what is the difference between openMoko and windows mobile based phones

[Andreas Kostyrka]

* hank williams <hank777 at gmail.com> [070118 14:44]:
>    I dont know what this means.  What are you talking about... TiVo? Linux
Nope, I had once an Ipaq with GPE, and it's UI was quite ok. The
Qtopia thing is also quite fine.

And I had phones that had obvious bugs in it. (Don't remember which
phone it was, but I had once a phone where one could enter a time
of day where the phone should power off. Well, but it seems the
developers forgot an option to delete the poweroff time.)
>    UIs and open source UIs is not the same thing. Lots of people (like TiVo
>    and hundreds of other companies) build proprietary apps/UIs on top of
>    linux. That doesn't make them open source. And even if something is open
>    source, if its not done by an "open source committee" it will generally be
>    better.

How do you arrive at this assertion? UI design is something that can
be done well by committee and done badly by committee.

>    Well, your mileage may vary, but obviously lots of people, press,
>    analysts, etc think its pretty significant. Perhaps it will just be one of

The press and analysts have not seen much yet of the phone. They have
basically been given a presentation, given press release that Apple (a
company known for lifestyle products) claims to have revolutized the
phone market. And they (perhaps, not all of them), were allowed to
play around with a prototype.

Some error clear here? How can have Apple done something in the past
tense, with something that is not yet and will not be available till
Summer?

You know, they even found many journalists and analyst that did
believe SCO's claims about Linux & IBM.

Basically, many "analysts" and "journalists" today tend to "copy &
paste" press releases. It's clearly not a black & white thing, because
there are journalists and analysts knowing about stuff they write
about. And the "copy & paste" is sometimes verbatim, more often it's a
rewording of the stuff they get supplied.

So sorry, what I've read and seen, the iPhone is completly
underwhelming. Time will show if users will pay a premium because it's
an Apple product. (Because there have been a number of "premium"
design phones, sometimes with better technology than the iPhone, that
have made no impression on the market.)

>    many - only time will tell. But somehow I doubt it. Slashdot has certainly
>    gotten a lot of humorous mileage out of the prediction that the iPod
>    wasn't going anywhere.

It has a huge benefit for iPod users => they can have a phone and an
iPod in one piece. OTOH, there are people that don't buy an iPod
because it's so closed already. ;)

And because of it's closed nature, the phone powerusers will be better
off with a WinMobile. (If not the Neo.)

>      It's the Linux-will-fork story all over. Empirical evidence suggests
>      that your fear won't happen.
> 
>    Nope. I  don't have any fears and wasn't talking about forking. I am just
>    saying that often, too many cooks spoil the stew.

Not really. What you are refering to is that not all software is
UI-wise enduser ready. Yeah, these packages will be on the Neo too.
But OTOH, I've seen many enduser friendly packages happening in the
Linux space, so only time will show.

> 
>    I'm not trying to help. I am not intending to be a phone designer. I was
>    asked a question, and so I am stating my honest opinion about phones.
>    Ideally, what I want is a good UI. This is of course, subjective, and so
>    there is no single answer. I can only say that the current phone
>    marketplace has not focused on UI at all. Motorola's UI is inexcusable.
Motorola is bad. SonyEriccson is a little bit better, Nokia is workable.
>    Palm apps look the same as they did in 2000 - and still no multi-tasking.
Guess what, they did look the same even earlier :)
>    Windows mobile is ugly, and looks like they tried to transplant a desktop
>    into a phone. For me to suggest specific fixes is a little like asking why
>    I dont want to date a pot bellied pig. You know, what if we put a little
I think the Neo will surprise you positivly.

>    lipstick on it. wouldnt it be good enough then? Phones need to be
>    re-thought. Perhaps OpenMoko is a solution - haven't seen a demo so I
>    don't know - which is why I asked my initial question. But since no one
>    here other than Sean has seen it, perhaps I wont get anything other than
>    generic linux fan responses.

It's not that I'm a fan ;) It usually sucks less on average than most
alternatives.

Andreas