream keyboard for years).
I certainly don't think that the iPhone is perfect (only 2.5G; no GPS; no voice dialing; crappy "Web 2.0" only 3'rd party software rather than an official SDK; various software issues like not having built in mail rules; goofy things like not being able to rotate between portrait and landscape when the keyboard is visible or in all applications; *cough* AT&T only *cough*).
Despite those shortcomings, it's not an exaggeration to say that the iPhone is easily the best smart-phone (or plain old mobile phone) I've ever used.
Beauty and industrial design is a plus, but the iPhone has so much more going for it than just that.
It seems to me that if either of us has been affected by this mythical "reality distortion field", it's you.
Maybe you need installable third party apps? Maybe you enjoy using an inferior interface? Maybe you'd rather trade usability for a few features that don't really matter much? Maybe it's kind of silly to ask leading questions to give people the impression that you think certain absurd things?
Who knows?
Of course it's not the ONLY Linux app I've ever tried. Do you honestly believe that there are people out there who would (or even could) do that to themselves?
You can call it biased and inflammatory if you want, but it's a perfect example of taking something beautiful and well engineered, copying it, and making something that's almost unusable.
I couldn't believe how bad simple things like wheel acceleration and fonts were.
I don't doubt that it was fun for you, but this is something for people who want to run Linux on their toaster. Once you remove the novelty of that, there's no there there.
iPod Linux might be a particularly bad case, but it's typical of FOSS.
If you're not happy with my iPod example, how about OpenMoko? It's like somebody went out of their way to make an iPhone clone that totally misses the point.
To be fair - I haven't used the latest versions of Open Office, Gnome, KDE, so maybe things have changed dramatically in the last year or so, but my experience with iPod Linux was absolutely typical and representative of my experience with other open source software.
Developers make shoddy, half-assed copies of closed source software and then bitch and moan when somebody points out that it's a poor imitation that totally misses the point. It's the user's fault! We're just biased against Linux!
It's probably no coincidence that the one piece of open source software I have used (and actually continue to use on a daily basis) with a UI that doesn't suck is Eclipse. In addition to having solid commercial roots, I'm sure that its quality stems in no small part from the fact that it's used primarily by developers (and even then, it leaves some things to be desired).
You say yourself that you're a longtime Linux user - well I'm sorry, but there's your problem. You're too close to this to see it clearly. You are by definition someone who is willing to put open source ahead of usability.
This is why I like OS X.
It's certainly not perfect but Apple has teams of people who sweat the small stuff. You can feel it - it permeates almost every aspect of the OS.
In the interest of equal time, it's also why I like Microsoft's Office 2007 Ribbons.
Somebody actually went out and did usability testing, and measured things like how long it takes a novice or expert to perform a given task. They moved things around, played with it, and spent a lot of time and effort on things that most of the FOSS community seems to think are hardly an afterthought.
Just for emphasis - I'm not against open source.
In fact, I would argue that by being realistic and pointing out things that can and should be fixed, I'm doing more to promote the use of FOSS than someone who turns a blind eye and pretends that it's all wine and roses.
I'm not saying that the patents don't help by providing protection (or hurt cloning, depending on your perspective).
I'm just saying that if the open source community tried to copy the ribbon interface they would botch it horribly.
Just as I'm quite certain (without having tried it) that despite being a blatant clone of the iPhone, the Meizu M8's touch UI sucks.
Heck - Microsoft couldn't even do a decent job copying ribbons from Office to Internet Explorer (not to mention that, interestingly enough, at least according to Wikipedia, they haven't even patented ribbons yet).
Patents are nice and all, but if the cloners are going to eff up the execution that badly, I don't think I'd worry so much if I were Apple, Adobe or Microsoft.
They don't even need a patent for either of those.
Have you ever tried iPod Linux?
That's even the same hardware as an iPod, but just about every aspect of the iPod UI is horribly botched to the point of being torturous to use.
I'm sure "The Community" trying to copy Apple(/FingerWorks') MultiTouch UI or MS' Ribbons would fare about as well.
I didn't believe that when I read it so I worked it out and found that that' actually true (to within an order of magnitude).