[ale] Android Tablets

[Jerald Sheets]

Donning the flame-retardant gear...


On Aug 20, 2010, at 9:33 AM, Geoffrey wrote:

> Damon L. Chesser wrote:
>> On Thu, 2010-08-19 at 07:48 -0400, Jim Kinney wrote:
>>> Yes. But they are MY circuits! If the circuit maker wants to dictate
>>> what I do with my circuits after they belong soley to me, then some
>>> level of fraud occurred in the ownership transfer.
>> 
>> I would have to agree, with out respect to what others think about how
>> "cool" or useful the device is.  AndrodX, can't hack it, what's the
>> point of owning it?
> 
> Because some people might like the functionality but have absolutely no 
> interest in hacking it?

I know that I went through a bit of a watershed a few years ago in relationship to my leisure computer use.  

I found that I was spending dozens of hours hacking on things to get them to work rather than actually doing the things I needed to do.

I'm tired of having to beat on something to make it run so I can do the things that my leisure pursuits need me to be able to do.  (Writing music, band shows, and designing guard routines all require customized software not available for Linux.  With the choice between Mac & Windows, I'll take the Mac)  For servers, Linux 100%.  I giggle like a schoolgirl every time I get to turn off a Solaris/AIX/IRIX/HPUX box and replace it with Linux.

I know that many of you find it to be a tired cliche, but I pick up my laptop/phone/Tablet, etc. and it does precisely what I need.  Every time.  Exactly the same way.  I can now show creativity and effort in creation of the content I need itself or just watch a video or just write a band show or just read a books or news instead of spending inordinate amounts of time getting things installed/configured/working with codec X or publishing format Y to be able to do what I need to do.

The amount of time I save in setup/configuration or procurement of driver software or plugins that cannot (or won't) be distributed with Linux is well worth the addition $200 I spend on my devices. (in fact, my time is considerably more valuable than that) In regained productivity over the course of the few years each that I own a product of any sort, I more than make up for the premium I may pay for hardware X or hardware Y.

I'd much rather *use* my devices than spend all sorts of time making my devices usable. (or playing with them, or hacking them, or looking all over support forums to make them usable for a given purpose)



The issue that causes the "facepalm/headshake" comment is not the substance of the statement, it's the manner in which delivered.  It's the single most cited reason why people who try to get into our little world continue to get frustrated and go back to win/mac instead.  The problem is not our OS choice or even the ideological standards behind the choice, or the suitability of any open source utility for any given purpose....  it's our attitudes as a community.

--j