wolfmane at gmail
Oct 25, 2009, 7:49 AM
Post #5 of 6
(789 views)
Permalink
|
On Sat, Oct 24, 2009 at 9:12 PM, Andrea Grandi <a.grandi [at] gmail> wrote:
> 2009/10/25 Mark Haury <wolfmane [at] gmail>:
>> John B. Holmblad wrote:
>>> All,
>>>
>>> I just happened to find some news from the last day or so concerning
>>> delay in the N900 product availability. Here is the url to the Reuters
>>> article:
>>>
>>>
>>> http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE59M2RJ20091023?feedType=RSS&feedName=technologyNews
>>>
>>> Now, does this mean a developer's "November", that is, November 30 or a
>>> marketing department's November, that is, November 1?
>>>
>>>
>> ...or a Linux/Maemo November, meaning some time in December you might
>> get the hardware, and about a year later, long before the software is
>> completed, they'll abandon it and introduce a new model...
>
> If I only could have a cent for all the FUD I read :D
>
> --
> Andrea Grandi
> email: a.grandi [AT] gmail [DOT] com
> website: http://www.andreagrandi.it
> PGP Key: http://www.andreagrandi.it/pgp_key.asc
>
My statement is based on fact concerning all three of Nokia's tablets
so far, not to mention all other supposedly OSS Linux devices of which
I'm aware to date. 2 years after it was supposed to be released as a
consumer device, the FreeRunner still is far from reality. The
overwhelming majority of the Linux desktop apps I've tried are far
from finished, (aside from games and other fluff). Long before an app
is finished, the developers split their efforts and you end up with a
dozen competing apps, none of which will ever be finished. They're all
too busy arguing about design details/philosophy to actually complete
critical functionality. That goes for Linux as an OS as well. The only
ones that approach anything like day-to-day usability are the ones
that have a commercial aspect and a business model that brings in
money. Not that commercial products don't have their problems, but at
least they have to complete the critical functionality in order to
have a chance. If OSS developers would come to their senses and
realize that 1) Compromise (over philosophy, not functionality) is an
integral part of existence and 2) A little cooperation will take you
ten times as far as a whole bunch of competition, they could take over
the world. But that will never happen...
Contrary to moronic opinion, competition is NOT good. The problem with
competition is that it isn't about innovation, and it's not positive.
It's about getting one over on the other guy, regardless of any actual
value. It's about negative energy. Competition says, "your idea is
fine, but my idea is better." It's *cooperation* that says, "okay,
let's take this idea and see what we can do with it and how far we can
go with it." Competition is what kills really good ideas, while others
that are far inferior are successful, not because they are good but
because competition rewards the "killer instinct" and status-quo
thinking and penalizes original thought.
Remember when you could identify the make, model and year of an
automobile just from a photo of a 4-inch square of lines anywhere on
the vehicle? Now you have to find a badge just to determine the make,
never mind the model or year. And within a make, different models were
completely different and attractive in their own, very different ways.
Within a model lineup there would be some you really liked and others
that left you cold, but there was always something you would consider.
Now, the idiotic "brand image" paradigm that makes all models from a
manufacturer have the same styling cues means that when they make a
stupid decision it isn't just one or two models that are fugly, but
the whole line. It's ironic that it's competition that has resulted in
all cars looking alike. Somebody puts out a model that is attractive
and well-received, and everybody else has to copy styling cues from
it, unfortunately almost always with a bad result, but they keep doing
it anyway.
...but I digress. The N900 adds some important functionality, but it
also removes some critical functionality, and the price is so far
beyond what is reasonable for such a device that it's not likely to be
very successful. Even if they eventually are subsidized by the
carriers, they will still cost as much or more than the competition
when totally unlocked and open. I certainly can't afford one.
Mark
_______________________________________________
maemo-users mailing list
maemo-users [at] maemo
https://lists.maemo.org/mailman/listinfo/maemo-users
|
signature.asc
