Article: "Why I'm a Bad Freetard -- Or the Quest for a New Phone"
flatfish+++
"Why I'm a Bad Freetard -- Or the Quest for a New Phone"
"So, no less than ten people have asked me why the hell I did what I
did, so here's a blag post to explain it, I guess.
I recently bought a Palm Pre2 from Verizon, after having one of the
ugliest phones of all time, much to the dismay of every freedom loving
linuxer that I know. Why didn't you buy Android, why get webOS? WebOS is
dead, it's not open source, it HATES FREEDOM.
Well, I hate to break it to you guys, but Android is no better. In fact,
from a philosophical view, it's worse. Everyone touts Android as
opensauce and happy joy joy community, but it's really no more open than
webOS, especially the stuff that actually ends up in the real world, in
users, in freedom loving linuxer hands. When the main interface is some
carrier specific crap that they develop to 'differentiate', when every
application you need to actually ... do phone stuff on an Android device
isn't open sauce, when it's proprietary google crap which connects to a
proprietary google cloud... I'm sorry, but your phone is no better than
any thing else. And to act like they are, like (nearly) every Android
fanboi I've talked to about this has, is completely irresponsible.
You're essentially running a propietary userspace on top of an open
source kernel. Cool, take a seat next to me, Ms. Android user.
Android has no developer community. There are plenty of people that
develop on Android, but very few develop Android itself. To say it's an
open source community is silly. The Open Source Way isn't being followed
in any way, shape or form. Hell, if Honeycomb was any indication, Google
has no problem keeping Android from being open source at all, if it
benefits their image and Android's image. What would it take for them to
just rip the rug out from under us. They made sure that the Android
parts of Android was developed under a license that allows them to rip
that rug out. That's not a system I want to support in any fashion.
Android is a product, not a project, not a community. And until people
realise that, and call it what it is, they are missing an important
piece.
Of course, we can't say that webOS is any better. I mean, there are code
drops of the bits that they have to post, but not much more, in terms of
source code.
But, take a look at the packages listed on that page. Alsa, busybox,
gstreamer, dbus, sdl, ... qt4? udev, util-linux-ng... Why... this is a
real linux machine.
And not just Android frankenlinux. Download Palm's SDK (for free, of
course) developer mode, and connect novaterm. You've just gained a root
shell on your phone. Without voiding your warranty, installing some
third party application, or "jail breaking" anything. Your device is
free.
Put preware on it, the homebrew application installer that Palm
actually plays nice with. Install a terminal. Develop for the device,
and release your application under an open source (for free) or
proprietary license (99$, iirc?) in the Application Catalog. Hell, you
can even use the industry standard for mobile development, Qt Framework
in your application.
Unless you're running the Android OSP builds, you really have no room to
say that Android is a more "open source" platform than webOS. That's
just silly. :)
Sure, there are more applications, and more phones to choose from, but
I don't weigh that stuff when I buy a product. I care about what's the
most suitable for me, or what's the most hackable and maker-friendly. I
can run a debian chroot over directfb on my phone. Booya. It's no MeeGo,
but if my playing on the IdeaPads we got at the MeeGo event at Gangplank
is any indication, that may just be a good thing. "
--
flatfish+++
Please visit our hall of Linux idiots.
http://linuxidiots.blogspot.com/
Watching Linux Fail:
http://limuxwatch.blogspot.com/
Linux's dismal desktop market share:
http://royal.pingdom.com/2011/05/12/the-top-20-strongholds-for-desktop-linux/
Desktop Linux: The Dream Is Dead
"By the time Microsoft released the Windows 7 beta
in January 2009, Linux had clearly lost its chance at desktop glory."
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/207999/desktop_linux_the_dream_is_dead.html
DFS
> http://rix.si/index.php/Badfreetard
>
>
> "Why I'm a Bad Freetard -- Or the Quest for a New Phone"
Good find!
Most of the cola "advocates" are bad freetards who really couldn't care
less about OSS vs proprietary - it's all about what makes them the most
money or is the most convenient.
flatfish+++
Yep.....
And if they weren't here pontificating daily about the evils of
Microsoft and so forth, I would have no problem with that.
JEDIDIAH
> http://rix.si/index.php/Badfreetard
>
>
> "Why I'm a Bad Freetard -- Or the Quest for a New Phone"
>
> "So, no less than ten people have asked me why the hell I did what I
> did, so here's a blag post to explain it, I guess.
>
> I recently bought a Palm Pre2 from Verizon, after having one of the
> ugliest phones of all time, much to the dismay of every freedom loving
> linuxer that I know. Why didn't you buy Android, why get webOS? WebOS is
> dead, it's not open source, it HATES FREEDOM.
>
> Well, I hate to break it to you guys, but Android is no better. In fact,
...lets see:
Connects as a mass storage device with no nonsense.
Allows me to install apps by just copying them to the device.
Allows me to copy data by just copying it to the device.
"Store" apps can browse the internal storage as needed.
Has a micro-SD slot (for my device).
[deletia]
Already that puts the Android device on much better footing than an iDevice.
Plus mine is capable of decoding the stuff (video) that makes an iPhone
choke, or rather those things that iTunes won't even allow onto the device.
--
The best OS in the world is ultimately useless |||
if it is controlled by a Tramiel, Jobs or Gates. / | \