Dr Jaaski indeed. Maybe we should correct the title of this thread.

I'll take my unlocked E51 as an example. Sure, I can play whatever music or movie I happen to have around, and use it with the carrier of my liking, but I can't browse the filesystem as I would like (*). There are some third party programs for it, but nothing as hacky as kismet (for example). I don't know of any third party drivers for hardware either. I need windows to upgrade the firmware (**). Sometimes, it will refuse to copy mp3 files over bluetooth for no apparent reason (saying drm protected or something of the like). Etc...

And don't forget that I am also locked to a single version of a single o.s. I have an old Sharp Zaurus. The opie distribution was a much welcomed improvement on the Sharp version. Some people run kde on their Nokia tablets(***).

Thee is also the problem of closed source libraries. If you want to upgrade major parts of the system, it is often needed to recompile them. With closed source you have to wait untill the manufacturer does it (which means between weeks and eternity if the hardware is no more supported).

Basically it comes down to that: the more open a device is, the more I can customize it to my liking.


(*) It's only cosmetic, but I'd like to delete the 4 "dowload" directories which Nokia left in the browser bookmarks. I can't. I am not the only one complaining.
(**) Which means in practice that I have to bring it to Nokia service and pay.
(***) And don't get me started about all the users who bought WinCE or Symbian devices to find out that their very buggy system would never be upgraded or corrected. You had to buy a new device, end of support.