whydo

Tried a bunch of Linux distributions: Caldera, Slackware, Redhat, Mandrake, SuSE, Debian, ....

Then came Corel and I thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread. Clean, smooth, effortless install; everything working right out of the box; all the necessary applications; professional look and feel.

Microsoft must have had its eyes on the situation as they immediately bought into Corel. The next thing you knew, Corel was history.

Ubuntu is not nearly as pleasant an experience as Corel was back then, but it just does a lot of the basic stuff right, even though it does leave a lot to be desired in terms of polish, privacy concerns, look-and-feel, usability, openness, etc.

Hopefully, Canonical attends to these issues or someone else takes the helm in improving things.

The first question is:

Why?

We already have a whole bunch of operating systems, many of them free.

One of the frequent problems with a lot of free/open source software folks is that they lack direction. This type of thing where we do stuff just to do stuff probably won't fly in one of the leading tech companies.

Why don't you figure out a real problem people have and look for ways to solve that, instead of just doing random "interesting" stuff that wastes people's valuable time?

I hope the folks at Apple are paying attention.

Embrace, extend, extinguish.

Why don't we have both: a WYSIWYG Designer, and a Source code editor?

That way you get productive immediately with the designer, yet still have the power to fine-tune every detail using the text editor.

*crickets

"Beyond that no one has any right to say how other people should run their projects."

You have a right to say whatever you want.

Issues with Firefox OS:

1. Browser only loads one tab at a time.

2. Inability to lock the screen orientation to either Portrait or Landscape.

Issues with ZTE Open:

1. Mediocre touchscreen sensitivity.

2. Short USB cable.

You do realize that Android uses the GNU/Linux kernel, right?

The work of the FSF and GNU is one of the most important in the history of computing. We benefit daily from the values of freedom, respect, and choice it presents. We also benefit from the abundance of knowledge and technologies that is openly available to all.

However, these rights and privileges must not be taken for granted and must continue to be protected. It is also in our interest to choose solutions and businesses that respect their users and their liberties.

Some unlocked and more open alternatives: Nexus, Firefox OS

You can have return on investment without locking yourself into a closed platform. You don't have to lock yourself into a closed platform for ROI.

Why do some people just love locking themselves into closed platforms?