IMO, we're approaching the point where mobile devices will be like PCs - you can install whatever OS you want on them. Right now the closest thing is people replacing Android with CyanogenMod; even though Cyanogen is effectively an Android derivative, the popularity of doing so demonstrates that alternative mobile OSs can be relatively successful even if not included by OEMs.
Not exactly so. CyanogenMod is what it says it is, a MOD aka Modding. CM7 use same Linux operating system what those OEM's offers unless they can compile Linux with correct drivers. And as Linux OS is GPLv2 OEM needs to release code for it so Community at least sees how they have modified it, even that they offer drivers only as binary blobs.
Switching from OEM Android to CM7 isn't same thing as installing a another operating system. That would be if someone would install Windows Phone 7.5 to replace Android or if someone could manage to swap Linux operating system to CE operating system in Android.
The fact is, people have got taste with Android that they can flash a custom Android to their phone. Removing all the OEM bundled applications and get Android to be slimmer and more bug free and then install wanted applications afterwards. Some people have managed to install Android to Maemo/Harmattan phones, but it isn't either changing OS as Maemo (aka Harmattan) as well use Linux as operating system. It is just switching a Linux distribution to another.
And who dreams that at somepoint we could buy a empty phone and then install to it a wanted software system by sticking a MicroSD card in or choosing a version in store what comes such as preinstalled? That is a dream... Not even Microsoft want that to happen on PC side, so why it would want that happend on mobile devices?
It would demand that OEM's really understands that hardware system and software system ain't same thing and that if hardware gets broken, you need to fix it by warranty if software has nothing to do with it (like button brokes physically or MicroUSB plug gets broken).
Closed source drivers aren't too much of a problem on Android, since the binary blobs can be loaded in the same way, and are only an issue if they don't work as expected. Most of the problems seem to come from the fact that Android does things differently (e.g. no X server), which means that those drivers have to be rewritten to work with GNU Linux.
GNU does not have nothing to do with Linux OS and its drivers. And X server does not belong to GNU so any graphical code what is done for Android, does not need to touch GNU at all if wanted to get work on desktop distribution.
Linux isn't a microkernel, it is a monolithic kernel == operating system.
Kernel is synonym to a operating system (actually vice versa). Microkernel is just a one part of the operating system, servers completing other part.
Tizen, WebOS, Android... All those use same Linux operating system what is a Unix-clone (how many thinks they have Unix in their smartphones or tablets when usin Linux or XNU?). I didn't mention at all the middleware, software platforms, virtual machines, system programs and libraries. Because they matter to software using them, not to user who use just the GUI. OS just rules what all other software you can manage to run on that device.
As people mistake IBM PC and PC to mean two different things (IBM PC is the first PC and its ascends are PC clones). And they say that Mac's are PC's because PC stands for "Personal Computer" and it means every desktop/laptop computer.
But think about it. "Personal" and "Computer".... what does those mean? My smartphone is computer, and it is more personal to me than my desktop computer. If I would have tablet, it would be a computer and even more personal than my desktop computer.
My desktop computer or laptop are "Shared Computers". I mean, they ain't just for me, but for everyone else who stays on my house because I have separated user accounts. But my phone or (if I would have) tablet... I would not allow other people to use them unless I just show something or give them to use specific application. My contact list is mine... my SMS's are mine.... emails... and so on... They are my personal data.
But I hope that Android would gain a support for tablets to have accounts. With or without passwords. But just so that different person could start a browser with own use history and so on. The Android still could be activated for single user but...
Or should it be so that we can trust our family members and friends that they do not read our emails or go browsing history trough? Well. I know I can. But browser history is something what usually pops up by accident (And no, I dont mean any adult pages etc) what shows something. But I dont want to start any special mode where to browse so it does not get in history. I want history as it helps browsing. It is my personal WWW history for me when I search background data or I confirm other people arguments. Like someone is talking about Hitler and I want to do search about arguments. I might end up to many sites about nazis and Hitler what does not mean anything to me personally. But someone who might find out history, can think that I am some new kind Nazi fanatic ready to explode...
Just reading something from the WWW these days can give other people a reason to categorize you as specific kind person. Was it about history, politics, religion or even about relationships... They can be to others a very scary signal that something is wrong with me. How many man would be happy/scared to find out that wife/girlfriend has browsed past few days about reasons/ways (not) coming pregnant? How about she just wanted to learn those as her friend is having problems?
There isn't "I don't have anything to hide" reasons in anywhere. Even small daily things or intrest for other people when not even sharing same opinion or believes can be very harmful for any one.
I like the Google Gmail application habit to show only single account at time. And then you get notification of every account separately. That really gives the trust to family as they can just say "Hey, you got two new emails... Do you want to come read them?" instead just popping them in front of you or placing them to one and same email box with just number so you dont know who got it.
With Gmail, it is possible to share tablet with family. But I agree, market and settings would need a passcode so young kids would not remove/buy anything
OMG! Every Android phone is insecure as well! As you can just press "Buy" button from Android market. OMG! Most PC's and Mac's with Steam is insecure as well! As many Steam user do not revoke credit card info from it what allows just two click bying games.
Oh well... at least "Are you sure" should be there.
I love the Steam where you add games (and/or magazines) to your cart and then you buy everything out at once. And when doing it, it list every product and demands you to tick "I accept" and then your purhace is done.
With Android market I hope there would come change to add applications and games to cart and then purhace them as one.
Example, now with Android Market celebrated 10 billion downloads, there have been 10 days offers where every day 10 new paid application or game is 0.10 cent. So I usually purhace 5-10 of them. So now my bank note is after 4 days a full of 0.10 cent deals....
Well, it must have something to do with Google Checkout system.
I can agree that somepoint they are just in the way. And I dont remember the time when I last time changed volume while on the call. It must have been when I bought phone and I set volume to max. As Nokia phones does not have so strong volume if not using speaker option and... well... you know speaker option.
I use headset anyway and on that I like the physical volume scroll if having cables. But otherwise it is from screen setting what matters.
And I would cladly take 4:3 ration over any 16:9/16:10 ration screens. As I LOVE to use device in vertical direction instead just in horizontal and I want to see more from webpages without scrolling.
The 4:3 is great for pads.... give me a iPad with 12-15" screen and I would be very happy with it as drawing board.
Actually many hardware problems can be fixed with software.
You can not change physical switch position, but with software you can change how long you need to keep switch in specific position until it will do something. So you can fix most of the problems with software when problems are that device is turned off or put on sleep mode by accident touch.
Of course software can not add a external volume buttons, but with software you can bind some existing buttons to work as such (if there is such buttons). Or you can add a easy to access virtual button to offer those functions. It is more a hack but can work for many.
The sensitivity of touch screen can be fixed with software, as software rules again how the input data is being used. Better to have very sensitivite input touch screen and then slow down outpus what with software.
What comes to privacy, well, that can be fixed with software as well, place PIN code or something similar. Add lock to every application and make a easy way to delete history of web browsing or book history etc.
And Google is in fact making money from Android - yes, they are giving the base for free but to get the Google logo and bundled software you have to pay - and a lot of manufacturers pay for that.
Erh.... Do you have sources?
All what I have heard Google to say is "Android is open source and free to get, our apps are free and we give your share from ads when device user does a search with google search bar."
Manufacturers and operators are those who get money from Google, and google does as well. Everyone enjoys...
You don't type commands to terminal, you type program names and their options in correct order. Then you combine them with used shell (terminal) functions like pipe, , alias and so on.
What ugly and useless Windows desktop (aka windows shell)? I have replaced explorer with plasma desktop and I have like desktop environment like I have when running Linux. All widgets on desktops, own wanted panels and widgets on it, KickOff as menu, Dolphin as filemanager etc.
Only thing what shows to other people that it ain't pure KDE SC, is that I can replace WDM with KWin. And I love KWin as it is best window manager what is out there.
I don't see much complaining about Firefox, Chrome etc removing the old style menu. Seems to be just another anti-MS/Office rant. Boring.
Switching from menubar to A style is totally different thing than replacing menubar with B menu.
Change is not always good. Change is not always needed.
Young people want usually to change things so they can gain merits and they have need to try new things.
Your argument about grandmother telling how things were better in old days, is not valid. As many things were better in the old times. But it does not either mean that we have not improved anything.
But just fixing something because it is need to sell new versions and to separate from every competitor ain't good purpose to fix things.
Why did Microsoft copy Ribbon from Macromedia and Lotus? Why didn't Microsoft invent something own? Did you know that Ribbon isn't Microsoft invention?
Did you know that one and single user inteface does not usually work well every possible situation? We usually need to have multiple different user interfaces on every different situation and task. Just forcing to have single UI everywhere isn't smart thing. Like pushing a Ribbon to filemanager, office writer, office bredsheet or office vision. Metro to phone, to tablet, to desktop, to servers. Everyone else has being learning that better make a user interface what fits to the situation, environment and tool what user is using. It is said that Microsoft is chasing taillights, and it might be the case again...
I love Unity, as it is so simple that people don't anymore ask questions how to get desktop work as they want because it is impossible to tweak Unity without third party effects from private PPA and even then it is so simple that people just try to focus their work instead fighting with it.
With simple animation (what is visual information) can user be distracted or helped. Question is about the animation length, type and when it does occur.
I had training wheels in my bicycle when I was 4, and I had them the whole 3-5 minutes... It was my first bicycle and my first try and I got it right from the beginning. I went to our own hill where the asphalt road came to house and I came down from there. So I only needed training wheels to turn around up there. My dad felt frustrating as he needed to spend few minutes more to un-screw them.
Everyone should keep open mind and eyes and ears open. Human can learn a lot that way, only finding out even much later to understand that information what learned long time ago.
If you learn basics, you can master many things and live without problems. But if you do not want learn the basics, then you live with problems all the time.
Information is power and control. When someone knows how stuff works and you don't, they have advantage of you. And they will use it to benefit from you. As one thing you can trust, and it is a creed.
People do not need to know how to write perfect computer code or even write the computer code, but they need to know what computer code means. They do not need to know how CPU works calculating 1's and 0's, but they need to know what CPU is, what difference is with architectures and how the speed is gained. Neither they do not need to memorize whole workflow. but only the every part of it how they affect the results so they can change any part of workflow if wanted.
Learn and observe all the time. Usually much later you just find out that you can combine observed things to new things. You can have a problem for what you find help from totally different area.
Whole life is like science. When you learn what the thermodynamic is, you can use it to get flying devices or better house heating etc etc. When you learn how to mix different chemicals you get a huge skills from it etc. There basicly is no information what is not useful at somepoint of life. And no matter how small it is, it can result much bigger innovations or helpfulness than it was originally.
Instead if people just keep eyes and ears focused to only interested things, they will miss a lot of information what would give them and others much better quality of life.
Experienced users want it the way they got used to.
Counter argument: Experienced users do know what they need and how they get it. They are ready to throw away learned things to get a better one, but not ready to throw away better one for worse.
Basic/New user does not know what they need and how to get it but only what they want.
A good consultant is the one who does not give a client what client wants, but what client needs. A good interface is such what adapts to user needs, and not force user to learn how interface was designed. So the interface needs to be very flexible, and configurable. By default, it needs to be configured to work with new users so they learn it fast, but it needs to be so flexible and easy to use so experienced users can change it so how it fits to their needs. (easy to use != easy to learn)
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24 is....
IMO, we're approaching the point where mobile devices will be like PCs - you can install whatever OS you want on them. Right now the closest thing is people replacing Android with CyanogenMod; even though Cyanogen is effectively an Android derivative, the popularity of doing so demonstrates that alternative mobile OSs can be relatively successful even if not included by OEMs.
Not exactly so. CyanogenMod is what it says it is, a MOD aka Modding. CM7 use same Linux operating system what those OEM's offers unless they can compile Linux with correct drivers. And as Linux OS is GPLv2 OEM needs to release code for it so Community at least sees how they have modified it, even that they offer drivers only as binary blobs.
Switching from OEM Android to CM7 isn't same thing as installing a another operating system. That would be if someone would install Windows Phone 7.5 to replace Android or if someone could manage to swap Linux operating system to CE operating system in Android.
The fact is, people have got taste with Android that they can flash a custom Android to their phone. Removing all the OEM bundled applications and get Android to be slimmer and more bug free and then install wanted applications afterwards.
Some people have managed to install Android to Maemo/Harmattan phones, but it isn't either changing OS as Maemo (aka Harmattan) as well use Linux as operating system. It is just switching a Linux distribution to another.
And who dreams that at somepoint we could buy a empty phone and then install to it a wanted software system by sticking a MicroSD card in or choosing a version in store what comes such as preinstalled? That is a dream... Not even Microsoft want that to happen on PC side, so why it would want that happend on mobile devices?
It would demand that OEM's really understands that hardware system and software system ain't same thing and that if hardware gets broken, you need to fix it by warranty if software has nothing to do with it (like button brokes physically or MicroUSB plug gets broken).
Closed source drivers aren't too much of a problem on Android, since the binary blobs can be loaded in the same way, and are only an issue if they don't work as expected. Most of the problems seem to come from the fact that Android does things differently (e.g. no X server), which means that those drivers have to be rewritten to work with GNU Linux.
GNU does not have nothing to do with Linux OS and its drivers. And X server does not belong to GNU so any graphical code what is done for Android, does not need to touch GNU at all if wanted to get work on desktop distribution.
Linux isn't a microkernel, it is a monolithic kernel == operating system.
Kernel is synonym to a operating system (actually vice versa). Microkernel is just a one part of the operating system, servers completing other part.
Tizen, WebOS, Android... All those use same Linux operating system what is a Unix-clone (how many thinks they have Unix in their smartphones or tablets when usin Linux or XNU?). I didn't mention at all the middleware, software platforms, virtual machines, system programs and libraries. Because they matter to software using them, not to user who use just the GUI. OS just rules what all other software you can manage to run on that device.
Haven't you heard.... Those devices are PC's!
As people mistake IBM PC and PC to mean two different things (IBM PC is the first PC and its ascends are PC clones). And they say that Mac's are PC's because PC stands for "Personal Computer" and it means every desktop/laptop computer.
But think about it. "Personal" and "Computer".... what does those mean?
My smartphone is computer, and it is more personal to me than my desktop computer.
If I would have tablet, it would be a computer and even more personal than my desktop computer.
My desktop computer or laptop are "Shared Computers". I mean, they ain't just for me, but for everyone else who stays on my house because I have separated user accounts.
But my phone or (if I would have) tablet... I would not allow other people to use them unless I just show something or give them to use specific application.
My contact list is mine... my SMS's are mine.... emails... and so on... They are my personal data.
But I hope that Android would gain a support for tablets to have accounts. With or without passwords. But just so that different person could start a browser with own use history and so on. The Android still could be activated for single user but...
Or should it be so that we can trust our family members and friends that they do not read our emails or go browsing history trough?
Well. I know I can. But browser history is something what usually pops up by accident (And no, I dont mean any adult pages etc) what shows something.
But I dont want to start any special mode where to browse so it does not get in history. I want history as it helps browsing. It is my personal WWW history for me when I search background data or I confirm other people arguments. Like someone is talking about Hitler and I want to do search about arguments. I might end up to many sites about nazis and Hitler what does not mean anything to me personally. But someone who might find out history, can think that I am some new kind Nazi fanatic ready to explode...
Just reading something from the WWW these days can give other people a reason to categorize you as specific kind person. Was it about history, politics, religion or even about relationships... They can be to others a very scary signal that something is wrong with me. How many man would be happy/scared to find out that wife/girlfriend has browsed past few days about reasons/ways (not) coming pregnant? How about she just wanted to learn those as her friend is having problems?
There isn't "I don't have anything to hide" reasons in anywhere. Even small daily things or intrest for other people when not even sharing same opinion or believes can be very harmful for any one.
I like the Google Gmail application habit to show only single account at time. And then you get notification of every account separately. That really gives the trust to family as they can just say "Hey, you got two new emails... Do you want to come read them?" instead just popping them in front of you or placing them to one and same email box with just number so you dont know who got it.
With Gmail, it is possible to share tablet with family. But I agree, market and settings would need a passcode so young kids would not remove/buy anything
OMG! Every Android phone is insecure as well! As you can just press "Buy" button from Android market.
OMG! Most PC's and Mac's with Steam is insecure as well! As many Steam user do not revoke credit card info from it what allows just two click bying games.
Oh well... at least "Are you sure" should be there.
I love the Steam where you add games (and/or magazines) to your cart and then you buy everything out at once.
And when doing it, it list every product and demands you to tick "I accept" and then your purhace is done.
With Android market I hope there would come change to add applications and games to cart and then purhace them as one.
Example, now with Android Market celebrated 10 billion downloads, there have been 10 days offers where every day 10 new paid application or game is 0.10 cent.
So I usually purhace 5-10 of them. So now my bank note is after 4 days a full of 0.10 cent deals....
Well, it must have something to do with Google Checkout system.
I can agree that somepoint they are just in the way. And I dont remember the time when I last time changed volume while on the call. It must have been when I bought phone and I set volume to max. As Nokia phones does not have so strong volume if not using speaker option and... well... you know speaker option.
I use headset anyway and on that I like the physical volume scroll if having cables. But otherwise it is from screen setting what matters.
Tizen, WebOS, Harmattan, Android.... All has at least one common feature, and it is that they all use Linux as their operating system.
So single OS for multiple different devices and target groups. It is multiple GUI's for different devices and they can be get work better ways.
And I would cladly take 4:3 ration over any 16:9/16:10 ration screens. As I LOVE to use device in vertical direction instead just in horizontal and I want to see more from webpages without scrolling.
The 4:3 is great for pads.... give me a iPad with 12-15" screen and I would be very happy with it as drawing board.
Actually many hardware problems can be fixed with software.
You can not change physical switch position, but with software you can change how long you need to keep switch in specific position until it will do something. So you can fix most of the problems with software when problems are that device is turned off or put on sleep mode by accident touch.
Of course software can not add a external volume buttons, but with software you can bind some existing buttons to work as such (if there is such buttons). Or you can add a easy to access virtual button to offer those functions. It is more a hack but can work for many.
The sensitivity of touch screen can be fixed with software, as software rules again how the input data is being used. Better to have very sensitivite input touch screen and then slow down outpus what with software.
What comes to privacy, well, that can be fixed with software as well, place PIN code or something similar. Add lock to every application and make a easy way to delete history of web browsing or book history etc.
Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer. – Sun-tzu
And Google is in fact making money from Android - yes, they are giving the base for free but to get the Google logo and bundled software you have to pay - and a lot of manufacturers pay for that.
Erh.... Do you have sources?
All what I have heard Google to say is "Android is open source and free to get, our apps are free and we give your share from ads when device user does a search with google search bar."
Manufacturers and operators are those who get money from Google, and google does as well. Everyone enjoys...
The ultimate question is always which one came first, chicken or egg... I would choose GPL everytime from those two...
In theory the law is supposed to keep the GPL enforceable.
In practice if you're too broke to sue you're too broke to defend yourself.
Thanks to EFF to exist.... they have money and time to defend you...
You must be very slow writer and reader then.... Or then get over 1000 dollar a hour...
You don't type commands to terminal, you type program names and their options in correct order. Then you combine them with used shell (terminal) functions like pipe, , alias and so on.
What ugly and useless Windows desktop (aka windows shell)?
I have replaced explorer with plasma desktop and I have like desktop environment like I have when running Linux.
All widgets on desktops, own wanted panels and widgets on it, KickOff as menu, Dolphin as filemanager etc.
Only thing what shows to other people that it ain't pure KDE SC, is that I can replace WDM with KWin. And I love KWin as it is best window manager what is out there.
He did not change OS theme (as there ain't such) but he changed the desktop and application style and theme.
And no, it does not help...
I don't see much complaining about Firefox, Chrome etc removing the old style menu. Seems to be just another anti-MS/Office rant. Boring.
Switching from menubar to A style is totally different thing than replacing menubar with B menu.
Change is not always good. Change is not always needed.
Young people want usually to change things so they can gain merits and they have need to try new things.
Your argument about grandmother telling how things were better in old days, is not valid. As many things were better in the old times. But it does not either mean that we have not improved anything.
But just fixing something because it is need to sell new versions and to separate from every competitor ain't good purpose to fix things.
Why did Microsoft copy Ribbon from Macromedia and Lotus? Why didn't Microsoft invent something own? Did you know that Ribbon isn't Microsoft invention?
Did you know that one and single user inteface does not usually work well every possible situation?
We usually need to have multiple different user interfaces on every different situation and task.
Just forcing to have single UI everywhere isn't smart thing. Like pushing a Ribbon to filemanager, office writer, office bredsheet or office vision. Metro to phone, to tablet, to desktop, to servers. Everyone else has being learning that better make a user interface what fits to the situation, environment and tool what user is using. It is said that Microsoft is chasing taillights, and it might be the case again...
I love Unity, as it is so simple that people don't anymore ask questions how to get desktop work as they want because it is impossible to tweak Unity without third party effects from private PPA and even then it is so simple that people just try to focus their work instead fighting with it.
Isn't that goal of Unity? :D
I will make a bet that within a week you throw a chair thru your monitor, or disable that script, or admit I was correct.
Ah.... Steve Ballmer was then using Firefox! That is news!
No, not just easier to use but easier to learn.
Two different things are those two....
With simple animation (what is visual information) can user be distracted or helped. Question is about the animation length, type and when it does occur.
I had training wheels in my bicycle when I was 4, and I had them the whole 3-5 minutes... It was my first bicycle and my first try and I got it right from the beginning. I went to our own hill where the asphalt road came to house and I came down from there. So I only needed training wheels to turn around up there.
My dad felt frustrating as he needed to spend few minutes more to un-screw them.
Everyone should keep open mind and eyes and ears open. Human can learn a lot that way, only finding out even much later to understand that information what learned long time ago.
If you learn basics, you can master many things and live without problems. But if you do not want learn the basics, then you live with problems all the time.
Information is power and control. When someone knows how stuff works and you don't, they have advantage of you. And they will use it to benefit from you.
As one thing you can trust, and it is a creed.
People do not need to know how to write perfect computer code or even write the computer code, but they need to know what computer code means.
They do not need to know how CPU works calculating 1's and 0's, but they need to know what CPU is, what difference is with architectures and how the speed is gained.
Neither they do not need to memorize whole workflow. but only the every part of it how they affect the results so they can change any part of workflow if wanted.
Learn and observe all the time. Usually much later you just find out that you can combine observed things to new things. You can have a problem for what you find help from totally different area.
Whole life is like science. When you learn what the thermodynamic is, you can use it to get flying devices or better house heating etc etc. When you learn how to mix different chemicals you get a huge skills from it etc.
There basicly is no information what is not useful at somepoint of life. And no matter how small it is, it can result much bigger innovations or helpfulness than it was originally.
Instead if people just keep eyes and ears focused to only interested things, they will miss a lot of information what would give them and others much better quality of life.
Experienced users want it the way they got used to.
Counter argument: Experienced users do know what they need and how they get it. They are ready to throw away learned things to get a better one, but not ready to throw away better one for worse.
Basic/New user does not know what they need and how to get it but only what they want.
A good consultant is the one who does not give a client what client wants, but what client needs.
A good interface is such what adapts to user needs, and not force user to learn how interface was designed.
So the interface needs to be very flexible, and configurable. By default, it needs to be configured to work with new users so they learn it fast, but it needs to be so flexible and easy to use so experienced users can change it so how it fits to their needs.
(easy to use != easy to learn)