(Yeah, this is a rant):

You know really sickens me? That there is a bunch of pied pipers towing the industry towards dependence on single ecosystems of single manufacturers, on permanent active data connections. All this with the encouragement of ignorant bloggers misleading even more ignorant customers.

When I compare this situation with, let's say the PC market: I can assemble my own computer, with the components I myself select. Then I'm free to install the OS I want (even hack OS X to run on x86 hardware). Then in Linux, and even in Windows, I'm free to install any application I want, developed by anyone, using whatever application language the developer wanted. My applications do not stop loading when there is no active Internet connection (unless, of course, they are Web related). Also, I can do whatever I want with my files.

Now, in the mobile market, I'm constrained to the hardware manufacturers decide to release, which I understand due to the level of integration and scarce resources available on mobile. Then, I have to resign myself to the OS that comes with the hardware or viceversa. How many times a HW feature you want it's
on an OS you don't want? Or the inverse situation?

Then, as a developer, I have to bend down and use the particular SDK of said manufacturer. And if you want a particular application, and the developer doesn't support your OS, then bad luck. (Hopefully Qt and HTML5 will alleviate some of this!).


Don't get me started on OS design choices: you can't be productive on certain OS/devices because their lack of true multi-tasking do not allow you to kill dead periods of time (i.e. let's quickly check mail while a webpage loads).

Also! If everything is online, then you need a data plan (which can be very expensive), and resign yourself to short battery life because the connection is going to be active the whole time.

Do you want to upload your own files, on your directories, and have them available to every application capable of accesing your system's file directory? Good luck doing that on iOS or WP7. You have to chain yourself to iTunes or Zune (and now iTunes is going to be in the cloud!).

If there is people than want this, to get themselves chained to the whim of manufacturers with echoes of thunderous applause from their peers, all for the sake of convenience and sheepleware, then so be it.

The problem is when this tendency eliminates choices for people that like having choices in the first place. Choices of where to store my data, of where to keep my personal information, of what I want to expose to manufacturers for which your online activities are the main source of revenue, or keep milking you for things that used to, and should be free (there is an app for that!).

That is why I'm getting a N9, perhaps the last encarnation of what freedom of uses in mobile should be.

As usual, XKCD explains it better:

i do not see your point

no one is forced to enter a relationship with mobile providers - you could always use a dumbphone and a tablet, an approach some have taken here.

In regards to mobile providers - just as consumer freedom means users can choose what they want, companies also have the freedom to build the services they want - its their money after all - not yours.

companies exist to make money - and Apple has showed tying consumers up makes money. So companies tie up customers.

what would you have these companies do - have the government compel them to build open platforms for the good of "all" that from their POV, will make less money ? Just because YOU think its better for everyone ?

Thats the opposite of freedom - compelling one party to do something just because YOU think it is better.

If you really think an open platform as you describe will get more customers and make MORE money, then start your own company, make your own products and risk your own money.

Until you have your own skin in the game, your words are just noise.

Me thinks you have not thought this through.

I'll never bow down to any manufacturer that wants to lock me into their "ecosystem" or whatever they want to call it as long as there is an alternative that lets me do what I want without voiding the warranty or becoming a criminal (seriously look what happened to the poor guy putting linux on his ps3).
Maemo and MeeGo seem to be the most open OS for a lot of reasons. Nokia does a pretty good job of producing the hardware and giving a few updates, but mostly leaving us the hell alone. I don't need to buy their charger, their headphones, install their software, use their email, use their themes, use their app store, transcode media into their formats, unlock or hack anything to run unsigned code, or pay them anything extra to develop software (unless you want a commercial Qt licence). It's really my device to do what I want with. If I want apps, they end up mostly being free since open source phones attract open source developers. Open source code is usually safe, so that's a plus too. There's also a lot of settings we can adjust to change performance characteristics or customize the appearance that you just can't do on other phones without a lot of work.
Anyways, I am supposed to be writing some open-source code for the MeeGo competition, need to get back to work

seriously??
**** man, read the comic again.

@mrojas that's right, freedom of choice is most important. Back when I were managing console game development for a pretty small software house, we were shackled by the harsh terms and conditions set by Nintendo: we must pay tens of thousands for a development console which is almost the same as the stock console with an additional serial cable for data transfer and some close source SDK with misleading document (if any); after we finished development and testing we must send the work back to Nintendo for their verification and approval, and then they'll ask us to pay for the manufacturing cost of making roms and cartridges (of at least ten thousand copies) because you're not allowed to know how to burn the game into a rom. Then you can packages the result cartridges and sell them via Nintendo's official sales channels.

We hated this kind of draconian development approach to guts as our life was not just depending on our products but also on their policies and business model, but we just had not choice. Now Apple is taking the similar approach and that's how they made huge profit margin like game console vendors did in the past.

Freedom of choice is not just very important to users, it's very important to developers as well.

I'm with you mrojas, I'm going down with Nokia's burning FOSS-friendly GNU/Linux platform. Lord knows there will be plenty of overpriced, locked-down, locked-in pieces of sh*t waiting for me when the dream is over.

Until then, let's party!

Beautiful post. Best on here for some time. Articulates exactly what I wanted to express in a discussion today, but I failed due either to undercaffeination or insufficient levels of revolutionary fury.

Thank you.

I'm getting one as well. Long live the idea.

Most often the case.

Posted from my N900

Makes sense I guess. But still, I feel like Nokia has gone out of their way to copy apple on this one, and THAT is one thing I dont like.
-No Camera shutter key
-No microSD card slot
-No (customisable) homescreen(s)
To me thats much less freedom of uses than the N900, which is almost 2 years old now.

I totally agree,

Maemo is mobile freedom.. nokia did an amazing job building it and now is messing it up.

Iv never had more fun programming on any platform than this, full developer control.. access to million libs and what not.. I did my my final year project and thesis on writing opencv applications for the n900.. pure pleasure.

If I could, hell yeah Id get the next device based on this platform.. but I cant .. x(

Yep, give us even one screen for widgets. I realize that notifications view can cover lot's of things, but it's not suitable for weather widgets and especially it's not suitable for geeky widgets like uptime, load or CPU freq. Still I have some doubts for the notifications, e.g. there's huge stream of notifications from twitter and RSS feeds, but how about the really important stuff like work emails?

One comment that I heard is that when designed the right way, some widget needs can be covered by the task manager, but it's not very convenient.