The problem with Android is choice
sixrevisions.com
The problem with Android is choice
1–10 of 67 posts
Re: The problem with Android is choice
#2Linkbait much ?
Re: The problem with Android is choice
#3FTA: I think many who extol Android’s flexibility fall into the tinkerer category, including some tech bloggers. [...] That’s fun for them; but they’ve made the mistake of not understanding how their motivation differs from the rest of us.
The problem with usability nuts and Apple nuts is that they fall into the "one perfect solution exists" category. That's fun for them, as they like their uniform devices just fine and get to write whiny blog posts about how all the other phones are Just Wrong. But they've made the mistake of not understanding how their motivation differs from the rest of us who like to have a deeper connection with our tools.
Yawn. Take all the fancy verbiage away and this is just another platform flame. Use what you like. Don't tell me how to use my phone.
Re: The problem with Android is choice
#4Considering how many people are "choosing" Android, I'd say a good many of us like choice....
Re: The problem with Android is choice
#5think many who extol Android’s flexibility fall into the tinkerer category, including some tech bloggers. They love all the ways they can customize their phones, not because they’re seeking some perfect setup, but because they can swap in a new launcher every week. That’s fun for them; but they’ve made the mistake of not understanding how their motivation differs from the rest of us.
Everytime I hear this argument, I can only think that these people have developed a bad taste of Android and haven't used a stock experience for enough time. You don't need to tinker anything. The stock Android experience is a good experience* by itself... but the option to tinker is there if you want it. If Apple made a car, the option to tinker wouldn't exist.
Re: The problem with Android is choice
#6Choice with reasonable defaults sounds ideal to me. The suggestion that you HAVE to make all these choices is FUD.
To bring a bit more consumer psychology into the discussion, people love SUVs because they give them the choice to go driving off-road, driving in snow, etc. Those SUV owners aren't then suddenly overwhelmed each morning with the question "Should I commute to work or should I drive to Tahoe?"
Android is a flexible tool that allows you to make choices when you want to make choices.
Re: The problem with Android is choice
#7To give a historical perspective, there was a similar issue with Unix OS's a while back.
You'd jump from a Linux box to a Solaris box, and things wouldn't work the same way? Simple things, like flags on "ps". Or, more seriously, the "shutdown" command (shudder).
That's only the CLI. Then you get into what Window Manager you're using, what desktop environment, etc.
Did any of this benefit the end user? In the end, most of this all ended up coming back to something that looks somewhat like OS X or Windows. A launcher bar and a menu bar, and maybe some status icons. Frequently ones that looked and worked exactly the same as OS X or Windows.
Fundamentally, all that choice didn't help Unix get market share. It hindered it. People didn't know what to expect, and wanted consistency. The same commands doing the same thing for the rest of eternity.
Incidentally, this also explains the Windows 8 backlash. I'm pretty sure that most non-technical people would prefer a innards-updated, security-fixed version of 8 that looks and works identically to XP.
In short, the problem is not choice, it's lack of consistency.
Re: The problem with Android is choice
#8To present Android's Intents as some disadvantage must be pure ignorance.
Re: The problem with Android is choice
#9There’s a distinction here between choosing and tinkering.
This is the crux of the argument. That choice is bad, and the people who like Android actually like tinkering, and don't really like customization, and it's just wrong.
I personally use my phone more than any other non-work device, and I love having it personalized to make everything I do often easy to access, and put everything else to the background.
I chose the best phone for me out of the very few real contenders on the market, I chose to replace my OS with Cyanogenmod, chose Nova Launcher, chose my layout and shortcut gestures, and chose my default keyboards as Google's English and Japanese keyboards. I haven't touched any of these for a couple of months, with the exception of replacing a couple of the gestures.
Phone usage differs a ton between individuals, and I'm glad I didn't lock myself into a one-size-fits-all solution.
Re: The problem with Android is choice
#10To give a historical perspective, there was a similar issue with Unix OS's a while back. You'd jump from a Linux box to a Solaris box, and things wouldn't work the same way? Simple things, like flags on "ps". Or, more seriously, the "shutdown" command ( shudder ). That's only the CLI. Then you get into what Window Manager you're using, what desktop environment, etc. Did any of this benefit the end user? In the end, m…
I think Linux stood a real chance with the introduction of Ubuntu a long time ago. Graphical package management was enormous, coupled with Gnome and a very simple installation. But stagnation came very quickly. That distribution is 10 years old and all the changes to it only added more fluff, more bulk, annoying notifications, uglier windows, sprites and mini icons all over the place.
It looks the exact same except worse. I'm sure that some improvements have been made behind all the fluff. But they're ones you can't see and I'm having trouble thinking back remembering any problems earlier.
The problem wasn't lack of consistency or choice. It was like going from Windows 7 to Windows 8. Now I can only see myself using Linux as a stepping stone or rescue procedure for failed machines. I think we might be off topic though as hardware and software are very different things.
This article is about hardware, badly titled though it is.