I initially fell in love with the freedom of Android, all the potential that came along with it, and the apps I could never have on iOS. Here's my post some 500 days ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1586373
The funny thing is, I still love the idea of Swype, and using the phone as a USB stick. I just fell out of love with Android because, frankly, the UI lag just made it unusable for me. For example, I want to SoundHound or Shazam a song, click the icon, then wait _at least_ 30 seconds for the UI to come up (by which time the song could be over), click the "listen" button, and have the UI freeze for another 10 seconds without any indication what's going on (did I hit the button? should I tap it again? Is that going to cancel my request if the UI is just slow? I have no idea! Even spinning activity indicators would freeze). 2.2 update broke Swype so I couldn't delete a word from the dictionary. For example, I would type "don't" and it would spit out "Duong" (some person's last name I typed in once), delete it, only to have the same problem next time (tried things to fix it, but no luck).
Anyway, I don't expect a fancy UI with animations and transitions, but I do expect a responsive UI -- this is why I went back to 3GS: it works. By the way, I'm one of those people that turns off most of the UI animations (they slow me down).
I haven't used Android (aside from on my Kindle Fire) enough to form an educated position on it. The Kindle Fire's UI is both (a) gratuitously animated and (b) laggy, but I tend to assume that if the UI were more utilitarian it would be less laggy. If this is not the case, then Android is simply broken.
It still seems to me that there are different routes to implementing UI elements in Android and some work better than others. E.g. some aspects of the Kindle Fire's UI are consistently inconsistent as it were, while others seem to be perfectly solid. If I were in charge of Android I would focus on getting the basics right and forget about the eye candy. It's not that Android can _never_ compete with iOS (or whatever) in the eye candy department, but that you should crawl before you walk etc.
My impression of Linux from my various encounters with it (including trying to live with Ubuntu as my primary OS for a couple of months) is that it fails both as a utilitarian OS and an aesthetically pleasing one. (And yes, I'm sure there are plenty of suggestions for alternate UI systems from KDE to flux box that will somehow not have whatever issue I find.)
I agree wholeheartedly. I didn't use a Fire for longer than 10 minutes, but my impression was exactly like yours, gratuitously animated and laggy.
Inconsistency is not just limited to the UI elements on the Fire - for example, Fire doesn't have the pull-down "drawer menu" UI element (from the top) like all other Android devices. Of course, the nature of Android is such that it allows manufacturers to customize, but at this point it is diluting the brand.
Regarding your Ubuntu point: right on. It has come a long way in the last 5 years, but things just seem hacked together. Linux is a great server OS, but it is just not a good, balanced, productive desktop OS. Users need consistency, but it seems like developers focus on making flashy animations (i.e. rotating desktop cube, exciting stuff) instead of putting emphasis on use-cases, workflows, etc (boring stuff).
I initially fell in love with the freedom of Android, all the potential that came along with it, and the apps I could never have on iOS. Here's my post some 500 days ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1586373
The funny thing is, I still love the idea of Swype, and using the phone as a USB stick. I just fell out of love with Android because, frankly, the UI lag just made it unusable for me. For example, I want to SoundHound or Shazam a song, click the icon, then wait _at least_ 30 seconds for the UI to come up (by which time the song could be over), click the "listen" button, and have the UI freeze for another 10 seconds without any indication what's going on (did I hit the button? should I tap it again? Is that going to cancel my request if the UI is just slow? I have no idea! Even spinning activity indicators would freeze). 2.2 update broke Swype so I couldn't delete a word from the dictionary. For example, I would type "don't" and it would spit out "Duong" (some person's last name I typed in once), delete it, only to have the same problem next time (tried things to fix it, but no luck).
Anyway, I don't expect a fancy UI with animations and transitions, but I do expect a responsive UI -- this is why I went back to 3GS: it works. By the way, I'm one of those people that turns off most of the UI animations (they slow me down).