March 11, 2010 at 14:00Choosing a phone: freedom and reality
By and large, all of the following is the fruit of my sick imagination, which arose against the backdrop of the heyday of thematic blogs about Android , Nokia and even the emergence of a promotional page about Maemo , the link to which, ironically, I only see when viewing Habr with N900 :)
K unfortunately, I did not find a blog about a spherical mobile phone in a vacuum on Habré, therefore, while I am writing in a personal one, maybe some of the readers will tell me where to drag it if the idea suddenly interests the public.
Let's remember the moment when mobile phones ceased to be a luxury - the end of the nineties. Then a cell phone could easily weigh a pound and could do only one thing: make calls, and if it was expensive, vibrate when an incoming call, show the time and be an alarm clock.
Around the same time, by the way, a good laptop had performance and memory capacity comparable to modern cell phones - this is important.
Let's now recall the variety of desktop operating systems that you could try (without touching the server systems) at that moment: Windows (95 and forward), OS / 2, then a lot of linuxes with graphical shells began to appear. What do they have in common? That's right - for money or for free they could be installed on a computer and solved a number of everyday tasks: surf the Internet, work, play games that run under the selected OS. However, the situation with the variety of operating systems for desktop or laptop PCs has not changed radically since then, moreover, it has improved due to the expansion of the variety of systems that attract the end user, and, perhaps, improvements in compatibility (partly due to the unification of iron). By the way, we note that the number of leading desktop and mobile OSs is numerically the same within the order of magnitude, as, by and large, and the platforms on which modern sophisticated phones are built.
Back to the present: what do we have?
On the one hand: a modern cell phone (smartphone, communicator - the name doesn’t play) is comparable in performance, memory size and display resolution with a laptop three to five years ago.
On the other: endless torment of consumer choice. As an example, I myself: I would think about purchasing an iPhone if it had a full qwerty keyboard. I like the variety of choices in iTunes, I like the thoughtfulness of the interface, but I can not use the on-screen keyboard without tactile feedback.
At the same time, I really like the ideology of Maemo / MeeGo: creating an open system for the phone, theoretically (and in practice) compatible with application software from desktop computers.
Why did I start all this?
I look forward to the moment when it comes to the manufacturers of smart cell phones that the device is a platform for which the consumer is entitled to choose the OS .
Why the hell is launching Windows on the n900 a lot of fans who understand what DOSBox is and are not afraid of the word “console” at all? (Ok, I agree, win95 is not a completely correct example, but what kind of toys were there in adolescence, huh?)
Generally speaking, I am surprised that the same Microsoft, which Apple, Android and Intel + Nokia is seriously pressing Thought that the OS can be adapted to the architecture? The same Maemo, damn it, is Linux, which, if desired, can be crammed anywhere.
In my opinion, the current situation is worthy of some European antitrust litigation, as a result of which mobile hardware manufacturers must provide the end user with the choice of the operating system (possibly several) for their device - then there will really be freedom of choice on the market.
K unfortunately, I did not find a blog about a spherical mobile phone in a vacuum on Habré, therefore, while I am writing in a personal one, maybe some of the readers will tell me where to drag it if the idea suddenly interests the public.
Let's remember the moment when mobile phones ceased to be a luxury - the end of the nineties. Then a cell phone could easily weigh a pound and could do only one thing: make calls, and if it was expensive, vibrate when an incoming call, show the time and be an alarm clock.
Around the same time, by the way, a good laptop had performance and memory capacity comparable to modern cell phones - this is important.
Let's now recall the variety of desktop operating systems that you could try (without touching the server systems) at that moment: Windows (95 and forward), OS / 2, then a lot of linuxes with graphical shells began to appear. What do they have in common? That's right - for money or for free they could be installed on a computer and solved a number of everyday tasks: surf the Internet, work, play games that run under the selected OS. However, the situation with the variety of operating systems for desktop or laptop PCs has not changed radically since then, moreover, it has improved due to the expansion of the variety of systems that attract the end user, and, perhaps, improvements in compatibility (partly due to the unification of iron). By the way, we note that the number of leading desktop and mobile OSs is numerically the same within the order of magnitude, as, by and large, and the platforms on which modern sophisticated phones are built.
Back to the present: what do we have?
On the one hand: a modern cell phone (smartphone, communicator - the name doesn’t play) is comparable in performance, memory size and display resolution with a laptop three to five years ago.
On the other: endless torment of consumer choice. As an example, I myself: I would think about purchasing an iPhone if it had a full qwerty keyboard. I like the variety of choices in iTunes, I like the thoughtfulness of the interface, but I can not use the on-screen keyboard without tactile feedback.
At the same time, I really like the ideology of Maemo / MeeGo: creating an open system for the phone, theoretically (and in practice) compatible with application software from desktop computers.
Why did I start all this?
I look forward to the moment when it comes to the manufacturers of smart cell phones that the device is a platform for which the consumer is entitled to choose the OS .
Why the hell is launching Windows on the n900 a lot of fans who understand what DOSBox is and are not afraid of the word “console” at all? (Ok, I agree, win95 is not a completely correct example, but what kind of toys were there in adolescence, huh?)
Generally speaking, I am surprised that the same Microsoft, which Apple, Android and Intel + Nokia is seriously pressing Thought that the OS can be adapted to the architecture? The same Maemo, damn it, is Linux, which, if desired, can be crammed anywhere.
In my opinion, the current situation is worthy of some European antitrust litigation, as a result of which mobile hardware manufacturers must provide the end user with the choice of the operating system (possibly several) for their device - then there will really be freedom of choice on the market.