Re: Shadow Alterntive - Redux.

With the Pandora now actually shipping, is a Linux version of Shadow Plan a faint possibility? Heck, I'd go for that!

--- In [email protected], Jeff Mitchell <skeezix@...> wrote:
>
> 
> 	The pain! It burns!
> 
> 	I dunno man; iphone is doing well, but the general feeling is that 
> Android will slowly overtake it .. the trick is Apple has a lot of 
> momentum. If Apple can keep it up, they could well 'win', but if they 
> falter just a touch, Android will steam over it. Apple are right-PITA's, 
> but they do make some pretty good stuff and I'm carrying an iphone 3GS 
> these days. I really realyl like the Nokia N900 in a lot of ways, but I 
> don't envision its where things are going. Android has some to like, and 
> some to dislike (a lot on both counts really), but it might be where 
> things are heading. (One of the reasons is because carrier can still build 
> their own distributions, and they like that, so they want ot push Android; 
> thats actually a very bad thing for developers and users.. the samr 
> problem plagued Palm .. remember how Tapwave and Handspring and Palm and 
> AlphaSmart and Sony all had slightly different and incompatible extensions 
> to the common base, it made development absolute hell? Android isn't 
> there, but it _could_ go there..)
> 
> 	So I dunno, I can't really recommend, or say where I'm preferring. 
> 
> 	I'll restate what a lot of us say -- mobile dev has only gotten 
> worse, and only nastier, over the years ;)
> 
> 	This is partially why I'm working with some guys on an all new 
> device, but its not really for most people .. but its going to be fun for 
> people like me :) - see http://www.open-pandora.org/
> 
> 	I really like my iphone from a user perspective; from a dev 
> perspective I'm half a fan an half full of rage (Apple are bastards.)
> 
> 	I'm not really a fan of Android right now, but I might start 
> watching it more seriously.
> 
> 	WebOS is currently not doing super well in statistics (but since 
> when did I ever care ;); so far, I've stonewalled it since 1) it was late 
> to Canada so I couldn't evne get one till long after most people, 2) it's 
> so far been purely a javascript+css scene, which is a very hard sell to us 
> serious app devs and us performance minded devs, and 3) they've not been 
> really reaching out to devs as much sa they used to; ack for old Palm we 
> used to get a lot of help, but now its a whole new Palm. Still, they've 
> finally started mentioning official native code support, so real apps and 
> performance apps start becoming interesting again. So we'll see how the 
> devices go.
> 
> 	In a way, Palm OS was good because it was so ugly and hard to do 
> real work for, that only us hardcore folks would do it, and the big guys 
> like IBM and EA and so on stayed out; now mobiles are big news, and the 
> big guys are in. In a way, the harder slightly niche-platform is a good 
> poaching ground for people like me -- so in a way webOS might be a good 
> place -- takes skill, has a decent size but not large enough market to 
> bring in me fighting head to head with big guys. 
> 
> 	But thats down the road .. 'right now' it feels like Android is a 
> better targe tin some ways (but also has a very small market.) iphone is 
> king right now. But in another year we'll have a better idea .. many many 
> Android phones are coming out (and good ones, not like the initial few), 
> and webOS is getting more serious. (just like iphone did.. iphone first 
> year stunk, if you recall, for developers.)
> 
> 	So in 6mo or a year I'll have a better idea of things are 
> _actually_ shaling out a little.. 
> 
> 	.. but for now, I can't recommend; I'm as confused as the rest of 
> you :)
> 
> 		jeff
> 
> 	I won't go RIM; in its current and past state, its a nightmare. 
> That could change, but its not changing anytime soon ;)