@Anonymous: I'm anon, so it's hard to tell, but I actually was the one who spoke of installing Debian for my grandfather, and wrote those 2 needlessly long posts.

yes, you can get by. but personally, after tinkering with MANY distros (Debian, Ubuntu, OpenSUSE, Fedora, Gentoo and even a stab at OpenBSD) over the years, I just don't want to take the time to deal with all the crap it throws at me. Granted, I'm not a developer, and I'm not a sys admin, so I don't need all the power that a Linux distor offers. I understand WHY Linux excels at many things, but being easy and user friendly is not one of them. I want to hop on my Macbook and surf the internet and maybe do some light A/V stuff. Occasional photo editing. I want to boot my PC and be able to play the hotest AAA games. Without running VMWare, Wine, Cedgea, or any of that bullshit.

I'm all for users that can live with using only Linux. More power to you. But those of us who want to just double click an icon to install, and not have to worry about conflicting repositories (or fucked up dependances) in apt, chose not to use Linux. You can't fault us for that. It is valiant of you to encourage users to try a live CD, but you can't blame them if they don't like it.

Now, I'm going to play some DotA 2. Good luck getting that to run without DirectX.

Oh! Tux Racer. You can play that. It's kinda fun.

@Anonymous: Does everything, except run iOS.

@Anonymous: bluetooth keyboard/mouse...

Google is Skynet. Android is Terminator. iOS and WP7, prepare your buttholes.

@Anonymous: the Laptop combo thing, I will confess, is novel, and I love that the keyboard packs an extra battery (it would have failed had it not). Truth be told though, It suffers from the same shortcoming as all other android tablets (save, perhaps for the kindle), a lack of Tablet-specific hardware (and on that note, a lack of laptop-specific hardware). The iPad has over 200,000 apps designed specifically for tablets. you can easily make a top 100 list of them, when pundits try to do the same for android tablets (the Transformer notwithstanding), they have to come up with a dozen or so good apps. The software just isn't there.

Praytell, why this dearth of apps for Android tablets?

When android was just for phones OEMs (Original Equiment Manufacturers) like HTC, Motorola and Samsung were elated, as were their bedmates, the Carriers (T-Mobile, Verizon, AT&T, O, Verifone, Rogers, Etc.). They could put the same bloatware on Android as they had been putting on feature phones for years. They could have their cake and eat it too. They could have something enough like the iPhone that people would still buy, and they didn't have to make the concessions that Apple demanded. This was made possible by the hefty data rates that came with the purchase (or issue) of a phone

With Tablets it's different. Start by taking away the 3G data. Many people don't always use the Carriers' data networks. Therefore they don't always have to pay for it. This is why Apple's deal with AT&T and Verizon is so important, their relatively inexpensive pay ala carte method where you pay a month at a time. It ensured their lead over Android in tablets. Take into account the fact that Apple pays for its parts in advance and often helps their suppliers build the factories needed to make the goods they order in exchange for a time-limited exclusivity to the goods made there.

Tons of hardware
Ala carte data consumption
Healthier margins due to scratching supplie…

@Anonymous: I forgive you. Mainly because "dearth" is an amazing word and I love you for using it.

@Anonymous: Android is an infant already contending like a champion in an elderly market. A few more years and all of your arguments are invalid.

@Anonymous: Just like Linux over took Windows in the '90's, huh?

@Anonymous: You're conveniently forgetting a key element, a 1600 lb. elephant of an element.

Linux doesn't have a corporate sponsorship.

Google produces Android.

@Anonymous: That's what android makers were saying the year before that,
and the year before that,
and the year before that...

If Apple decided to stay still, and if Microsoft sat on their hands (one of those is a big if), Android would surge the way you imagine it will.

If you look at statistics like website hits, ad exposures, and app downloads the truth is laid bare, Most android users use their phones the way they used their old feature phones, to make phone calls, and that's it, or at least a far greater percentage of Android users than iOS users do.

Then there's this thing where Android proponents love lumping all Android devices together when stacking it up against iOS, while breaking iOS up into its various devices and leaving the iPod Touch (often incorrectly called the iTouch) out altogether.

Then there are people, like Amazon who fork Android, for products like Kindle fire (or Barnes & Noble's Nook). These manufacturers strip their versions of Android of all of the things that benefit Google (Ad exposures and access to Google's services, more ad exposure) thus depriving Google of the precious revenue it needs to support Android's growth.

In and of it's self this is not the death knell for Android, but it will make it a lot harder for Google to support it the way Apple supports iOS. iOS devices' healthy margins give apple plenty of revenue to devote to the future development of iOS and it's device family. Many pundits believe Android actually loses Android money (Little known fact: Google makes more ad revenue off of iOS devices than it does off of Android devices) doing napkin math, as Google does not show it's hand here (and probably for good reason).

@Derpbowski: I would argue, but frankly, I'm worn out. Sorry bud. I'll leave you with this one counter-point, and rather that argue it, you can look it up if you chose.

Fragmentation.

@Anonymous: I say, good chap, that's a sober retort.

@Anonymous: That's the spin talkin'...

Fragmentation for most, is the fact that a hefty chunk of the Android market has just now been able to update to Gingerbread (2.2), as Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0) is now launching. a sizable chunk of the market is stuck somewhere before Gingerbread, and a vast majority of them are slightly tweaked versions of android that have quirky ways of running because the carriers need to put their bloatware over android. When the end user can't update their OS at will, when it is available, when there are half a dozen different versions of android that need to be supported, each running on devices with any number of different screen ratios, quality or lack of sensors, it makes the life of the software developer really hard.

One solution is to make dumbed down software that runs on all versions, that won't use the best features of the best phones. The other extreme is to leave all that is old behind, and only focus on the newer hardware/software configurations. Either one is a compromose, a compromise that doesn't have to be made, at least not to the same extreme, on competing platforms.

That's why fragmentation is more a deterrent than anything else.

You know what I say?! Have your opinions, have a preference, pick a device, and To Each Their Own!

@Anonymous: "Android is already better than iOS"

What a deep and multifaceted argument...

@Anonymous: "iTards"...

Wow, you command the respect of your adversaries, I'm sure they'll listen to everything you have to say, you'll convince a lot of people to jump the iShip that way ;)

@Anonymous: I wholeheartedly agree with this, and I'm pretty sure that's what going on, it's really dependent on the device's OEM developers to get it tweaked proper for that device, maybe google needs to be more stern with them before they release any device to market.

so long as the stockROM / kernel sources are fully shared via 'AOSP license' so that the custom devs can continue rewriting the code for those in the know, then we're all happy. Tards can have their UI threads, I can run Backtrack on my mobi.

@Anonymous: Cool story bro, tell it again! and again. And again.

MFW that oh shit moment you just found out that iPhones can dual boot Android. And run all your marketplace apps. And Backtrack. OHSHI--

@Anonymous: far as I can tell, the Jobsians wouldn't budge anyways. He died for their ignorance, and they'll continue to visit the iStore every Sunday for all eternity in hopes of having Flash in the afterlife.

@Anonymous: butbut... I can already run flash based content in Safari.... Jailbroken, sure but don't pretend YOU don't have to root your device! One more oh shit moment. Android isn't TRUE opensource. OHSHI--

@Anonymous: You touch on an interesting point: Google and open source

Of the following guess which Google supported and which one they opposed ;) it's a fun game that teaches you that even big "don't be evil" says one thing and does another, at least when it comes to open.

Proprietary Adobe Flash OR Web Standard HTML5

Patent irreverent/incumbered WebM, OR Web Standard H.264

Allow Android users to use their own maps OR threaten to suspend all other google services if they used Skyhook

Abide competition OR sabotage OpenMaps (and later say sorry for doing so)

Gee, weren't that fun folks, and remember when you hear "don't be evil" reply "my ass"

@Anonymous: Google is no charm, just like any corporation they've got stockholders to please. Let's not leave out sarcasm for the others now...


Mac:
It just works!
*just not with 3rd party devices/software


Microsoft:
YOUR POTENTIAL (is stunted) (and it's) OUR PASSION (to keep it that way)

@Anonymous: I would love to stay and pick nits with you, but I have work to get ready for, so on a bumpersticker:

iOS is a more robust, efficient system: it matches or beats androids in standardized web tests using far less ram and processing power; it uses its resources more efficienty

iOS earns its developers more money, even after you factor in ad revenue

iOS can do more: where's the Unreal engine running on Android devices, where are the Android games with graphics that match Infinity Blade II?

I realize iOS devices place higher priority on rendering things more smoothly than Android hence the 'Android Lag' This is largely because Android, when it was originally built was meant to go head to head against the likes of Blackberry and WP6, the way it renders graphics is an artifact of that, when Eric Schmidt (still on the board of Apple at the time) caught wind of the iPhone, the direction of the Android ship was changed, so while Android may have existed prior to the announcement of the iPhone, it was a completely different beast then.

Just because you can find Androids with bigger processors or bigger cameras does not make them better devices, the OS is what makes or breaks a mobile device, and for the same reason that I wouldn't buy my tablesaw at Harbor Freight, I can't buy an android phone, Unless it's a Samsung Galaxy Nexus, or that calibre of android device, it's most likely going to be a slipshod half baked turd, whose purchase I'll regret in the next 3 months, not to say I won't regret it even more when my manufacturer/carrier promise OS updates that never come.

@Anonymous: Brilliant. ^

@Anonymous: As an Apple fanboy, I'm glad that my iOS devices don't run Flash. It's inefficient, resource hungry, and a MAJOR intrusion point. You can keep it.

@Anonymous: (CTD)

>illiterate thinks finding better hardware at half the price with an operating system that works to begin with and with source code that's incessantly improved upon by the community of users isn't a better device.

>>OS OS OS, Software Software Software, When you slap shit parts together to meet a checklist, and call it better because it has more ports buttons and ram, despite the fact that it won't last half as long as what it's trying to compete against then call it better, you're just fooling yourself, and no one else. THEN there's the software which has lackluster support at best, especially when the Carriers and OEMs act as gatekeepers to every major update, Yeah, totally better...

---

> has a fellow churchman backing flawed arguements up with his sticker of approval without any questioning of the points argued

>> Walks into argument with mind already made up, thinks to self "OH BOY, I'MMA SCHOOL THESE iTARDS" Gets spanked.

lol wut?

>>Where's your god now, betch?