Ubuntucat

Ever since 2009, I’ve been hearing a lot in tech blog posts and the media about “Android fragmentation.” No actual Android user I know in real life has complained about it, though. I’ve also noticed that criticisms about so-called Android fragmentation tend to be quite vague.

From Android fragmentation is real:

For Joe Average, this created an ultra-confusing marketplace where operating system versions changed every few months. It also meant that compatibility issues were inevitable.

What compatibility issues? Examples?

From Ask Maggie: On waiting for a Verizon iPhone 5:

But one of the problems that Android has is that it’s very fragmented. Even at the smartphone level, different devices run different versions of the Android OS and that means that not every app runs every device.

What apps? Examples?

On my MyTouch 3G (the original), I’ve used just about every version of Android there is. 1.5, 1.6, 2.0, 2.1, 2.2. Some rooted. Some OTA from T-Mobile. I’ve experienced no problems as an end user in terms of applications having compatibility issues. Some of the more graphics-intensive apps don’t run well on my 528 MHz processor with 192 MB of RAM, but that’s regardless of what version of Android I have—my phone just isn’t that powerful, so Angry Birds will just not run well on it. That has nothing to do with “fragmentation.”

Some people who want to make a big deal about Android fragmentation will point to an interview with one of the Angry Birds makers (Peter Veterbacka) in which he says

Android is growing, but it’s also growing complexity at the same time. Device fragmentation not the issue, but rather the fragmentation of the ecosystem. So many different shops, so many different models. The carriers messing with the experience again. Open but not really open, a very Google centric ecosystem.

but they seem to ignore that when asked directly about Android fragmentation being an issue, he says

Fragmentation on the device side is not a huge problem, but Steve is absolutely right when he says that there are more challenges for developers when working with Android. But that’s fine, developers will figure out how to work any given ecosystem and as long as it doesn’t cause physical pain, it’s ok;-) Nobody else will be able to build what Apple has built, there just isn’t that kind of market power out there.

That doesn’t mean that model is superior, it’s just important to understand that Apple is Apple and Google is Google. Different. And developers need to understand that. Different business models for different ecosystems. And wouldn’t forget about Nokia and MeeGo either, new leadership always tends to shake things up and create opportunity. And HP-Palm. And RIM. And even Microsoft. It’s a fragmented world.

If you actually own and use an Android device as your primary phone, how (with specific examples) have you found so-called “fragmentation” affecting you? Which applications do not work on your version of Android that would work on another version? Why do you think people don’t make as big a deal about “Windows fragmentation” (Windows 98, 2000, XP, Vista, 7) or “Mac fragmentation” (Panther, Tiger, Leopard, Snow Leopard)? Am I crazy for thinking Android fragmentation is a non-issue?

Hilarious. Netflix just announced today on their Facebook page that Windows 7 Mobile has Netflix streaming. Out of the first 260 comments, 185 are angry Android users wondering where the Android Netflix streaming app is. I’m not angry, but I’m also curious as to why it’s taking Netflix so long to get one out.

Jeremy Collins WHEN WILL ANDROID USERS BE ABLE TO DO THIS???!!!
Gina Diamond Quesada aww man that’s cool! What about an android app for us customers Netflix?! That would be AWESOME!
Sean Salm What about droid phones?
Manvir Sinbad Singh wtf. how do they already have a windows 7 app but not an android app
Mike Parson What about Android?!
Chris J. Stone Wait, what happened to Android?
Josh Bailey How about us Android users, we’re still waiting.
Josiah Black Amen..lets see a droid APP!
David Bland I also would LOVE for you to show us Android owners some LOVE!
Andrew Jesse Windows Phone 7, really?! Come on Netflix, I know Microsoft probably offered you a good penny to suport them, but really, what’s going to get you more money? Windows Phone 7, or Android, iPhone and Blackberry? I’d say the last three. So make an Android app. soon! Please! Windows Phone 7 lost their chance in the smartphone game, the leaders are already in place, there is no fourth place. :-D
Grégory Kendall Great, how about Android now? pleeease
Katie Marie Pollard What?? Windows Mobile 7 before Android???!!! Stop ignoring Android Netflix!!!!!
Frederick Pou Will you guys have the app for droid??
Tina Chambers Still waiting for Droid here too…
Steven Dobbs Who in their right mind gives a damn about windows 7 mobile?
Stephen Dix NO ANDROID? PARTY FOUL!!! WinP7 is gonna suck for the next 18 months anyway. Way waste your dev time?
Michele Pipoly Klein um…and where is my Android app?? Get with the program Netflix. I don’t know anyone with a Windows 7 phone. It is either Android, Blackberry, or iPhone these days.
Carl Parrish I was going to say how did they get one before Android, but I see enough other people have brought that up.
Shannon Buckles Philippus PLEASE give DROID users some love!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Jesus Gonzales Get it for Android!!!!!!!!!
Kollin Leisinger Flixdroid? ;) Netflix on Android!?! I have been waiting for this FOREVER! C’mon!
Cindy Dvorak Jacobson No doubt!!!!! PLEASE get that Droid app out soon. What a slap in the face that the Windows 7 is available. NOT COOL
Rich Coan Droid
Sean Salm this is bullshit, im pissed off. I want an android app available for download TODAY!
Josh Schmidt Ummmmm. Cough Cough! Android! Cough! Sheesh. Get your priorities straight!
Tom Scholfield Where the heck is Android?
Matthew Dake Got an Android-based smartphone? Bad News — you can now instantly watch a latecomer that will most likely be DOA get an app before a well established mobile OS. Just need to keep checking in vain by going to the Android Market. Also, suck my gnards.
Elietia Mackey what about ANDROID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! >.<
Katie Marie Pollard Look at all these comments for Android. Get a clue Netflix!!!
Genna Mickey i bet netflix can’t stream on verizon droids because of the presence of stupid Blockbuster
Geoff Paulin When will there be one for Android?
Oz De Leon Bring it for the Droid!!!!!
Hilary Goodrich Reilly ummm… android!?!?
Chris Thom Hey, how about Android!
Gesse Calvaire Who cares about windows 7 where’s the android app?
James Hayes ?*ahem* Android?
Devin Andelin Yeah, because WP7 is totally used by more users than Android and is SOOOO much easier to program for. Wooowww.
Joey Fletcher Still waiting on app for Android here too!
Richard Keller There are hardly any Win7 phones. Why on earth would you make an app for them before Android with all its phones?
Mendy Brackett Blakeman DROID!!!
James Sadler WTF…Where is the android app?
Chris Metcalf i want to watch on my evo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Joseph Logan When is the android app coming???
Lindsay Meyers Come on, Android it already.
Kelley Bowler I don’t even use Android, and I think this is bullshit. Windows? Really? Forget that!
Mario Sellitti WHERE is the ANDROID app???
Elocin Ruomyes Where the fuk is the android app!
Matt Thomas Where’s our android app!!!!
Mohsin Siddiqi I really believe this is the joke of the CENTURY.. windows 7 gets it first before Andriod.. Netflix what you for drinks dis Halloween? whatever it was dont ever drink it again.. PURE BULLSHIT!!
Mike Bro What bout’ Droid?
Katy Bednarowski Another vote for Droid market. Plz.
Lisabeth Clark Can we please get an app for Android? I’d love to watch Netflix on my Samsung Epic!
Paula Schroeter add me to the masses wanting an app for DROID!
Jane Allyson- D’Arienzo android android android android android android android android android android android android android android android android
David Ondic Jr Whats so special about Windows that Adroid can’t do? Bunch of crap.
Laura O’Reilly DROOOOOOOOOIIIIIIIIIIDDDDDDDD!
Taylon Sandlin yes, android please
John Basile Now put it on Android!
Jacqueline Wagner We really need an Android App. Windows Mobile phones blooow!!
Rob Lee How about the app for Android users? Any word on that?
Josh Rimokh Come on Netflix let’s see some Android support already!!!
Andy Brown WTF? Windows 7 before Android? C’mon.
Raymond Johnson Yeah that’s smart, lets just disregard arguably one of the more popular operating systems…Android. Get on the ball and get droid users (me) a netflix app so I can stream from my phone to. This should have been completed a loooong time ago…
Mike Alonso Ya seriously how is it windows 7 just came out and barely has any phones out and android users are STILL waitin even after iphone has come out. Step it up netflix! Android is takin over!
Jeff Hoagland Android support, CMON!!!!!!!!!
Alberto Aguirre No love for Android? Netflix on my EVO would be awesome, and enabling hdmi output would be even more spectacular.
Matt McCarter Where’s the Android app????
Shawn Kelly When’s the app for Android coming?
Conley Tyler Android Please!
Joey Larrinaga still no android app. haven’t you learned your lesson by now netflix?
Paul Sauseda yawn!!! ANDROID PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sara Abrahamson Schmachtenberger Android please!
Joe Stam Android?!
Daniel Damitz Android please;-)
Kris Linville A N D R O I D !!!
Roxanna Monday Jarrett Android please!!!!!!!!!
Timothy Farzalo ANDROID ANYBODY?
M Ke’Ola Macagba hook up BlackBerry and Doid platform cell phones!
Emily Maddox Android please! I think more people have Android phones than windows! Please Netflix. Us Android owners love Netflix too!
Gabriel Sanchez what about Samsung galaxy S phones???
Ryan Snook Android
Ralph L Angelo Jr How about an app for the android line???
Carter McGowen ANDROID
Dave Libby D R O I D ???? Come on man !
Jesse Pollock What the fuck ??? Where is the Android app ??? Only the largest and fastest growing cellphone app in the world
Jeff Bray Android app, please!!!
Sarah Hixon Please make it so Android can watch Netflix. I am so mad that boyfriend gets to watch my Netflix on his iPhone. So not fair!! :-D
Bryan A Castillo Netflix hates Android apparently. And that makes me sad.
Paul Tucker Android
Mario Sellitti Seriously, ease of development aside, it’s a real disappointment that there has been no Android streaming app yet, and WM7 which JUST CAME OUT already has it. Android users may be showing their displeasure with their wallets if this is not soon corrected.
Linde Wyser android….puhhhhhhllllllllleeeeeeeeeaaassssssssssse?
Sam ‘Sam’ Sheehy The Google TV Logitech Revue runs android and launched with Netflix. If Netflix is already running on an android platform how fucking hard is it to release a mobile client?
Sal Carollo r u kiddin’ Windows 7? , Android!!!!!!!!!!
Joel Richford DROID APP PLEASE!!!!!!! Sorry but I couldn’t help myself…DO IT!!!!!
Paul Lucien Where is the android app??
Paulina Quezada Android android android please!
Aaron Bratton I have to throw in on the Android request here. Seriously folks, get with the times!
Tom Burns Please, ANDROID!
Edward R. Bittner where’s my andriod app?
????? Diaz SO U GUY DID A WINDOWS MOBILE APP THAT HAS LIKE 3 PEOPLE IN THE WORLD INSTEAD OF ANDROID? WTF NETFLIX>
David Ondic Jr Explain to me why my Droid X with 720p screen and 1gig processor cant play your fancy little app Netflix.
Raymond Johnson I feel like Bart Simpson asking the mail lady for his spy camera, “Where’s my Android app?, Where’s my Android app?, Where’s my Android App?” lmao
Christopher Gerber Android
Adrian Clarke No love for android huh
Shawn Shelton Streaming Android App are what the masses are calling for! C’mon there are other streaming technologies other than silverlight.
Robert C. McKofke and where is the Android app???
Alan Davison If the other requests didn’t get you attention.. I will throw it out once more. ANDROID!!!!
Rick Emmel Why is android last?
Patrick Maddox Droid? Really Netflix? iPhone, got it, understood. But Windows Phone next? Really?!
Rico Joseph Android version please!!!!!!!!
Andre Dragon Android!
Matthew Kowalski About time for the xbox search… and Android needs to be able to stream movies
Paul Sauseda YAWWWN!!!!! ANDROID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Daniel Alan Rollins Damn. If this doesn’t come out on droid I’m gonna switch to win
Matthew Feriani ANDROID…NUMBER 1 OS RIGHT NOW AND STILL NO NETFLIX…
Marco A Sandoval Android! When?
Tim Treacy This SUCKS! What about Andriod? Who the hell has a windows phone? FFS.
Shawn Latham Android already, I love netflix, but when you all do stupid stuff like support win 7 before supporting android, it really makes me wonder. My droid X even has a blockbuster app on it… Please Please PLEASE Bring android already.
Steven Croft Netflix streaming app for android!!!!!!!
Frank Guhlin Android please?
Sabrina Hemken Make one for my Android!!!! Why Windows 7 ????
Dave Libby I just canceled my Netflix until I can watch it on my DROID…. get with the program…. (or get the program with us, rather)
Brian Blankenship Great move for xbox…now just to get the app for android.
Eric Jan why Windows 7 phone? no one is going to buy that!!! get a Android app!!!
Steve Jeremiah Windows 7 gets this before Android? WTF?
Chrislyn Gebert Seriously…windows 7 gets it?!?!?!?! NOW ANDROID!!!!!!
Rich Cote Like everyone else has said…where the hell is the Android app?
Jason Ramos U can make an app for an unproven platform but not for Android which is 2nd after the iPhone? Are u fuckin serious? FAIL
Sean Humphrey So, I’m jumping on the bandwagon – You’ve ALREADY got a Windows Phone 7 app out – and that’s been available for like a week? Android still doesn’t have one? That’s pretty lame, guys.
Lauren Cone Android App!!!! We need one :)
Eric LaRose Android please.
David Noll Where is the Android app for netflix users??
LisaAnn Howland Young DROIDX app for watching linked to my account please!
Casey Shea Another one for android, the way more popular os
Austin Kienzle WTF Netflix!? Where’s my Android app already!?!?!
Rachel Henry Whats the hold up with an Android app? You guys have been working on it forever… and money or not there are a hell of a lot more Android users than Windows 7 users. Hell I’d pay for the app if I had to, just bring it out already… neglecting arguably the fastest growing smart phone OS loses you major cool points.
Sarah Randle Can we expect something similar for android soon? Oh please oh please oh please? :)
Marcelo Hernandez Say it ain’t so. Still no love for Android. I’m switching phones this week so ya’ll hurry up.
Steve Swingler Android marketshare is increasing. Micro$oft is decreasing. Netflix, you need to be smarter about who you are making deal$ with.
Adam Bonner Aaaaannndroiiiiiddddd!!!!!! JUST adding to the consensus
Craig Holden ?1 more vote for android
Richard J Smith I am just saying…ANDROID!!!! I pay for Netflix already. Why not Android?
Lindie Gardner Here here!! Android!!!
Landon M Poague Android support?
Darren Williams Where is the android app
Marquetta Ourand Android, please.
Michael W Allen Windows 7 over Android? Good choice LOL…what a joke
Sean Edds Netflix have something against Google? As a subscriber I say “All, or nothing Netflix!!!” We pad your pockets, not Windows, Apple or Google for that matter….
Julian Cleland LOL Android, best OS, possibly fastest phone. Can do pretty much anything, doesn’t need jail-broken or all that crap either. I had a windows 7 phone. They suck
Bryan Watson ANDRIOD!
Jason Thompson Congrats to the people with windows 7! Us android users are totally jealous!!
Aaron Weyhrich WTF!!!!!!!???????
Who gives a crap about Windows Mobile Phone 7????
WTF!!!!!
What about Android!!!!
Matthew Hotchkiss Hey NetFlix! Today the Android O/S just took over at a 44% market share over Apple and Blackberry. The windows 7 mobile O/S does not even make the list. What is your beef with GOOGLE. Get your act together and release the Android App!
Julian Barnett who cares about WM7, where’s the android app?
Chad Chamberlain Windows 7 phones are out? What about an Android client?
Ryan Parker Need that for Droid phones!
John Seagondollar Android rules!! I would hate to cancel netflix over an app!!!
Seth Turner Where are your priorities? Androids user base is HUGE compared to WinMo 7! I think you’re mis-allocating your resources, I should punish you with by withholding funds!
Monica Simmerman ANDROID!!!
Joe Raimondo ANDROID PLEASE!
Jeffrey Smith When will it come out for the HTC Evo/Android market?
Akinwale Lakeru I love you guys….I really do. But you pretty much know the deal…get Netflix on Android. You guys are doing a great job of staying ahead of the curve. Don’t let that slip now.
Jeremy Abney Want it for android
Levin Manabat I’m still waiting for a Android App!!! Seriously, there are a lot better phone on Android than Window 7 at the moment!!!!!!
Jeffery Ball Android
Charles Reeves Where is DROID app? Guess I need to locate a NETFLIX replacement.
Denny Brooks No android app yet…..WTF Netflix people……hello….anyone home?
Tom Madden have had droid for a year..waiting..windows 7 how long
..come on…wake up!!
Jay Nestle ANDROID…???
Jason Comeau ANDROID?
Pete Dunlop Amazing how quickly Netflix comes to the aid of Microsoft and leaves all the Droid users high and dry. Comical. Pathetic. I can say that. I have an iPhone.
Eric Kinch Could we get a droid app too?
Christina Graham Another vote for android! Really, come on!
Nick Keserich I’m not really sure why Android users have been waiting so long. FFS you put an app on an iPad before you put it on the droid or eris… those have been out well long enough, and with a large enough userbase, to justify having an app already. What a joke.
Rev. James El-ahrairah Endicott Blockbuster has an android app, why don’t you?
Timothy Haines Aw what about android?
Masra Clamoungou Wii needs a search and android needs an app.
Mark Peterson what the hell, get on the ball, android………….
Patrick Lopez Android or nothing!
Scott Eisert Android!
Joshua Knott ANDROID!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

This is a kind of follow-up piece to Lukas Mathis’s Virtual Keyboards on iPhone and Android from a year ago, comparing the virtual keyboards on the iPhone 3GS and the HTC Magic. I bought the Magic (in America called the MyTouch 3G) around that time and everything Mathis said about the keyboard was absolutely true then.

I’m now running Froyo (Android 2.2) on my MyTouch 3G, and it’s pretty neat to see how Google has improved the keyboard a bit in the past year.

On the surface, of course, it doesn’t look as though much has changed:

You’ve got the regular keyboard (same size as it was in 2.1, 2.0, 1.6, and 1.5).

One thing that has changed is the replacement of the comma with a microphone symbol, allowing you to speak in text instead of typing it. At first, I was annoyed by this change, since I often use commas in text messages or emails (and I rarely use speech-to-text). As I’ll explain later, though, Google makes up for that replacement in a different way.

You have it in all caps.

(By the way, something Mathis doesn’t mention—generally speaking, I think he has an even-handed approach to the comparison, but this is where his iPhone bias comes out—is the fact that the Android keyboard makes it visually apparent with each letter on the keyboard whether you are typing in capital or lowercase letters. On the iPhone, the letters appear uppercase even if you are typing in lowercase.) Whoops! Thanks for the correction, Mr. Mathis. I somehow missed that mention in the footnote of your post.

Then you have the caps lock.

The numbers and punctuation.

And the weird alternate symbols.

As Mathis rightly points out, the major strength of the Android keyboard is the autocomplete, as it makes multiple suggestions as you type.

I actually don’t know if this feature was in earlier versions of Android, but in 2.2 if you type im without the apostrophe, one of the first suggestions will be I’m, and if you type simply i and then put in a space afterwards (indicating it’s only one word), your I will automatically be capitalized.

What’s even better, though—and I’m pretty sure this is a recent change in Android—is how the autocomplete recognizes the limitations of the Android keyboard size-wise and makes suggestions accordingly.

The Android keyboard (at least in portrait mode) is definitely smaller than the iPhone keyboard. It is harder to press the right key unless you are concentrating really hard on a particular key or unless you have really tiny fingertips.

Here you can see an example. The g and h keys are quite close together and easy to accidentally hit if you’re trying to type the other key. So here I have begun typing the word going, but instead of hitting goi I actually typed hoi, and Android is smart enough to suggest going.

This is quite huge, actually.

When typing on a physical keyboard, the user’s focus is on the actual text that appears on the screen, not on the keyboard. There is no need to look at the keyboard. The keys don’t move, and the physical features of the keyboard ensure that her hands stay in place, too. The same is not true for virtual keyboards.

Obviously, there is still nothing to anchor your hand to, but after doing quite a bit of typing on Android 2.2, I have to say Google has gotten me quite close to the physical keyboard approach. I don’t look as much at the letters I’m typing as I look at the autocomplete. I usually start typing only one to three letters (and not even carefully) and then select the autocomplete that has the word I was intending to type.

So, yes, as I mentioned before, I was saddened by the comma disappearing from the bottom of the keyboard. Google has made up for it a little by having punctuation autocompletes for every time you finish a word. So you have the option to keep typing another word… or to put in a comma or exclamation point (or something else).

And even though autocomplete of a word will automatically put a space after the word, if you select a punctuation autocomplete right afterwards, Android will delete the space, put in the punctuation mark, and then add a space afterwards.

This kind of “smart” keyboard makes it so I can type almost about half as fast on my Android keyboard as I would on a regular keyboard (which isn’t bad for a touchscreen keyboard).

The unfortunate thing about this implementation, though, is that it isn’t at all intuitive. A lot of this new functionality I discovered by accident. Nothing in the keyboard advertises the fact that if you type a word incorrectly Android will be smart enough to guess what you were typing. Nothing indicates that Android will automatically delete extraneous spaces before inserting your requested punctuation. I actually, for quite a while, would type i, hit the ?123 button to get the apostrophe, and then hit ABC to get back to letters in order to type I’m, not realizing that if I simply typed im, Android would suggest I’m to me as an autocomplete. Very handy, extremely smart—not at all intuitive, though.

As smart as Google has improved Android’s keyboard to be, it’s still got a ways to go. For example, as you can see in this screenshot, not every text entry box has that smart autocomplete. You can enable the Google search suggestions, but even that won’t account for misspellings. You’d have to actually search for the misspelled search, have Google say Did you mean…? and then click the proper search link.

The multi-touch still isn’t implemented the way it is on the iPhone (whereby you can hold down shift and then the letter to capitalize one letter, instead of pressing shift, letting go, and then pressing the letter). You also cannot hold down the switch-to-second-keyboard button and then drag your finger to the number or punctuation mark while basically staying on the main keyboard. And there are some times when the trackball is handy, but it’s just inelegant compared to the magnifying glass on the iPhone to get between letters.

Of course, you could argue that you will make fewer typing mistakes and have to go back edit if the autocomplete is as smart as Android’s is now. Same deal for punctuation marks (since they are now part of the autocomplete and not requiring a switch to the secondary keyboard most of the time).

Just as a random aside, if you’re not in a loud area, and you’re able to speak clearly, the speech-to-text function does work quite well most of the time (if only it could do so for Google Voice transcriptions, too, but that’s another story).

So the bottom line on the Android keyboard is that it’s really smart in a completely counterintuitive way. Once you figure out how to use it, though, it’s golden.

I love my Android phone. It’s a lot of fun, and I think Google has done a lot of good things with the Android platform. There are still some major usability issues, though, that I hope Google will iron out in Android 3.0 (Gingerbread).

Here’s one, for example:
Issue 1664: Gmail should allow choosing the From: address on an account that has multiple addresses
Send As Feature in Gmail

For years, I’ve been using Thunderbird as my email client. I used it on Windows. Then I used it on Ubuntu. Then I used it on Mac OS X. Recently, inspired by my move to an Android phone, I decided to go as Google as possible. Google Voice. Google Docs. Google Maps. Google Reader. Gmail. There were some things that took adjusting to in Gmail (conversations instead of messages, anyone?), but I didn’t miss Thunderbird as much as I thought I would. Google gives you nigh-unlimited email storage (I don’t see meeting the 7 GB limit any time soon the way my emails are going), and the interface is simple and quick, and easy to use. More importantly, I can aggregate with Gmail a bunch of email accounts into one, just as I would with a traditional desktop email client (like Thunderbird, Mail, Eudora, or Outlook).

In the regular Gmail web interface, you can choose which of these accounts is the default email address (meaning if you compose a new message, that message will have the from: address be that email address unless you choose otherwise), and you can also choose to have all replies sent from the email the original message was sent to. That means if someone sends an email to my church account and I hit Reply, the reply will appear to come from my church account; and if someone sends an email to my home account and I hit Reply, the reply will appear to come from my home account.

Pretty nifty feature to have. Too bad it’s missing from Android’s Gmail app. In the Android Gmail app, if you compose a new message, it will always come from your Gmail email address, regardless of what your setting is on the web client. And if you reply to a message, it will also come from your Gmail address. That makes it pretty much useless to me in terms of writing emails, seeing as how I use my Gmail account to aggregrate other email accounts, and I basically never want emails to appear to come from my Gmail account.

Fortunately, there’s a workaround, but it’s not pretty. The workaround is not to use the Gmail app. Just use the Gmail web interface in your favorite Android browser (Browser, Opera, xScope, Dolphin, etc.). If you use the mobile version (which is the default) of the web client, you won’t actually get to see your from: address, but it’ll still operate the way it’s supposed to (I tested it on both a reply and a new email). You can switch to the desktop (or “classic”) mode of the web client if you actually want to see the from: address.

Now, Google, how difficult would it really be to fix this problem?

If you read recent press coverage of Google’s Nexus One, it all seems to make sense. Phones weren’t going to sell well being sold only online without a chance for people to try them in person in a brick-and-mortar store. There wasn’t an advertising campaign for it. Very few articles or blogs about the end of Nexus One seem to think there was a problem at all with the phone itself. No one says the phone wasn’t ready for consumers or that it was too difficult to use.

Yet two years ago when Asus was just starting to be successful with the Eee PC netbook (which came preinstalled with a version of Linux, which Microsoft had to stop right away by resurrecting XP for the first of many times to come), that’s what a lot of the press coverage assumed. Geez. I mean, a lack of advertising campaign or in-person models to try out in the store couldn’t have anything to do with Linux netbooks not selling. It must be that Linux is too hard to use. It must be that Linux isn’t ready for consumers. It must really be that consumers just prefer Windows when given the choice.

Well, there is some truth to that in that the Linux distro Asus chose to put on the Eee PC was essentially crippled (not at all like Ubuntu, PCLinuxOS, Fedora, Debian, OpenSuSE, or any of the other popular distros of the time). It wasn’t even vanilla Xandros. It was a custom Xandros that could be customized only through pasting cryptic commands in the terminal.

Nevertheless, if they’d marketed it correctly, Linux could have been a success. The problem with Linux on “the desktop” (or the laptop or netbook) is the myth of meritocracy. You don’t win by being the best. You win by marketing.

Think about it.

When the iPad was announced, critics focused on the features it didn’t have (no webcam, no Flash, no USB ports), but Apple with its clever marketing department convinced the hoards that the device was magic, so the hoards bought it. If a Linux tablet had been released without Flash, people would have just laughed and said “This is the reason Linux will never succeed—they need to realize the masses use Flash.” But Apple releases a tablet and all of a sudden people are actually saying Flash isn’t necessary. HTML5 is suddenly the wave of the future. Apps for websites are suddenly better than just going to the websites themselves.

I also see a lot of Linux poo-pooers claim Linux doesn’t have any apps, and that Windows users have certain killer apps they need, and that’s why Linux won’t succeed. Well, when Android first started, it had very few apps. In fact, for the end of 2008 and all through 2009, iPhone fanatics kept pointing out how many hundreds of thousands of apps the iTunes App Store had compared to the few thousand Android had. Well, Android now has almost 100,000 apps. If this pace continues, the iTunes App Store and Android Market will probably have the same number of apps by this time next year. The Linux desktop (as opposed to server or embedded) has been around since… the late 90s? Android has been around since 2008. The Linux desktop isn’t mainstream but Android is.

What should we learn from all this? Marketing matters. Being able to test a physical product out yourself matters. Dell selling badly marketed (or even anti-marketed) Ubuntu models on its website isn’t going to sell Ubuntu preinstalled in great numbers, nor are relatively obscure vendors like System76 or ZaReason without a proper store front or brand name recognition.

I would love it if all the bugs in Ubuntu (or some other popular Linux distro) could be fixed. I would love it if some more attention would be paid to ease of use or to making more applications available in the software repositories. I would love that. But that won’t fix Bug #1. If Linux wants to make a dent in the desktop/laptop/netbook world, it needs to give up the idea of being good enough and start embracing the idea of crafting, shipping, and marketing a product—yes, one people can try out in a brick-and-mortar store. In other words, what I said two years ago is still true.