I'm a bit more surprised by the lack of comments about openness. You would think, that being a site for hackers, being able to install whatever you want on your mobile hand held computer would be a big deal. I mean, most people here would likely not even think of buying a laptop or a desktop that restricted them in the ways that iOS does. Consistency and looks are good and important, but to me, secondary to control.
iOS is an appliance, Android is a computing platform. I want my phone to be a computing platform.
The secret to understanding HN is that it's not actually a site for hackers. The word "Hacker" in the title bar is written on a board that was nailed up over the word "Startup".
It's a digression, but there's more truth to this than the snark would indicate. Five years ago, this was a site for hackers building companies, and the emphasis was clearly on the "building" part. It rapidly took over from similar spots (/r/programming, slashdot) as the center of consciousness for web-focused developer discussion. Now, it's entirely preoccupied with the "companies" part -- what platforms to target, how to manage funding, etc... Many of the hackers seem to have gone silent.
Or else they've migrated somewhere else, and I haven't been able to find them...
Unfortunately, your phone with Android is not a computing platform, because you cannot run everything you want on it without jailbreak. I needed to root my phone (Google Nexus Galaxy, unlocked) and void warranty to install jellybean :(
Google makes it a bit easier, ... Yet, my iphone is also jailbroken and I can run anything. I would love to have a truly open phone with a truly open-source os (like Maemo was). No cripple-ware like Android and iOS.
You did not "jailbreak" your phone. You merely ran the company provided developer tools to unlock the boot loader. You did not need to crack any security and you can be confident that the unlock tools will work just fine on next version of the OS. You can re-lock the boot loader so I would imagine that it would be hard for anyone to figure out that you've tampered with it.
It is also possible to run any standard app without unlocking the boot loader. You only need to unlock or root your phone for non-standard apps or modified versions of the operating system.
This is not at all the same thing as iOS jailbreaking and the level of control iOS exerts. It might be nice to support a stock way of using root, but the fact that I can run any program developed according to the standard OS apis is enough for me to consider it a proper computing device.
My definition would have at minimum:
(1) Be able to run any app designed for the system.
(2) Be able to buy or receive apps from any source.
sorry, maybe I was not clear. Some devices running Android you have to "jailbreak" (this depends on the carrier/ manufacturer). I bought the google nexus galaxy exactly, because I just need to unlock the boot loader and can get root on it.
I just have the feeling that Google gets too much praise for their "open" Android. It's not my definition of "open" (especially in the light of their current threat towards acer http://marketingland.com/google-acer-android-aliyun-21631 )
I think I agree with you it's a computing platform (if talking about the Nexus brand). Yet, the kindle fire for example is not a computing platform (also running Android). iOS feels more like an appliance (although with the $70 developer program bonus you can do mostly anything you want with it... until Apple revokes your dev certificate :). Yet, I would love to have a really open computing platform (like Maemo was) for my phone.
edit: clarifying that I mean the nexus brand concering the computing platform.
iOS is an appliance, Android is a computing platform. I want my phone to be a computing platform.