[AlaninSA]

VERY sorry excuse for an article... I guess the ‘author’ never tried any of the wide variety of HTC or Motorola phones, which come with HTC and Motorola software. You MAY get a carrier logo on it, but that’s about it - it’s the phone maker’s software.

Good point. I have the EVO 4G - and it's a fantastic phone. I really could care less that my carrier has a 3/4" wide logo at the top of the phone. It's like a mini-laptop.

[PugetSoundSoldier]

And - surprise, surprise - you can LOAD your own applications as you desire, they don't have to be approved by someone else. You can DO with your phone what you want! No need to check with a Big Brother whether or not you can load some application or tool. No need to worry about having your warranty revoked because you want to open your phone's OS so you can use it. No threat (since removed) of being sued because you dared unlock your phone so you could DO what YOU wanted to do.

In fact, you have the source code to the OS - you can change the kernel, write and distribute applications and extensions as you desire. No restrictions from Google or the carriers. Android's kernel is freely downloadable, as are the development tools. You don't have to buy anything or pay anyone to write and distribute programs - it's the ultimate in open platforms.

Yet somehow this is being spun as "Google is Evil", or as we see right above (any coincidence it's post 13?) "Google is Fascist". Open and extensible and control in the user's hand is wrong, closed and capriciously restricted and power only for the carrier or manufacturer is right!

Freedom and choice used to be values of America, and foundations of the tech world. Closed, proprietary, heavily controlled/restricted systems were bad; open and flexible and user-configurable systems were good. I guess we've reached Orwellian time (those "1984" commercials of decades ago notwithstanding) when open and free and power-in-the-user's-hands systems are no fascist, hurtful, and bad...