Android versus WinMo - a personal experience

[x10guy]

+1. I was sort of hinting that in the "Ready for Everyday Use?" thread but I was by far in the minority. Most people in that thread and perhaps this whole sub-forum seems to think that Android TP2 project is the answer to everything.

Don't get me wrong. The Android project is by far one of the coolest and perhaps most compelling projects to come around in a loooong time.

Again, this is just my opinion, I just have a feeling that it is not going to be the "be all, end all" OS for our devices. It is easy to jump on the Android bandwagon right now but I think once people start using it long term, they'll figure out that there are nagging annoying issues just like there are in the Winmo arena.

This is not to say that people may prefer Android over Winmo, but it'll be far from perfect.

[gTen]

Most of the things you mentioned seem to be just things you are not used to on the Android platform or things you can get to install with some effort.

Rar = Androzip = can extract RAR

Office = There are a few office suites...most are paid like androffice and etc..Thinkfree has a free one for viewing files and you pay if you wana edit or do calc..documents to go is also free for viewing only

Exchange = I hope there is never activesync for Android...Activesync is the worst piece of application in existence...I personally prefer SyncML. Activesync is proporitory to microsoft which pretty much makes ppl stick to microsoft..things like this should be open source and follow "Standards" this allows you to choose products based on their quality and not be locked down to microsoft..try Funambol for example

Tasks = there are some patches to make them integrate by default..as for outlook..again your mentioning microsoft products...why not use thunderbird or zimbra desktop or etc?


Voice Recognition = I do not know much about that so can't help there

Logmein = Ok so blaim them not android and I am sure there are alternatives..they are developing an android soon too

Skyfire = I don't see why people like this browser at all but ok..

Groovefish/NanoGroove= there are alternatives...

Now I am not saying Android is 100% up to par with everything winmo was but you gotta give other things a chance..if your ideology is Android won't be good until its 100% microsoft software compatible then maybe your looking at things a bit different

[x10guy]

Originally Posted by gTen

Most of the things you mentioned seem to be just things you are not used to on the Android platform or things you can get to install with some effort.
...

I admire your love of Android. But your post is funny in that your most common phrase is "there are alternatives" but you don't seem to mention any alternatives.

But Android is indeed a nice mobile OS. Alot of likes and dislikes are subjective so that can determine which one you like better.

This discussion would probably be a bit more concrete if we had a more complete version of Android. Right now, things are just hypothetical.

[gTen]

Originally Posted by x10guy

I admire your love of Android. But your post is funny in that your most common phrase is "there are alternatives" but you don't seem to mention any alternatives.

But Android is indeed a nice mobile OS. Alot of likes and dislikes are subjective so that can determine which one you like better.

This discussion would probably be a bit more concrete if we had a more complete version of Android. Right now, things are just hypothetical.

I actually gave a few alternatives..some I did not give alternatives for some because I don't use them..how can I give alternative for something I myself don't use? but I am sure there are..

[x10guy]

Originally Posted by gTen

I actually gave a few alternatives..some I did not give alternatives for some because I don't use them..how can I give alternative for something I myself don't use? but I am sure there are..

Thanks for the explanation. That's fine. It just that you sounded so confident in your previous thread that you actually knew of the Android alternatives.

You'll probably know more once the Android TP2 becomes more robust.

[mlin]

Originally Posted by gTen

...if your ideology is Android won't be good until its 100% microsoft software compatible then maybe your looking at things a bit different

Microsoft has become very well ingrained into the business world. There are solutions to Android's missing functionality like you mentioned, such as the ability to view office docs from the device. With Microsoft products having a rather large presence in the world, I think it should be expected that in today's smart phone world, there is compatibility with these products.

Nice write up Dishe!

[gTen]

Originally Posted by mlin

Microsoft has become very well ingrained into the business world. There are solutions to Android's missing functionality like you mentioned, such as the ability to view office docs from the device. With Microsoft products having a rather large presence in the world, I think it should be expected that in today's smart phone world, there is compatibility with these products.

I do not disagree Microsoft's presence, mostly in the business world but the use of Exchange makes me sad. Syncing is part of making all technology work together and those need to have standards and be open source for it to have competition and variety.

Also viewing is free but editing costs $$$..but that aside from the microsoft is not the only one setting standards for documents..many formats exist including PDF, ODF and etc which are commonly used.

There is compatibility with use of 3rd party apps but in general I believe people should migrate off solutions that do not allow flexibility. If Microsoft wants to sell exchange they should open up activesync. But Microsoft tries to get both which is bad for consumers and businesses.

[dishe]

gTen, I hear what you are saying and I WANT to agree with you. But sadly, my experiences have not matched up with what you describe. And I think you've missed my point.

I'm not glued to Microsoft, for the record. I would gladly switch to ANYTHING that worked just as well. I'm also a big fan of open source and standards. However, I'm also willing to admit that sometimes open source does not work as well or offer the same features as the commercial alternatives.
Funny you should mention Funambol, I'm actually very familiar with the product (I've actually got a picture with me and the creator, Fabrizio Capobianca, at a tech conference). SyncML is a great concept. In practice, Exchange just works better and more efficiently. I tried Funambol, I ended up going back to Exchange.

Good call on the un-rar tool, btw! But if you read over my point in the first post, you'll see that I admit most of my gripes are things that will most likely come out sooner or later. But right now, those inconveniences are legitimate for anyone coming from Windows Mobile who used their phones the way I do. There are certain things I've come to expect from my handset, and while Android is catching on extremely fast, its not quite there yet.

[gTen]

Originally Posted by dishe

gTen, I hear what you are saying and I WANT to agree with you. But sadly, my experiences have not matched up with what you describe. And I think you've missed my point.

I'm not glued to Microsoft, for the record. I would gladly switch to ANYTHING that worked just as well. I used Funambol extensively (even had a correspondence with its creator, Fabrizio- I actually have a picture I took with him somewhere... heh). I was a big fan and pushed it everywhere before I gave in and got myself an Exchange server.

My practical experience in the real world has often been the complete opposite of your perfect-world vision. Not all the time, I do love open-source, and have had excellent experiences with some of the resulting products. However, not everything labelled "open source" is magically awesome.
Open Office, for example, had compatibility problems when collaborating with high-profile clients glued to MS Office. One could argue that it was Microsoft in fact who was not adhering to their own standards set forth for the document types. Whatever the case may be, to avoid embarassing situations, I ended up caving in and getting myself Office 07.

I used to sound just like you... I was a fan of Funambol, and pushed it every chance I got... until I noticed I was always making up excuses for everything where I shouldn't have had to. It didn't always push in real time (try explaining that to a Blackberry user) and I had a few bizarre circumstances in which I ended up with duplicate entries and the like which was a headache to resolve. SyncML is great, again, in concept. Exchange? A world of difference. At the risk of sounding like Apple advertising, "it just works".

I agree with you in principle, things should be more open. I don't want to rely on Microsoft. And there SHOULD also be alternatives for the things I mentioned missing in Android. But sometimes there aren't (good call on the unrar tool, though!).

If you read over my point in the first post, you'll see that I admit this stuff will come out sooner or later, so many of my gripes are temporary. But right now, Android is not quite there yet.

Oh I don't disagree that Exchange is a lot simpler then running funambol or other sync clients. Even in my installation of Funambol I had to modify it to my needs to get it to work properly and their documentation is pretty bad...

One problem that happens in open source communities is when open source is done by a profit business they try to keep a difference between the "paid" version and "free" version. Let me use zimbra as an example..their free does not include things like mobile sync and real time backups. In turn this makes a struggle between open source people and the company. (which is why they got crappy mobile sync)

M$ in my opinion is the worst at sticking to standards. But what makes open source apealing is when I have a custom solution I can modify the code myself to make it fit my needs a lot easier on open source platforms.

[mlin]

Originally Posted by gTen

I do not disagree Microsoft's presence, mostly in the business world but the use of Exchange makes me sad. Syncing is part of making all technology work together and those need to have standards and be open source for it to have competition and variety.

Also viewing is free but editing costs $$$..but that aside from the microsoft is not the only one setting standards for documents..many formats exist including PDF, ODF and etc which are commonly used.

There is compatibility with use of 3rd party apps but in general I believe people should migrate off solutions that do not allow flexibility. If Microsoft wants to sell exchange they should open up activesync. But Microsoft tries to get both which is bad for consumers and businesses.

I do not think MS is really the issue. Take a look at the Pre. The way exchange is fully integrated into the device is beautiful; tasks, email, calendars, and contacts all sync very nicely into the native UI. In addition, Palm's layering of contacts, emails, calendars, etc from multiple accounts is revolutionary. I think Android could have incorporated something a little better into the native UI.