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Meh. Show me a RIM device with an e-mail client that doesn't force me to pay my wireless provider for the privilege, and then I'll believe RIM really understands what the customer wants.

RIM's response was rambling and the talking points were lofty and abstract, not to mention unoriginal. I don't care which side you're on, Jobs hits Android square in the nose with this one. Android has fragmented, and that has demonstrable effects on both users and developers. Linux has shown that fragmentation is the death knell for a platform. iOS on the other hand is as unified and cohesive as Android is fragmented. All apps are forward compatible, and iOS4 can still be run on three-generations-old iPhones. You have to give it to him that he spun 'closed' in a very interesting way.

Uhm, Jobs "hits Android square in the nose" with a non-issue. Your supposed "demonstrable effect" was just refuted by actual developers (oh look, it's in the story above). Like a moronic fanboy, you're perpetuating FUD.

As for the Linux desktop, it's about 1/8 of the Mac's market share. If that's dead, then the Mac is certainly not doing well.

iOS is powering exactly one (1) type of device. Linux is everywhere, on stuff ranging from wrist watches to supercomputers, and still managing to hold its own against super-specialized software on their home turf. "A platform"? Try a thousand platforms. More platforms appear everyday and you can bet Linux is tried at some point on all of them.

But ok, let's look at one single platform. The one I'm assuming you mean is the PC desktop. Where Linux has had a slowly climbing adoption rate for the past decade, fighting against super-rich companies. And still what it has to offer today is on par with the best from Microsoft or Apple. Pretty good for a free OS with no advertising, no direct income, no focused goals. How's that for dead?

If you had any notion of biology you would know that diversity ensures survival, while super-specialization leads to dead-ends. It's an immutable fact of life. Any key change in the environment (technical, business, social) and super-specialized software goes down like a brick. I trust you can think up some past examples on your own.

I will give you only one. It's crude and merciless but that's how life is. If Steve Jobs dies tomorrow, it's the end for Apple. May God bless him and may he have a long life, because he's irreplaceable. I doubt we will see somebody with the exact same vision, taste and dedication to perfection replace him.

And another thing: integration is good for the end user, granted. But in accepting extreme integration the user gives up control and customization. And not all people like that. If they did there would be no iPhone jailbreaking and no Android adoption.



This whole thing is just Jobs drumming up the flamewar just in time for the holiday season. Free publicity and all that. I mean please, Windows = open? You'd have to be an idiot to even entertain the notion, and he's not.

RIM could open QNX wide open to put their code where their mouth is. It could be a better QN-X than OS-X.