On 2/3/2014 10:30 PM, Manu wrote:
On 4 February 2014 12:59, Andrei Alexandrescu <[email protected]
wrote:
Kinda difficult to explain the market success of Android.
Not really. With PalmOS long dead (RIP) and MS famously just flailing
around on anything battery-powered, Android has been the only realistic
option for those who want a handheld computer, but don't want to sell
all their freedoms to Apple. Plus it's Google.
2. It's free for product vendors.
No.
I mean, on the surface yea it appears free, but realistically it's on
the decline: Device manufacturers (partly under pressure from asswhores
like Verizon, no doubt) have been moving towards a system where normal,
affordable, contract-subsidized devices (not that I'm a fan of the
contracts) are locked-down as much as possible [1], even using eFuses
now, and thereby rendered impractical for average developers (since you
can't freely test on multiple OS versions).
But, GOLLY GEE!! FOR *ONLY SEVERAL HUNDREDS* OF PURELY OUT-OF-POCKET
DOLLARS, these douchebag corporations like Google or Samsung will
happily sell you a "developer" phone that restricts FEWER of your
freedoms! Isn't that great? And best of all, Google gets to pretend
being an Android developer is still free! Get it? Because the extra $$$
developers pay is for the psuedo-optional *wink wink nudge nudge*
"developer phone" instead of a "developer account" like mean-ol'-Apple.
[1] Not only the usual locked bootloaders, but see also Knox-secured
bootloader. And no, I'm not being tin-foil-hat here, I've actually been
bit by that and had a device bricked because of that forced-update
Knox-secured bullshit, just because I needed to switch between 4.3 and
4.1.2 which Samsung decided I shouldn't be allowed to do (Knox eFuse).
Luckily it was still under warranty and pretty much all salespeople and
support reps are about as intelligent as your average house pet, so I
was able to get a replacement...at least after they finally got tired of
screwing up the replacement orders (hmmm, a DOA device...a wrong device
from a completely different manufacturer...).
