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It took me 10 mn, excluding download time, to root a Nexus S and install the of my choice on it...

But would you also like to do it for your mom and dad and wife and aunt and neighbor? If Android requires free geek labor to live up to its potential I sure am against it, because it would be my free labor that Google plans with here.

Your mom, dad, wife aunt and neighbor wouldn't even know what the hell you are talking about so being on version X has no particular significance to anyone outside of the tech community.

Developers care. What use are the new shiny features in Ice Cream Sandwich when I need to make my app compatible with phones on Eclair or Froyo to access a sufficiently broad portion of the Android install base? If developers are wary of developing for Android - especially the latest-and-greatest - that will affect the satisfaction of regular users.

We are turning in circles here.

1. ricw: I'll buy iPhone because Android has no OS upgrade

2. gbog (me): You can root

3. nasmorn: Mom, dad need you to root, annoying

4. methodin: Mom, dad don't care to upgrade OS

5. loire280: But we care.

It reminds me when a bunch of old trolls tried to play with me on usenet decades ago. No thanks.

Developers = You can root Others = It doesnt matter

That pretty much sums it up.

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