The main mistake of such articles are statements like «this is crap, that is crap, all crap» but no actual point to «right way». How to do good. iPhone can't rotate screen everywhere, just in particular apps. iPhone has no window system. iPhone has no «sleep» mode. But it's made by «god bless» Apple. So whathehell with it?)

It's Linux.

If you don't like it, change it. If you don't know how, learn. (Don't bit~ch.)

And, yes, you can change it. PB put a whole new UI on. (A few, actually. )

Not a very objective view. I really can't believe how nice Nokia as made the OS2008 UI. I rather like it

Well, while I agree Aisu, Linux is changeable, why should people have to jump through a ton of hoops just to get a nested folder when I was able to do so easily in OS2007?

The difference in the scrollers really doesn't bother me. But it could bother some other people. The rest, yep... hack it/change it... be done.

But the sleep option... that does bother me. But what can you say to an ol' 770 owner like myself? Sleep is a big thing for me.

Unfair flag!!!

Sean Luke is trying to change it:
http://cs.gmu.edu/~sean/stuff/n800/toolkit/

Woo! Our prayers have been answered! More ways to do the same stuff. (That's why I like Linux in the first place: choice.)

Now all he needs to do is create a UI which lives up to the standards set forth in his review using that. (Possible?)

while I agree with you about the forced finger sized menus and finger detection, there are some answers and reasons for your other items.

- If you tap and hold the onscreen shift key it will go into caps lock. (or hit shift twice on the n810)
- I haven't seen dictionary completetion get worse but who knows??
- People like me wanted completion turned off in xterm as it's not very cool to see your datacenter passwords pop up with autocomplete. I guess they could have made it an option for others though.
- I'm still seeing the ctl character option in xterm and have added and removed others successfully. (like one for pipe) Not sure what's different, but this is on an n810 with the latest os2008.

Well, just offering another opinion to the conversation here: after reading that review and the previous one he wrote, I have to say that despite the general "too hostile" tone of the text (seriously...just relax, Sean, mmm'kay? ), he does make a lot of very good observations about the interface's problems and missed opportunities for making the use experience better. Many of his points probably could be fixed rather easily, icons/scrollbar sizes, layouts etc.

All of those interface issues sound like mostly things that would not require some huge coding undertaking but rather, a graphics/interface guy spending a few weeks tweaking the look and size of icons and placement of scrollbars etc. It's a valid point to ask why they couldn't polish it up more. I think he's right that it'd make the use experience notably better for all us if these issues were fixed. So basically, I agree: the interface could use some touch-up.

The more technical stuff (not having movable windows, screen rotation etc) kinda distracts from the good parts of the article/review, those are more of the "if a rotating screen is what you need, get the device that does it" sort of issues in my mind. Having the screen rotate is not something I stay up at night dreaming about, I couldn't care less. For the non-interface-related technical issues, I'd like them to concentrate on getting FULL SUPPORT for the features we have "sort of working" now. Just finish the job, ok? So mainly, give us stereo bluetooth and full samba support without running some hacks (come on now, who has samba shares with no password protection? nobody).

Oh, and by the way: if he truly is banned from this site, then that's just sad. I hope that's not the case, that's ridiculous. Openness is at the root of this device and its appeal, limiting conversation about this device's deficiencies is beyond pathetic.

I didn't find his tone terribly hostile, and I found his points generally well made.

I did find OS2008 a significant UI improvement (especially on the N810, where the keyboard gets rid of a lot of problems) but I still miss OS2007 for Opera.

It's an ok article - certainly has some good points to be made and some points that are just "meh - now you're being finicky", like the customizable "button bar" as he calls it [it's a task bar!] and the rotate option [most PDAs don't have screen rotate, and how can we ensure people write apps that handle this - the apps written now barely handle non-rotated screens properly!]

Modal menus are a great option for limiting what the user can and can't do and the comparison with OSX's "open file" dialog box is unfair - how did the Newton do things here? Scroll buttons on the bottom edge of the apps menu shouldn't be pushed to the right in favour of a single, extra, application shortcut!

I can pick it apart - but there are better things to be getting along with than a piecewise rebuttal - he has some good and not so good points

Some of it can and should easily be fixed.

I also find Sean's observations to be "on-the-money". There are many inconsistencies in the GUI that should be addressed.

On another note, am I the only one that thinks that the Canola2 GUI would be perfect for the base OS?