My time has value, so if I have to spend 3 extra hours researching stuff on Linux that either Just Works or that I know how to do on Windows, Linux ends up more expensive. My last handful of attempts to switch to Linux ended taking a lot more than 3 hours, and I never got to a working config, or to a nicely working config, for a vareity of reasons (grub2 choking on AMD controllers, nice multiscreen handling and video support requiring different drivers, Upstart having no end-user doc,...).
Sorry but I don't see a need to spend hours and tear my hair out over software.

http://www.microsoft.com/en/mo...

(apart from Samsung's need for pressure points vs Google ?)

Tizen needs a unique selling point. Being "a Mobile OS that works" isn't one, that need has been met years ago, and nobody wants Yet Another Smartphone OS for the sake of it.Maybe there's a need at the extreme low-end, next to Microsoft's Asha line (not a resounding success), and a tad below Android One. Maybe Security could be a selling point (except it doesn't seem to be doing much for Blackberry). Maybe there's a fringe of teach-heads who deem Tizen more linux-y than Android and keep agitating about it for that reason (not a big market).
As it stands, the most unfulfilled need I see is the carriers' desire to take back control of our phones, and I'd rather that one stay unfulfilled.

The easiest way is probably to simply get a Cloud Print-ready printer, and a wifi router. Printer and Chromebook connect via wifi. No messing with card/sticks...
https://www.google.com/cloudpr...

he also won the Youtube, and the Internet !

Apple is not the only one guilty of this, but it's more egregious in their case because they trade a lot on their luxury image.

If companies cared about workers, they'd set up factories in countries were workers are actually protected by lax and practice. Apple especially have the profits to do so.

They don't, and they don't. Let's just stop pretending the resulting product is glamorous.

I'm not in until I can switch clients and servers. My current IMAP system lets me use pretty much any email provider and any email client I want.Over the years, I've used several of each of those, and figure I'll have to keep switching once in a while.
Inbox pretty much locks me in to gmail and Inbox (or dial it back to a regular email client). That doesn't work for me, no matter what its features. Amongs which local backup seems to be missing.

Mine is Intel + AMD. Apparently this changes *everything*. Plus last time around, Ubuntu wouldn't let me put the menu bar on the right-hand side of my main screen, and other desktop manager wouldn't rotate for vertical, and videos wouldn't play nice on either or both...

I'm sure it can be gotten to work, just not by an ignoramus who values his time such as myself; and I'm not sure the end result would be as polished as I want (sideways text when the task bar is on the side ??)

I'm geeky for a non-programmer, but, for example, rarely managed to get Linux to run on one of my PCs, and never managed to get it to run *satisfactorily* (with my dual monitors set up as I want them, smoothly playing video, running what I want at startup...). Stuff such as "recompiling the kernel (which someone had to do for me on my last attempt) stumps me.

I could contribute: translations, feedback on the UI ("could your mom understand *that* ?), testing... I've tried twice, and found the atmosphere utterly unfriendly. Mostly, especially in big projects, devs are out for peer recognition and hacker glory, not to take care of the thorn-in-your-side user for which things are either not working or not understandable. And that's too bad.

getting a lot of flack in high school for answering "I don't know" to a lot of stuff. And not just from teachers ^^

Actually, they're not so much security tools as spying tools. I read TFA as "NSA has been helping US corps spy on allies's corps". Well, after spying on Germany's Chancelor and others, that's par for the course for the US I guess.

"holding a 7" phone up to your face looks pretty ridiculous"... Well, I feel less ridiculous the very few times I do that than if I had to carry a phone AND a tablet AND a laptop every time I travel. Plus I don't really care about ridiculous, like beauty it is mostly in the eye of the beholder.

"unless you are using speaker phone or a bluetooth headset" I'm using a wired headset. Sorry if that's not fashion-approved.

"But, thankfully, life hasn't forced me to be constantly tethered to a device like this." Well, if you prefer to be tethered to a stamp-size squint-box for fear of how others look at you, that's your prerogative. I advise you to gather a crowd next time you go buy... anything... and get their approval before any purchase.

To give you a point of reference, a 6" screen (let alone my 7") is to a 4" screen what a 23" is to a 15" screen. I wouldn't go back to 15" on my desktop, I wouldn't go back to 4" for my phone.

Hey, you sound just like the fashion police back when I got my first ridiculously huge phone that they wouldn't be caught dead using. My 4.3" HTC HD2.

Then, again for my huger more ridiculouser 5.3" Galaxy Note.

Then, again for my hugerer ridiculouserer 6" Ascend Mate.

Now, my hugererer ridiculousererer 7" Huawei X1.

I know you reactionary types need time to catch up to new things. Please, do take it, but in the mean time, shut up. Meanwhile, I'll be enjoying reading and watching vids on my "phone", which is really more of a e-reader+media player. Don't worry, you'll get there...

Specs != performance.

From what I see around me, perfomance is not an issue for any less than 3yo phone. Specifications are still key though: screen size, battery life, camera, sound quality on speakers and headset. One issue is that specs are sometimes off the mark: good screen doesn't mean more pixels, it means legible in bright light, at an angle, with good colors... Good camera doesn't man moar pixels, it means good pictures inside with no blur, etc etc.

Indeed. Music files and Video files take sooooo much less space on iOS !