It seems to me like the people that are interested in the new sexy, are not going to have the experience to work on something like the mainline kernel anyways. Need someone to work on the Safari app on the iPhone? I imagine a new CS grad that's slightly above average could fit the bill. But hardcore kernel work? It's not like you're going to take on all willing applicants for something like that.

To me, the barrier to entry seems much higher for at least your kernel example. Is that the case?

I have several apps that I ran on my Android 1.1 G1 that run perfectly on my Nexus One running 2.1. In fact, of the apps I used to use on my G1 that I have tried on my N1, none refuse to work. Now, go beyond the "reference" phones from Google and, yes, you'll probably see some problems. The more handset manufacturers fuck with the OS, the more likely they are to break compatibility. But they're shooting themselves in the foot, and the Android Marketplace will (hopefully) be enough of a reason for them to not screw things up.

As an Android developer, I feel this fragmentation crap is overblown. So what if only x% of the Android phones out there can run My Amazing3DGPSSocialNetworkingApp? Anyone evaluating the potential market for their app is going to know to check what portion of the market can actually use their device, and if they don't know to do that then they have bigger problems. If that % isn't big enough, you rework the app so that it does work on new handsets, or don't create it. The more advanced the requirements of your app, the less likely your target audience is going to be using a phone not capable of running it anyways. Advanced features mean advanced users. Advanced users use phones that support advanced features.

As an aside that has not much to do with the actual discussion, I have apps, like Wifi Tethering, that not only work perfectly on multiple phones, but CANNOT be killed because of how open Android is.

So in essence you're saying that the ONLY thing keeping you from raping and killing everyone you want, is your invisible friend in the sky? That if it weren't for the threat of him and his morals you'd be sodomizing every small child you came across? Err, that's probably a bad example, as even God hasn't managed to stop the Catholics from doing that...

So in essence you're saying that the ONLY thing keeping you from raping and killing everyone you want, is your invisible friend in the sky? That if it weren't for the threat of him and his morals yo

Anything short of a rather large scale, and therefore statistically valid, study is pretty much worthless. A pile of anecdotes in slashdot comments won't get you many facts.

That said, I have never had a problem with a Seagate drive- including the 2 that I have been running in RAID-0 for the last 4 or 5 years.

This isn't about opinion. This is about facts. You are entitled to your own opinion, but YOU ARE NOT ENTITLED TO YOUR OWN FACTS.

Calling the United States a "Christian" nation is demonstrably false. You may "believe" otherwise, but you are still WRONG.

Is this it, or related? I just googled the first sentence of your post.

http://newledger.com/2009/10/fascism-stalinism-and-north-koreas-destiny/

Simulators are not good enough. Fun is necessary.

I just finished a "serious game" for the Ford Motor Company. We dealt with an incredibly boring, dry topic. The key was to deeply embed all of that in a fun game. In order to do well in the game, you need to know the material we're trying to teach. On top of that, provide enough motivators for the player and purely-fun gameplay mechanics that aren't related to the subject matter and you have players that teach themselves without even realizing it.

I want to do this. I know how to solder, but that's it. How should I get started?

With the exception of embarrassingly awful game concepts, it's actually pretty hard to tell just how worthwhile one is until you've played it. You don't know whether your idea will work or not until you've seen it in action.

I guarantee you that all recently released games that could be considered to be both good and original are noticeably different from the concept that spawned them. That is a fact of the medium- it takes lots and lots of iteration to find the good stuff, get rid of the bad, and polish the hell out of it all so that people will play it (it's even harder to get them to pay for it).

Make your game. I highly recommend the Unity3d engine. Extremely easy to use, powerful, well documented, etc. etc. Plus the indie version is completely free!

Oh and like everyone else said, nobody buys just a concept. A concept and a demo, maybe.

Steam is NOT an open platform. In fact, it is more closed than Apple's app store. You need to be approved by the powers that be to be placed on Steam, and getting their attention alone is not as easy as submitting your app to Apple's app store. Plus, unlike the app store, there's also a pretty high bar for quality.

Like many things in life, this is much easier said than done.

Some people build entire careers on their ability to craft amazing game levels. What takes you an hour to play through could have taken someone months to create. Doing this shit well is HARD.

I'd like to add that key management is a huge pain in the ass, as well.