Bijan Sabet

The culture of Android

I’ve been accused by friends and coworkers for being an Apple fan boy.

It likely a well deserved title.

Well, I think after my post on the Nexus S last week and my experience since then, I’m likely going to be called an Android fan boy as well.

The Android experience has issues. It’s not perfect but nothing is. Yet the more i use Android the more I appreciate it.

The culture of Android is one thing I like in addition to the platform.

Here’s a quote from Google’s Android dev blog yesterday

Unfortunately, until carriers and manufacturers provide an easy method to legitimately unlock devices, there will be a natural tension between the rooting and security communities. We can only hope that carriers and manufacturers will recognize this, and not force users to choose between device openness and security. It’s possible to design unlocking techniques that protect the integrity of the mobile network, the rights of content providers, and the rights of application developers, while at the same time giving users choice. Users should demand no less.

That’s right on target as far as I’m concerned.

Compare that with the Apple way and the contrast is obvious.

My brother sent me a link to John Gruber’s tweet last week:

@SunByrne I’d say “no select/copy” UI rather than a bad one, assuming we were waiting for a good one. Ship crap and you’re stuck with it.

John was making the point that Android’s copy and paste is lame and they would be better off not including it. Apple, if you recall, launched the original iPhone without copy and paste and then delivered a great copy/paste experience about a year later

I think the apple and google approach each has their respective merits and drawbacks. But I like the google approach better. its better for users.

And it’s a better model for startups. I like the culture of Android. A lot.