Considering how many people are "choosing" Android, I'd say a good many of us like choice....
Considering how many people end up with it by default because it's the cheap (or free) option would suggest otherwise...
The problem with Android is choice
31–40 of 67 posts
Re: The problem with Android is choice
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
As an Apple user, and former Apple engineer I disagree... I don't think one perfect solution exists, but I also don't think pushing a lot of decisions to the user is a good idea. The fallacy is thinking the goal is to provide a solution for all users. Stake out a position make choices, be the best product for the users that you work for, and let someone else cater to the other users. I don't personally like Windows P…
> On the other hand I think Android is a just a confusing mess to use, and I say this as someone who is fairly familiar with its innards and has been hired to write Android firmware code. That's funny, because my grandma uses Android just fine, even though she had never touched a computer in her life before using Android. Being "familiar with its innards" and having written Android firmware doesn't give you very good…
Did she set it up herself?
Re: The problem with Android is choice
#33Considering how many people are "choosing" Android, I'd say a good many of us like choice....
Considering how many people end up with it by default because it's the cheap (or free) option would suggest otherwise...
That's the real key, it's popular because it's cheap, imagine trying to claim Chevy makes a better car than BMW because more people buy Chevy.
Re: The problem with Android is choice
#34There’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 chos…
> 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 think you do qualify as a tinkerer, at least in comparison to most people I know who use phones. You have optimised your phone for your use by making technical choices, and it's probable that if improvements are made in the future, you will consider them and incorporate them into your workflow.
Ten years ago, I used to optimise my Windows and Linux PC for my use. Made everything perfect — the way you describe. From the UI layout, associated tools, extensions. I would set it up and make it perfect, perhaps every year or two I would incorporate improvements or drastically change something. I was definitely a tinkerer, even though I went through long stretches of not touching a "perfect" setup.
Re: The problem with Android is choice
#35Considering how many people are "choosing" Android, I'd say a good many of us like choice....
Considering how many people end up with it by default because it's the cheap (or free) option would suggest otherwise...
Price is also part of the buying decision making process, e.g. choice.
Re: The problem with Android is choice
#36There’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 chos…
The fact that you had to basically hack your phone with Cyanogenmod shows what a fraud Android has turned out to be. Instead of freeing us from the tyranny of proprietary OSes dribbled out by carriers and hobbled by their shitware, it is in fact a clinic on this exact practice.
Google failed to establish a proper abstraction layer and reference platform that would allow users to update their OS on the day of release without breaking compatibility with drivers or whatever other encumbrances are required for each phone. The fact that users wait weeks or months (or forever) for updates is pathetic and absolutely antithetical to what this "open-source" OS was supposed to represent.
Re: The problem with Android is choice
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
I know I'll get downvoted to hell for this, but the problem with Android can be explained with the well-documented phenomenon called the Paradox of Choice. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Paradox_of_Choice:_Why_More... Basically, the more choices you have, the less happy you are, regardless of whether you notice it or attribute it to having those choices.
This is a poor application of the principle. You don't have to make this choice repeatedly so the effects are negligible. Sure, it might apply to constant tinkerers but they are a tiny fraction of the actual users. The rest of us might feel less happy setting it up than if we hadn't been allowed to set it up, because of the mental effort of making a large number of small choices. But then you get to use a phone for a…
You don't avoid the paradox of choice problem by allowing other people to arbitrarily pick things for you
Exactly.
Re: The problem with Android is choice
#38Considering how many people are "choosing" Android, I'd say a good many of us like choice....
No. That's a pathetic, played-out canard.
If you're building a knock-off phone in a Chinese sweatshop, are you going to hire a team of engineers to spend man-decades developing an OS, or are you going to use the FREE one?
Yeah, that's why the whole Android "market share" charade is a bunch of bullshit.
Re: The problem with Android is choice
#39There's a problem with Android/Linux? Starting from a false premise
doesn't make for a good argument...
Assuming all Android devices would, could or should have the same interface is like wishing all BSD-derived system were the same. Clearly there's room for NetBSD, FreeBSD, DragonflyBSD as well as OS X and a multitude of embedded systems?
If there weren't any differences between an LG phone and a Samsung phone or a HTC product -- how would they compete? There is no Android without (some) fragmentation.
Does this complexity cost (money, effort, q&a and developer time etc...)? Certainly.
But to me the price is well worth it with the likes of the Cyanogen project -- that allows all kinds of freedoms. For me personally it's good -- but if I were in charge of developing some kind of system (say handing out internal devices at a company) -- it's be much more valuable. I'd be in control of upgrades and features. I could maybe patch some minor issues myself. I could hold off on unimportand updates, and rush those that affected my users. I can't see how you could both have this, and at the same time avoid having a somewhat heterogeneous system. I know Amazon agrees (look at the latest kindle tablet).
Re: The problem with Android is choice
#40"You're posting too fast"
You know what HN? FUCK YOU. I'm not going to sit around twiddling my thumbs for the PRIVILEGE of contributing free content to your shitty site.
The gall of you assholes.