Actually, I am a 20-year old coder (years coding, not years total). However, I'm a Pascal fan (Delphi) and I primarily code for Windows. The little I dipped into Linux I did solely as to understand how to port network layer.

This gives me some oddball perspective. I am well aware of the advantages of coding for a successful, wide app and developer base, but closed system.

To me, closeness is nothing. I have documentation up my eyeballs. CloseHandle has 4 pages. CloseHandle (handle: DWORD): Boolean;

And for me it is natural to work with closed drivers - I can't nor do I wish to compile the driver myself. In fact, in order to pass WHQL, drivers are signed in binary form.

Still, well documented. I can pass anything from and to a driver at will. Dump calls. Replace layers. Also, all drivers must implement common functions, as required by Microsoft.

As a result, I can open any modem I want, dial, hang up. I can make it so I don't care what hardware is under me, so long as it's supported under Windows.

Such is my view of things, and, as a result, I'm less than excited about openness. It's not bad, and, from what I understand, more needed under Linux since it's a bit less modular. Actually, much less.

E.g., Windows explorer for 2k/XP is about 2000 lines or something to that effect. It's silly. All it does is implement interfaces. Everything else is done by dynamically loaded modules one can replace at will. In XP, the actual window was HTML.

The idea of recompiling a window manager makes my hair stand up. Yes I'm odd.

I get that. However, the analogy is a bit off. It's not the car that's closed in N900. The car is open, it's just that the engine, locking system and windows are closed. And the engine stalls, the locking doesn't always lock and the windows remain open.

I know the car is open. But I don't have issues with the car. The only gripe I have with Maemo this far is that it slows down with uptime, after about 4 days it needs a reboot. Which, compared to other OSs, like Symbian, isn't bad.

I went to bugzilla. Selected platform, the cut out stuff like licensing, documentation. Then took out duplicates, worksforme, moved. 1200 bugs. Here we go. Take out telephony, since it's not actually part of the OS, looking at the bugs. Now select the fremantle versions (5.0), and cut out enhancements, only bugs. 280. Scanning through, I see stuff that shouldn't be in my list, HID mouse, bugs that are likely in drivers like BT disconnects, etc. So, really, I'll guess 150. That's how many bugs Fremantle has. The rest up to 11.000 or whatever the number is now is issues with the closed stuff they wrote. That's 73:1

But if the car is open but all the bugs are in closed systems, do you care, as a user, that the rest of the car is going to be MORE open? Sure, as soon as a wheel breaks, I'll be happy. But windows more that once a week, while the sum of all car issues is one a year. On all car models, summed.

Remember, this is a thread where people complain they have a GPS tracker in they door locking system.

My whole gripe is the fact that nobody has yet written an open engine for may car (they can't). A phone app that natively records, natively speaks, natively switches speakers so I don't need 15 daemons fighting for resources. Hey, one that actually answers when I press green and hangs up on red would be great. The current version can take up to 15 seconds.

That is a misconception on most closed OSs. Might be correct for closed open source projects, like Android, that were meant to be customized through source and source is missing.

But closed OSs are very, very customizable, otherwise they wouldn't have a chance in real competition. Also, there is zero -ZERO- resistance against me from replacing any component or part of Windows should I have the will and time to write it. Some are insanely complex for one human being, but, e.g., I can (and have) replaced the shell, window manager, all apps delivered with it. There are alternatives for all known to man applications. 95% have a free alternative and 90% have a free and open alternative. I haven't swapped Explorer because it's simply that good. I have several file managers installed.

I am aware that I'm not technically fixing a bug by rewriting Notepad. But a) I can replace notepad, can't replace Phone and b) not all users recompile kernels.

I'm probably talking nonsense by now, but the point I'm trying to make is this: Closed OSs don't inherently have the problems Maemo, and Android have now. It's not closeness that's eating N900, it's the docs and developer support.

That's the only good news about MeeGo I've heard this far. Followed with a comfortable distance by the fact that I could run it on N900 and get a few bugs fixed while at it. But the fact that it will be meant for a more powerful platform kind of balances that. I might not want to run it.

I did say virus, as an umbrella term for all malware. The quote, however, was the definition of spyware. And, frankly, it's cherry picking (ha, cherry!). No viruses on our platform also means no malware, worms, spyware, PUS, backdoors, trojans, viruses, etc.

Nope. Google got me:
* free email,
* free online storage,
* decent security
* Maps I use
* Earth I very much like,
* Sketchup I used to design my house,
* always has beta features,
* Image search (anti-scraper techniques pushed me to Bing),
* News,
* Code,
* Translate,
* Free POP access,
* Picasa (storage only),
* Chat,
* audio link for free,
* video link for free,
* Latitude,
* 3D Warehouse,
* SideWiki,
* Reader,
* free online office for non-secure work,
* online virus scan,
* online PDF,
* caches pages.

For that list, I'd buy a SIM and give them that number. They saved me tons of money and continue to do so.

Let's look at Nokia's offer:

* OVI, with its unproven security, video resizing, small storage features
* a repository that's technically a requirement for operating a Linux device
* 4 free desktop wallpapers
* 8 free games some of which people curse at, while free. Like backgammon that eats pieces. And that Globe/candle stuff, since we need that kind of applications, we ran out of actually useful ideas.

For that list, they get my eternal scorn.

Don't you think I realize they index my email (G)? I gave them that right when I enabled the spam filter that, by nature, scans emails. So what. Do you think they'll steal my phone number and send me "information"? No. There are laws in place. All they index must be deleted in 6-9 months. So they target ads. What's what AdBlock Plus is for. And Element Hiding Helper.

Facebook says plain and simple in their warning: Warning, everything you post is bloody public.

I am WELL AWARE that things that leave my computer towards the internet are exposed to a risk. You know what? I know that, so everything that leaves my PC is open or encrypted to hell. Things you send through the net is stuff you can afford to lose.

There is a difference between giving away info and stealing it. Nokia stole it. It asked for it when I registered at OVI. I refused. They took it anyway.