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« on: November 15, 2006, 08:53:43 am »
I too have an SL5500 and have pretty much given up using it.
Although I lurk here every day, I haven't switched the Z on for months. The reason? It just doesn't work properly. I used OZ3.2 for ages as a pdf reader and mp3 player, ignored 3.3.6 then jumped to 3.5 and that's when things went downhill rapidly.
I know this is just a hobby for the developers, but the sad fact is that if it stays as a hodge-podge of half/untested code and labrynthine documentation those of us who want to USE our Zs will give up and walk away.
It's the most basic problems that are the most annoying - in my case the suspend/resume and mplayer not being able to play mp2 files properly. The suspend/resume bug was fixed in an older release but is now back, and the mplayer bug has been around for a few months but no-one bothered to reply when I raised it on the fora a while back.
That and the general instability of the software means that I spent most of my time rebooting the unit as I couldn't just switch it on and continue where I left off, which I could do with 3.2 (for months on end).
This isn't progress, it's just the M$ style of developement where coders are only interested in the newest shiniest code and hardware leaving the rest of us in the dust.
Oh, and the argument about "well if you don't like it, fix it yourself!" displays exactly the attitude problem here - not all of us are coders (well, I am but my area of expertise is 12 years of application programming and 7 years SQL developement), or have the time to learn the dev. environment.
As a consequence, I now have a multimedia player (20Gb) and use my trusty printer for documents, and the Z has been an expensive paperweight for some time.
Maybe things will improve, but I doubt it as there is no pride in producing a quality product here, and although there are a few excellent, helpful coders here, the general attitude seems to be that each coder is doing it for his own self-gratification or glory from fellow geeks.
I'm sorry for this lengthy rant, but I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels this way. All I can hope for is that it contributes to a wake up call that will refocus the developers to get their house in order before they are deserted by the rest of the non-developer community here.
Arnie