Originally Posted by baargle
Different situation there, Android is closed and controlled by google, sure source code is released and people make ROMs and what not but it's closed in terms of there's no "ecosystem". Linux distributions like Ubuntu, which I believe is the most popular, is an absolute nightmare in terms of staying up to date with security patches, addons, repos, and all that jazz.
It was heralded as the dawn of free computing, but just feels like a poor man's Windows 3.1, it's just not user friendly, and never will be because of so many updates and fixes, then updates to fix the fixes that something fixed which broke something else which broke something else which fixed that which broke that which fixed that....
You get the picture  Welcome to hard work and stress.
Sure it's good for XBMC, and NAS software because it can be stripped down but in terms of actual usability as a working operation system. No thanks.
...Just my opinion....I've been scarred by it. Getting to grips with linux distributions have aged me a good 5 years, and the problem is you never really do "learn" linux. It doesn't stop, it never ends.
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Have to agree user versions of Linux can be a nightmare depending on what you do with it. But the fact is those devices run on Unix/BSD/Linux (with a minimal kernel for only their own hardware for stability and memory usage) and that is the important thing. That way it is possible to run a more friendly Linux version also which grants us access to freedom to do what we want within the limitations of the device....
But I think the problem you describe goes for every OS, especially the driver part. I am messing with PCI X-fi drivers on OSx for 2 years now (so now and than) to get them working and still nothing. I have enough hardware laying around that isn't supported by the latest windows versions and manufacturers stopped support on those devices.
Conclusion: every OS is as difficult as you make it
I shall change my statement to: if it runs a closed version of Linux, it has to run an open full Linux version also
