Thread: The "Ecosystem": Why I can’t recommend an N8x0 or N900 to my friend
View Single Post
qviri is offline qviri
2009-06-07 , 03:50
Posts: 36 | Thanked: 15 times | Joined on Apr 2008 @ London
#40
Originally Posted by allnameswereout View Post
There is tons of proprietary and commercial software available for Linux as well. Countless examples exist. Embedded, such as TiVo, NIT, TomTom, Sat. Receivers, Cars. And proprietary software is rampant on Linux as well. In fact, any website running Linux kernel with closed source software (e.g. PHP) on their server which you access with a web browser could be seen as proprietary software. It works just fine, right?
Just a note, PHP is open source, both the language itself and the main implementation, Zend Engine.

Originally Posted by javispedro View Post
What ecosystem is the one you're talking about?
I only see a few monopolies & big companies (Apple, Amazon, ..) mentioned, not a thriving ecosystem at all. In fact, I believe there's a much greater "ecosystem" around Gnome/Maemo than around the iPhone & "the iPhone clone army" -- e.g. I can open way more formats in my Maemo device (yet I agree maybe the most useless ones from a "average Joe" point of view).
When talking about "the ecosystem" for mobile platform, the prevalent meaning recently is the availability of third party software. (Edit: And, by extension, platform maintainer's support for creation, distribution, etc, of said software.) This has been widely noted, fairly or not, to be Apple's particular strength.

The issues at hand in the original post seem related mostly to format of pre-existing content and habits rather than availability or diversity of software; it might be hard to blame anyone for this, but it is a valid concern nevertheless.
Last edited by qviri; 2009-06-07 at 04:14.
 

The Following 4 Users Say Thank You to qviri For This Useful Post: