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Comment by LAC-Tech | Hacker News Reader

smart phones are such a shit show. I genuinely don't understand how people on 'hacker' news get so excited about these locked down, bloated toy computers.

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I am more perplexed by people on a hacker forum who clearly do not have a hacker mindset.

There are plenty of forums for normies to hang out and not be bothered by us hackers geeking out over tech.

Yeah, these are "startup hackers", not computer hackers. Easy mistake to make. Disappointing I know...

Smartphones as a concept are pretty exciting. It's mindblowing the computing and networking power we carry around in our pockets these days.

Beyond that I mainly see HN get excited about attempts to make smartphones less bloated and locked down, like Linux smartphones, LineageOS, etc.

That's true. They have so much fantastic potential. As pieces of raw hardware - amazing.

Its truly sad we cant get access to fully use the phone resources. Like programming in C or even assembler.

You can program in C and assembly for phones though? It’s just that it runs in a sandbox

They are what's in front of people's faces, so they are what matter. Same is true for the web.

> I genuinely don't understand how people on 'hacker' news get so excited about these locked down, bloated toy computers.

There are two aspects in play:

* the possibilities and potential of these devices, as platforms to run applications,

* the platform itself, which includes stuff such as what hardware it packs, what OS it runs, how the software is maintained, etc.

You can make the same blend of mindless contrarian comment regarding Raspberry Pis, and you would also be completely missing the point.

> toy

Toys are fun, no matter one's age.

Unlocking them and removing the bloat is enjoyable and makes the toy far more functional and closer to a general computing device.

Probably the same reason we buy modern cars.

To hack them ?

to have a convient, reliable, and feature rich tool to use in our daily life.

This. I used to love Androids because I could root them, change my ringtones for free and easily, and customize it to unrecognizable. Now I use iPhones because I would rather spend that tinkering time working on other things or with my family, and the interface is (mostly) stable and conducive to that.

You can have both, the same device can solve both problems. You dont -have- to root your phone.

And the same reason others are looking for the most "non-smart" cars they can find. As the meme says:

Tech Enthusiasts: Everything in my house is wired to the Internet of Things! I control it all from my smartphone! My smart-house is bluetooth enabled and I can give it voice commands via alexa! I love the future!

Programmers / Engineers: The most recent piece of technology I own is a printer from 2004 and I keep a loaded gun ready to shoot it if it ever makes an unexpected noise.

Because they don't make new old cars?

Because it's a nice target to hack... you hacker you.

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