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56 Comments
- diggforworld, on 06/21/2009, -6/+53Open source makes sense all the way, not just on smartphones.
- yocouchdigga, on 06/21/2009, -3/+29Android's the *****.
- meridian, on 06/21/2009, -5/+22The Pre/Andrioid phones might just make me switch to using just linux
- Klowner, on 06/22/2009, -0/+16Pretty sure that's not what he meat.
Also, I'm pretty sure you meant "meant". - evil-doer, on 06/22/2009, -0/+14TONS of android phones coming this year. im gonna probably wait till the end of the year then pick my favorite.
- scootinger, on 06/22/2009, -1/+14"The total cost of ownership over a two-month period for the iPhone 3G is $3,799."
Damn, $1900 a month! I knew AT&T was screwing everyone...but not *that* bad! - noizeuk, on 06/22/2009, -1/+13Playing games, receiving texts and emails and seamlessly switching applications whilst listening to music is pretty much what you want... its a desktop in a phone, why would you not want this feature?
- jedinsyd, on 06/22/2009, -1/+10My HTC Magic arrives today!!!
- DivineMonkey, on 06/22/2009, -1/+10I love my G1.
- zigurd, on 06/22/2009, -0/+7"most of these are the same reasons people use to promote linux on the desktop"
Odd how arguments for open source DO work on smartphones. It's almost as if a behind-the-scenes influence prevents more PC OEMs from shipping Linux. - robmausser, on 06/22/2009, -0/+7OPEN SOURCE DOESN'T WORK ON THE DESKTOP? *****...I better turn off my Ubuntu laptop right now.
Thanks for the heads up dude! I was using linux on the desktop, didn't know it didn't work. - Klowner, on 06/22/2009, -0/+7Ever tried developing things with the Blackberry SDK on a platform other than Windows?
Hint, It's a pain. - Leviathan433, on 06/22/2009, -0/+6Sure - blame the inanimate object.
- openthewell, on 06/22/2009, -0/+6I was thinking the same thing, lol.
- etx313, on 06/22/2009, -0/+5Oh man I'd be jealous if I didnt just get a Pre! I love android, and webos rules as well.
- PhYk3n, on 06/22/2009, -1/+6i agree, He completely fails at life trying to say the iphone sucks by trying to says you cant multitask, or u can only do what apple says you can do. android wont be any better nor is blackberry or the pre, the iphone set a standard, and all people do is try to find ways to say it sucks, or companies try to create better phones by pointing out the flaws with the iphone, which are very small and do not hinder the actual usage of the device.
- robmausser, on 06/22/2009, -0/+5Well, its not all bad. With such poor grammatical skills and limited knowledge, someone else probably should be making your phone calls for you anyways.
- slimasian, on 06/22/2009, -0/+5I believe each device mentioned in the article serves its niche well, and thus, deciding what device truly is "the best" is really relative to one's personal preferences. Cliched statement, I know, but for once, it accurately applies.
As someone who recently took the plunge in the smartphone arena, I went through the decision process myself. I checked out the "big 3" devices currently out on the market (iPhone 3GS, G1, and Palm Pre) and ultimately decided on my G1, and I've definitely made the right decision for my personal preferences (big fan of the Android platform to begin with, the "open-ness" of the G1/Android platform over the competition, the ease in which I can integrate custom apps I write, physical and virtual QWERTY keyboard, etc.)
However, when it comes down to it, (and this is something should be obvious) if someone is deciding on which of these devices to get, you really just need to try them all out and keep in mind specific personal preferences -- i.e. before I decided on my G1, I was confident that I wanted the Pre, I fell in love with webOS just from screens and videos...and webOS sure didn't disappoint in person...but I was a little crestfallen at how "locked down" webOS seemed to be with regards to app dev, and obviously that was a big enough factor for me to scoop up a G1.
Also, no disrespect to the iPhone, of course...I demo'd the 3GS and thought it was a fine device, just not for me. - warp99, on 06/22/2009, -0/+4Really?
Linux operating system (8.4% Market Share Sales Q4 2008)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smartphone#Operating_ ...
Palm Pre was not yet released and Android had only been available since Q3 2008 only for the G1/HTC. I believe those numbers will increase once Google has Android running on 18 additional devices come Q3 2009. - psykiv, on 06/22/2009, -3/+7I do have to wonder why they don't include blackberry devices in here...
1. Open standards. - Blackberry devices are based on java. All those apps you download? Java
2. More applications - Although iphone has a zillion applications, how many of them are actually useful? How many times are you seriously going to use the shotgun noise making application?
3. Security - Connect your blackberry to your computer recently and fired up desktop manager? There's always a new version to upgrade to. Not to mention blackberry enterprise server. With a few clicks you can remotely self destruct the phone if it's stolen or push out applications and patches to them.
4. Customization - Seriously, in theory it's great, but 99.99% of all themes out there are *****. I'm still rocking the default one.
5. Connectivity - Blackberry has this down packed. I can sync my calendar, contacts, and tasks to my computer automatically when i connect it. I can even sync it wirelessly with facebook!
6. Costs: You can get a blackberry free with contract. Monthy, depends...
7. Multi-task: it does it. although I am curious to know how well you can multitask on a 3 inch screen
8. push gmail: ive had this since the beginning of time...
9 and 10. creativity and developers - part of oss - ScottyDelicious, on 06/22/2009, -0/+3I love my CrackBerry!
@Klowner: Is it even possible?
I have seen a few "tutorials" for getting a BB Java development setup running under OS X, but I have never been able to get it working. I know Xcode very well and I am fairly savvy in Eclipse (where I do most of my Java projects). Their stupid compiler is a Java app packaged as a Win32 exe! The device simulator/emulator is an actual Win32 app, so I don't hold much hope of getting that working cross platform, but c'mon RIM! It's java! give us the JDK for any Platform we chose to develop on. Don't go out of the way to make it windows only.
</rant> - dawho1, on 06/22/2009, -7/+10That article is not actually very good imo. The guy seems a little bit biased (as is his right), but it's downright silly to say that the iPhone can't multitask because it's not Linux. It CAN multitask, but it's severely limited for what Apple sees as good reason. How much multitasking can you really do on a phone anyways? Most of the things I can think of can be done on the iPhone (as far as I know). I can play music and do anything else on the phone. I can be on a call and surf the web. What exactly are people actually looking to do? Play 4 games at once while surfing the web and checking their email?
Apple is slow at updating? Compared to who/what? Take a look at WinMo and Blackberry? (obviously not open source, i know) I think Apple actually has a pretty aggressive software update schedule, to be honest.
Security? Apple's OS is fundamentally a very similar core to any Linux variant, is it not?
Themes? Really? A great perk, sure. A deciding point for why open source is inherently a better model than a smart phone OS devloped in-house by a proprietary company? Doubtful.
Cost? Definite consideration. But he's asserting that the OS license is why the device costs more. He's probably wrong. First off, the device itself probably matches up pretty evenly on cost alone. Is AT&T milking the most popular phone in existence? Probably, they'd be dumb not to. The fact of the matter is that people will pay more for a better product. This simply isn't a valid reason to go with open source. It would only approach validity if you could prove that open-source OS's and the phones that ran them were guaranteed to be superior to the closed-source models.
Creativity?!?! WTH? You spend half the article telling us that the manufacturers need to cater to the common man because they are the large demographic with smart phones now (and I'm not sure I agree, but whatever), and then you spout off about geek cred for carrying a portable web server around with you? Frankly, that's just a dumbass idea, to be honest. Yeah, please hack my phone and steal my bandwidth, that'd be awesome. All of the sudden you wonder why all your multitasking apps run like crap...
Give it a read. I'm not necessarily disagreeing with his assertion, I just don't think his arguments are very good. - Culyt, on 06/22/2009, -0/+3@brundlefly76
Tivo runs on Linux.
Sure the UI isn't open, but neither is the Pre's (afaik), also the official Android builds aren't either. If you make your own Android build from source then it will be missing some proprietary Google apps and you probably don't have a way to get them onto your phone without jail breaking. You also probably loose the ability to install DRM'd applications (the dev phone was missing them too).
Reguardless, this uses opensource while still keeping control over the UI. There is also no reason why an opensource UI would somehow have a worse user experience. The companies that make the phones and put the software on them can choose if they want to apply a UI patch or not. - Nelagster, on 06/22/2009, -0/+3so how did he calculate the total cost of ownership??? i'm confused
- inactive, on 06/22/2009, -0/+3How are you honestly too weak to push in the buttons on your keyboard?
- robmausser, on 06/22/2009, -1/+3its that damn "shut up about your iphone already" tax that the government imposed. Every time someone won't shut up about their iphone they get a huge fine for it.
Oh wait, no, thats just what I wish would happen. - inactive, on 06/22/2009, -1/+3Bad article for a supremely interesting topic.
- warp99, on 06/22/2009, -0/+2"Really, I'm not out to destroy Microsoft. That will just be a completely unintentional side effect." --- Linus Torvalds
- bdbr, on 06/22/2009, -1/+3These phones don't leave user experience up the the entire planet the way linux desktop does. They have both developed the user experience into something that works.
This also means its not "open" the way Linux is open. You can' t just download a Linux app and run it on Android. It has to be a Java app to run on their specific managed environment (its not even compatible with Sun Java). But there are already a lot of Android apps, so it doesn't seem to be hindering development. - xamox, on 06/22/2009, -0/+2How about...............to destroy apple and microsoft?
- paulsmith288, on 06/23/2009, -0/+2The reason the Apple iPhone has been so enormously successful is due to 1 reason: fanatical USERS
- robmausser, on 06/22/2009, -0/+2Heres another good thing about open source standards... There is nothing stopping someone to eventually getting Android apps to run on the Palm Pre, or WebOS apps on Android. It is just a matter of getting a hold of the right source code.
So, another good thing about OS is the interoperability... instead of one app store (apple) you could potentially choose from any single open source app store, given that someone takkes the time to port the Android framework to run on the Web OS and vice versa. - brundlefly76, on 06/23/2009, -0/+1paul: thats a *result*, not a reason.
I dont know why I got dugg down for saying TiVo isnt open source - because it isnt - yes it runs a on a variant of linux, but thats Linux software, not TiVO software - if someone can point me to the source code of the TiVo application which runs on Linux, please feel free. - sanford42, on 06/26/2009, -0/+1Very true. I agree with his overall statement that Linux/Open Source-based phones are generally superior to Apple's iPhone (I've had a G1 since launch, and everyone I've convinced to switch from iPhone to Android has been *very* pleased and glad I convinced them). I'm also very curious to get my hands on a Pre just to try it out, because I've heard wonderful things, but (literally) everyone I know with a smart phone has either Android or iPhone.
However, this article is just plain horrible. - thisthatwhat, on 06/22/2009, -2/+3Once up a time there were two unicies -- BSD and System V. Linux is a combination of System V unix and BSD unix. MacOS X is a directive of BSD Unix. Apple's iPhone has a port of OS X on it. It therefore is running a BSD flavour of UNIX at heart.
Both are UNIX at heart. Both can multi-task.
a) Apple limits the number of user tasks to 1
b) Android does not force that limit
Giving power of multi-tasking can be great. At the same time who knows what virus/trojan that one can write as a background task (daemon) without your permission.
a) Apple has that covered. That's not possible.
b) Who knows which programs can spawn off other tasks or system threads doing something you're not aware off. Good hackers know how to hide threats from the users process list really easily so there's no sign of the trojan.
Most important thing. It's the features that matter. Trying to say something is a flaw is not an argument. Without proving it's of actual use or providing benefits. We're not exactly limited by Apple's choice of actions anyways. You get your push notifications and ability to run itunes at the same time as your applications. How is anyone really limited by the lack of user multi-tasking apps? - paulsmith288, on 06/23/2009, -0/+1thats what Im thinking - however jesus phone firmware 3.0 was such a let down for me that I may have to move early
- LocalDocal, on 06/22/2009, -1/+2I'm confused. Are you saying you can't receive text and emails while doing something on your phone? I currently have a Windows Mobile phone and I can, in fact, do this. In fact, I owned a Symbian phone before too, and I could do it on there too. Furthermore, switching applications is fairly simple too. If I'm in one app, I simply press the Home button, then open another app. Again, this is the same on WM and Symbian.
Switching between them is not as easy as on the PC, true, but the thing is that I don't intend to use my phone like a PC (sounds ridiculous).
I have to agree with Dawho; the arguments aren't very compelling. They sound almost exactly like the argument for Linux on the desktop and is largely just speculation as to why it *would* be superior.
P.S. Yes, I can listen to music while using other apps too (again, Windows Mobile phone). - LocalDocal, on 06/23/2009, -0/+1@Rob
I am not saying multitasking is not important nor do I think Dawho is either. I'm agreeing with Dawho that the arguments in the article is not compelling. Regarding multitasking, I think the ability to do it is important, but I think what phones are doing now is already good enough. I can multitask perfectly fine. Not as well on WM/Symbian as on the PC, but I do not expect that level of multitasking on my phones.
Regarding Windows Mobile, I hear plenty of people complain about it being buggy and crashing, but from my personal experience of using WM2003/5/6/6.1/6.5 on several different devices, I have not experienced this. The stability was always pretty great and I've never seen a bug that has prevented me from doing anything, nonetheless basic necessities like making calls.
Frankly, I am largely OS-agnostic for my phones. If my phone uses Linux, great. If it uses Symbian, that's great too. OSX or even a completely new OS? Also great. However, admittedly, I do prefer my phone to have Windows Mobile due to the incredible amount of great software available. Nonetheless, I have never had a problem with any phone OS that would make me want to throw it in traffic. They're all pretty good to me. - inactive, on 06/22/2009, -0/+1linux doesn't work? oh my...that's new.
- robmausser, on 06/22/2009, -1/+2LocalDocal: I am confused about who you are arguing here.
If you agree with Dawho, then you would agree that multitasking is not important. Yet you seem to think it is, hence agreeing with the linux article?
For the record: iphone = very limited multitask, linux based phones (and WinMo) multitask.
Ps.. I have a Windows Mobile phone (both 5 and 6, upgraded) and it is a complete POS OS.
It seems to have been built off of windows 3.1, and sometimes the damn thing is so buggy that I can't even pick upa phone call or make calls.
Right now my SMS feature is broken and I can't send texts, only recieve. I have to soft reset once a day and the fact that you can't actually CLOSE apps but they only ever miminize is the stupiest thing ever. It is the ***** thing to ever come out on a phone ever and I have several times had to stop myself from throwing my phone into oncoming traffic. - gyrfalcon, on 06/22/2009, -1/+2Opensource doesn't really mean it's open. Plenty of companies are fine with taking and never contributing.
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html - SlverBullet, on 06/25/2009, -0/+0$1900 a month?! where did u get this info?
- pokobunt, on 06/24/2009, -0/+05) ?????????
6) Profit! - gyrfalcon, on 06/22/2009, -1/+1A GPL'ed phone is what's really needed. The Pre can die as far as I'm concerned... Palm was almost bankrupt before it decided to pull its head out of the sand (I'm a bitter Treo 600//650 user). Android is a bit better with its licensing and the main platform I'm looking at now. Until then I'll use my Nokia E51 and it's proprietary but stable OS.
Just because something is opensource doesn't make it open. - warp99, on 06/22/2009, -4/+4What about Tivo? Doesn't that count as "fanatical control over the user experience from both hardware and software"? They seem pretty successful, right?
- thisthatwhat, on 06/22/2009, -1/+11) 10 reasons why xxxx would make sense on yyyyyy. 2) Search popular topics 3) Fill in ten reasons 4) Add some logic to reasons
Submit. - brundlefly76, on 06/22/2009, -3/+2The reason the Apple iPhone has been so enormously successful is due to 1 reason: fanatical control over the user experience from both hardware and software. Open source unfortunately has never been really good at that, its good at other things though.
- brundlefly76, on 06/22/2009, -5/+2Uh, Tivo isn't open source - but another excellent argument for my side.
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