Android is the new Windows

After struggling with yet another Android related bug, I had a revelation: Android is the new Windows.

It's the common OS

When I was a teen, Windows was THE operating system. Everyone had Windows, everyone had 98 and later XP. Most of them still have XP.

Wanted to buy a PC? Well, of course it was a Windows PC, doofus! Linux or Mac? Yeah, sure, they were around, but they were really rare and uncommon.

Fast forward today. Know someone with a Smartphone? Chances are it's an Android. It's THE mobile OS, it's everywhere. Flagship phones are running Android, cheap phones are running Android, everyone talks about it.

Just like before there wasn't really an option in terms of operating systems for the average Joe, so it is today in terms of mobile operating systems. Sure, you DO have a choice: what kind of Android phone you'll get, just like before you got to chose what kind of Windows PC you'll get.

True, there's Windows Phone and Blackberry OS and iOS is still a popular option for people with money... But they just aren't close to Android on a global scale, just like Windows used to be.

It has the malware and the slowness

The common opinion was that Windows was this crappy OS. The PC is laggy? Oh, it must be Windows! You got an error? Well, wtf Windows, why are you so crappy? Viruses? Yeah, Windows is full of computer viruses, unlike Linux. Linux is safe!

People didn't really understand that sometimes it wasn't Windows, it was the driver's fault, or the hardware. Windows had to run with a very large array of hardware and it wasn't always them screwing things up.

And the computer viruses? Well, since Windows was so popular, of course it would be targeted by everyone. Why would you make viruses to Linux when close to one used it?

Again, fast forward today. My phone is slow. It's certainly that crappy Android! It's full of spyware and malware, yuck!

Android got popular and it's suffering the same way Windows did. People are ignoring the fact that Android can also be installed on phones that don't always have a perfectly compatible hardware, and they also come with a lot of bloatware that's slowing your phone down.

But... but... buy Galaxy S9001 is uber fast! Right, just like my 10 Gb of RAM deca-core PC was uber fast. For those with average hardware it wasn't.

Want a fast OS? Not out of the box

Defragmentation, installation of a better browser, installing registry cleaners and so on. You could have even take it to a whole new level, installing versions like Tiny XP, which were a stripped-down version of XP, so you could squeeze the most performance out of your machine.

It sure looks like the rootkit you need to do to Android phones to get a faster OS that's not full of useless software.

It has the crappy browser

Internet Explorer. Need I say more? I don't think so.

As someone who's doing HTML stuff targeted at mobile, I can tell you for a fact that Android has the crappy browser nowadays.

iOS and Safari are a pleasure to work with, always up to date with the features and with great support.

But Android... bleah. It sends shivers down my spine each time someone mentions an Android bug. It's hard to debug and the fact that on iOS works like it should makes thing even worse. You get stuck with the awful debugging experience of Android while on iOS everything is super easy

As a whole, the web browsing experience on Android is sucky. Just like Internet Explorer. And the sad part is IE is a really decent browser today (also true for the Windows Phone version)

It has games... but not all the games

Back then, a PC was almost exclusively a gaming platform for the kids. Windows had tons of games and games were done mostly for Windows. Except some of the really cool ones. The really cool ones were on consoles.

Today Android is full of games. You often see a new game launched for Android, but not for the other platform, just like almost no one made games for Linux too. Except some of the really cool ones, that are on iOS.

Windows was the most common platform for games, but not the premium platform and the same thing is true for Android.

And there you have it. At least for me, Android is the new Windows

P.S. To get things straight, I had 2 Android phones before and now I'm a happy Windows Phone user. And I get to work with lots of Android devices, as well as Apple ones, so I guess I have some experience in dealing with different hardware and OSes.