While I understand a merger of AT&T and T-Mobile, cannot see why T-Mobile and Sprint want to join. T-Mobile use GSM networks, while Sprint uses CDMA. Is not like the two networks can magically get together into a bigger one, or fill missing spots. And the customer list, well they got in Sprint for one reason and probably was they were not happy with the other carriers. https://www.pcmag.com/article2...

1. Google bought Android.
2. Java is used for the Apps, the core OS is not in Java.
3. You as a developer can use the NDK and native compilers like gcc (and soon clang) to compile native apps...
but that means losing the portability to any Android device independent of CPU in the process.

Arch has made some changes that required user interaction. And if those are done correctly and following the steps, is really minimized the chances to actually not break the system. I ran it for like 2-3 years, and hardly had any problem in it.

Rob like someone mention earlier, C# along with the whole (or many of the) Microsoft products portfolio is heavily used on the Enterprise. There are a couple of exceptions like many ISP which use Open Source alternatives to reduce operational costs, like thousands of Outlook licenses for example.

And when a company operates on Microsoft systems, then is very common that they look to non Microsoft products with a little doubt. Because those smaller companies have sometimes gone bankrupt, or products get discontinued and unsupported. Also there is a more common belief that under Windows MS products will be more stable and will endure the test of time better than non MS software. And maybe is true, considering examples like Visual Basic 6 that still works these days. Outdated, but gets the job done.

Only companies that work with mixed environments will actually have a need to look for other multi platform solutions like PHP, Python, Lua, Ruby, etc.

Consumer products have moved to Android and for a couple of reasons. Beginning with the bad history of old Windows Phones crashing around, and the reject of the tile system. But that's on personal devices. Still companies use computers, and computers are either Windows (about just everyone), Macs (artists), and Linux (Developers, and IT). Since Android (1) is not self hosting, and (2) do not run efficiently and good enough on computers, there is nowhere there to be found. Like I said in another thread, while Android requires another OS to develop, those legacy OS are going nowhere. They will lose market in consumer products, yes, but became extinct no. If they do, then also the Android market will stale, because there will be nothing to develop Android OS or apps with. Also haven't seen any Android Server edition, so in the enterprise Android will have only 2 roles... a digital notepad & remote email.

For C# to be a serious multi platform alternative Microsoft needs to make serious changes like:

• * Open sourcing the whole .Net and opening the patents related to it. Not limited chunks like they have done
• * Releasing same version for all desired platforms. No more .Net for Windows first, and a year later for everyone else by Xamarin.

Doubt any of them will happen, and that's why C# along with .Net is destined to fail as a standard.

But standard or no standard, at the end it depends on what OS platform the company you get contracted uses. But there is a very big change that if they use Microsoft products, you will end using either Visual Basic, C#, or both (or even Windows shell or VB scripts) to develop.

Linux kernel may be monolithic, but people who build their kernels never build the whole thing. Do I need EISA slots.. hell no.

So that means that other big programs that are spread in different subprograms, each doing a different job does not feel UNIX. Then X does not feel UNIX too where I got installed on my system drivers that will never use, neither do the bloat load of Debian packaging tools, when compared to the smaller rpm equivalents.

Article said they plan to drop the support only for external devices. That means the kernel driver will still be there, and the OS partition itself will probably still be using ext.

Also any OS has to develop thinking on upgrades to their old user base, so the ext support will not just disappear. Very likely even if they switch the primary OS to something else like Btrfs, they will have to code, and include a ext3/4 to whatever becomes the default in their setup for old systems.

And what gets Amazon by lying in sales numbers. nothing, nada, nichts

While the project has a nice goal, I'm pretty sure this project will fail in the long term, and will not be able to catch up. And that's because of the fast pace of Linux kernel development.

Linux kernel 3.15 was released in June 8, kernel 3.16 was released in August 3, and already kernel 3.17 is in rc-7. Probably will be released in a week or two at most. That means every kernel is released around 2 months difference. Again, sadly doubt it that company will be able to keep up with the kernel development.

If they want to modernize something that doesn't evolve that fast, they should try BSD instead.

And looking at the code examples like 90% of the cases where in the Java sources.

btw, the switch should be there in case someone wants to turn it on or off at will, but at install time touch UI should be automatically detected

Omg, this is really archaic. I remember a PC-BSD forum discussion like 3 years ago, around the development of their 2nd release if I'm correct, where they where discussing about a feature that was different on laptops and desktops, and where looking at ways to automate that detection, instead of showing a button.

If at the end, they succeeded on that, is shameful MS with all it's resources can't find a sensible automatic detection approach.

Is never too late, and with the vast amount of crappy Android phones in mid/low markets, the have a couple of segments where they can be a hit.

And even in the high end, I'm sure many of the Samsung Galaxy, and HTC users are already bored of the lines and want something fresh.

I'm sure only the 4% "Geek Audience" of the whole billions of phone users world wide knows Nokia sold to Microsoft.

Nokia have done very good phones in the past, and even some Lumias (taking the WinPhone 8 away) are nicely designed. I know they can do a good, if not great Android phone. Probably not in the first try, but neither LG, Samsung, HTC made awesome phones in their 1st try.

My doubt is about the company itself.... Do they sold to Microsoft? Microsoft has the exclusive rights to the Lumia design? Do we have 2 Nokias, one MS controlled, one independent making Android phones?

I only hope Nokia don't become the Atari of the 2010+ era. Where only their respective employees knew which company do what, since both have the same logo and name.

Probably they are going to either automatize the vending machines, or the commerce distribution (or both) so they will not need to rely on external distributors for that. In other words, more control and revenue for them.