[Sgt.Stubby]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

I could ask the same. Why would I want a linux device?

Suppose a device runs Debian, for example. When the manufacturer decides in 5-10 years to drop support because they want you to buy their latest model, the FOSS and Debian community will continue to supporting it well beyond its life expectancy. And every year there would be updates.

Androids rot. If you bought a device that ran 2.2, you may get an update to 2.3 the next year, but after that the maker loses motivation and drops the ball because they're already working on their next model.

This is chronic with android devices. You cannot simply go to google and ask for version 4.2 for your device. Even if they gave you some of the open pieces of 4.2, it's not a compilable fully-functional OS. (btw, google qualifies their use of the term "open source" to simply mean that some of the code is readable, not that it can be compiled and used). If you manage to port a newer kernel to your device, good luck extracting the proprietary hardware drivers from your old kernel and using them in the new. Android devices are as disposable as Apple devices.

Originally Posted by HarryT

People buy tablets to run apps on, not because of what their underlying operating system is. There are far more apps available for Android (and iOS too, for that matter) than for Linux.

That's a good point, assuming it's correct.

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Android is far more open than iOS in any circumstances, and all you really need to do is root it,

I'm not sure why you're mentioning iOS here. This is more of a "proper linux vs. proprietary linux (android)" thread.

Originally Posted by eschwartz

assuming you have one of the Android tablets that even suffers from this problem to begin with!! Not all do,

Such as?

Originally Posted by eschwartz

And what mystical ereaders are these that don't run Android also, but have a linux kernel, aren't e-ink (ereaders tend to be)

Why are you asking for non-e-ink linux devices?

There are lots of non-Android linux devices according to the matrix.

Originally Posted by eschwartz

and can install apps in a perfectly open manner that you can live with since Android tablets are apparently too evil for you?

Installing open apps is not actually a problem on Android. I have an Android phone, and use F-droid exclusively for apps (not play store). F-droid apps are FOSS. The apps are not the problem. The problem is everything the apps run on.

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Maybe there is no point in running certain Android builds released by various device manufacturers. But that is not Android itself, so it's rather ridiculous to complain that Android itself is pointless.

Any manufacturer which wants to jail their device will do so; it has nothing to do with Android vs. other OS's

I've studied Android phones extensively. Out of thousands of devices, only two are unjailed:
* geeksphone
* fairphone (not a real device yet)

Unless e-reader makers have taken a radically different approach, it's a cop-out to say "google isn't evil... the vendors are". And so what? In the end, the product in the buyers hands is not under their complete control, and future support is at the mercy of the maker.