Quote:
Originally Posted by LarryNYC
So, you invented all of those "facts" about Sony's development team based on the fact that they removed a bookmark button? Maybe they just realized that it was pretty much redundant. Do you have any firsthand knowledge of how this product was developed?
The software in the RP1 is different than on the S1, yes. Some features have been removed. I find the interface to be less cluttered and simpler. I'm able to adapt to the new device and feel that the positives far outweigh the negatives.
Have you tried one yet?
I have to say, as a programmer, I find users to often be insufferable. They want the world, they don't want to pay for it, they want it yesterday, they don't want anything changed or removed, and, yet, they want everything to be improved. This usually leads to a bloated code base that is full of redundant functionality that performs poorly.
I knew the owner of a virtual worlds company who received death threats when he removed some features in the virtual worlds! Honestly, Sony never promised us anything. I'm just happy the device exists, as a short while ago, I thought they were exiting the space.
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Larry, when you're talking to me about bloat, you're figuratively preaching to choir. Even though I gathered you're not a Linux guy, as a developer, you certainly must have heard of the "UNIX philosophy": Do one job only, but do it well. Bloat is absolutely the last thing that I'd want. Surprisingly, I'm even d'accord with the DPT (S1, for that matter) not being in slightest sense open for development (not that one would have expected anything else of Sony, but I approve of their locking down a
good software).
That said, you should be careful with a definition of "bloat" from your somewhat limited perspective. You have not used the device like scientists do. You don't know what it's like to heavily annotate a document with sometimes three, four "sticky notes" per page; what it's like to need to jump back and forth between formulae, theorems, and explanations, several times per page across a 400 pages book. You don't know the modus operandi of someone who carries this light device always, as a portable desktop, and works on it in a shared environment without having to rely on other means such as a computer.
You don't know the signficance of these features (and apparently didn't even know about some)
but you are quick at calling them "bloat".
In a more practically analogy, if you happen to be a biker, you bought a new version of an expensive mountainbike with a sparkly new paint job and flashy geometry and poor derailleurs, cheap suspension. But you're only riding it on flat streets and now you go around telling mountain bikers that they can't appreciate what a fantastic bike it is...
Ironically, among those who didn't just have a grand lying around on the kitchen table, I think it were users like me for whom the value over price ratio of the S1 was high enough to invest in the device and who thus funded and made possible the continued development into a new version. A version which would be pushed for mainstream. And now you come along and support SONY's choice to cut those features which made the device valuable for us, claiming they were superfluous.