Thread: Maybe the unpleasant truth is that MeeGo really was too late and/or not good enough?
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gerbick
2011-02-15 , 15:30
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#234
Originally Posted by zwer View Post
Make up your mind, is it good for a dev eloper, or good for the end user? It can't be both on the same level. Knowing various .NET/CLI caveats, I'll take a guess - WP7 is better for the user, and you are saying that it's made with the user in mind, and here is what I have a problem with...
Ok... let me ask you this. Why does it have to be one or the other? Good for developers shouldn't mean that users lose out with a weaker UI/UX and a strong (or simple) UI/UX shouldn't mean that the developers take a loss or are boxed in. Too much of that mentality is prevalent now and thus if it becomes a quickly stated stance of "Too shiny, it's for the sheep" or "Too difficult, it's gotta be for developers" when neither should be true.

How come something is created with the user in mind, yet it tries to lock in the user and milk cash from him/her whenever it can? Doesn't that seem rather contradictory?
Man, I've been trying to figure that one out. Like... they make the user experience simple and that somehow allows them to add too much room for "Let's fleece these suckers..." functionality.

Let me put my user hat for a moment, and lets say I purchase a WP7 device - how am I to transfer my music library from my Linux laptop to it?
About the same way you would an iPhone on Linux - you wouldn't unless you could mount it as an device, move your files over to the SD card manually, or wait for DoubleTwist to hit Linux too. At least there's an external SD card, unlike the iPhone. As it stands though, many reports are sorta negative around the SD card usage for WP7.

And even VBox is not a solution, already tried it and it didn't work, but even if it would - why would I buy a desktop OS to run it in a virtual machine just so I could transfer my files to my mobile device? How is that 'with user in mind'?
Same prob I've been having with... say any phone without a good desktop app that doesn't support my OS's of choice - OS X mostly, but also Ubuntu and Windows 2008 R2 Server 64-bit - and I can't mount as a device. I use VMWare and don't think that I should in order to get the full experience in one of my aforesaid OS's. But often have to.

Lately, I've been all about running my own webDAV on the device - iPhone, iPad and now Android (via an app called WebSharing) and that gives me the freedom to share, collect files as long as I'm around wifi and another computer and/or smartphone - I hate wires.

How is it bad for the user to be able to access the device via a standard USB connection, or to transfer his/her files from network storage, or...? Name me one good reason to only be able to access your device through a proprietary app and how can that be good for the user?
I'd rather mount it, drag and drop, be done with it. Having me use iTunes marries me to their ecosystem, I have to authorize my gadget on my own computers and then if I were to grab a song from another device, I have to run the risk of wiping my library clear if I sync with another machine.

But... desktop apps give people that don't know ctrl+c, ctrl+v or standard folder structures a chance to use higher functions such as... moving movies and/or music over to a device too.

Having it both ways is ideal, imho. Desktop app and mount as a device.

I personaly have no problems with closed-source apps/OSes/whatever, I have a problem with locked in systems directed and censored by some outside entity - in such system you end up leasing your device instead of owning it, where the manufacturer can change the terms of use retroactively, after you've purchased the given device - and I just cannot accept that. True, given a choice I prefer OSS, but closed source is just fine as long as it uses widely accepted standards and does not lock you in.
I'm just waiting on somebody to get right. If I have to purchase music, then have a store that has music I like, can give me the methods I like to keep my library in order as well as sync my phone, back it up properly off of the device and if I'm out and about, the ability to share or collect files, make it easy for people like my mother and offer a UX that makes sense and doesn't require me to think in programming patterns to get the simplest thing done.

Still waiting... a week later of playing with it, WP7 doesn't give me that.
 

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