The first iPods were just FireWire hard drives. There was nothing special to them. As long as you had software that could update the library file to make the thing recognize music, you could run it from Windows. I remember that there was at least 2 or 3 third party programs you could buy at a computer store to let you use your iPod on a PC.

I don't remember anyone being sued over it.

That's not entirely true. Windows CE code was available, but developers basically didn't use it much. cnet covered this at the time of launch, and in the end only around 50 games used it (out of over 700 created).

One of the Japanese launch titles, Sega Rally 2, used Windows CE, and it had a very inconsistent framerate. I believe the game was later re-released as a "native" game, which may have been the version released to the US. You can still fine some sites that mention some of the problems.

How many people who need them now don't get them because they can't afford $2k+ when they should be paying maybe $250?

I know that's the case for at least two of my relatives.

I get it's useful. I know people love it. I've used it myself. I realize that may be 95% of what X has that Wayland doesn't that people are interested in.

My question is, what is that other 5%. He said "every advantage", I'm trying to find out if there is only one advantage or if there are others.

Seriously, though, the Wayland effort appears to be throwing out every advantage the X11 display had over the Windows display for a replacement that will probably never be quite as good as a Windows.

Emphasis is mine. Other than network transparency, what advantages did X11 have that Wayland doesn't? What other advantages did X11 have period?

Losing network transparency will effect some people, but there are some solutions to that. I'd wager the majority of linux GUIs deployed in the world don't use that feature (between embedded stuff like TiVos, normal desktops, TVs running Linux, etc). But I can tell you from more than 10 years of following Linux development that no one seems to actually like X11. From what I've read the various GUI developers seem to love Wayland compared X and can't wait for it to take over. X seems to be a giant ball of mud that's always getting in peoples way, hampering performance, and a pain in the ass to configure. The fact that it handles hardware setup, drawing, input, network transparency, fonts, 3D, and so much more it's clearly not following the unix philosophy of small tools doing one job.

Every time Wayland comes up, people come out of the woodwork to declare it a failure because it won't run over a network, but that's the only real gripe I've seen. You say there are others, I'm curious to know what they are.

I guess I was thinking of the iPad 1, although you might be able to get closer refurb. I still think the battery life is a big issue. An extra $50 to add another 4 or 5 hours of battery life would have easily been worth it.

Given that you can get generic "real" laptops for about that price, I'm still don't see a real compelling argument. The 3G is nice, but you don't get much data. At this point the average user has no idea these things exist, and I'm don't think this new model is really going to change that.

It feels more like a "we can make cheap computer and OS too!" kind of project than a real effort at making a dent in the market.