Tables stakes is now a lot higher than what was offered by the first Android phones. Unfortunately the barrier to entry into the mobile phone market has risen considerably since then.

Yeah yeah that's fair. But every time a new product comes along that isn't _yet_ as good as Android or iPhone HN commentators reflexively dismiss it.

I get that that when its some new proprietary product trying to enter the market, but when its something grass roots and community driven line the pinephone with classic linux distribution on it... I dunno, I guess I just expect HN to have more intellectual curiosity in technical projects, rather than surface level critique of packaged goods. That's the sort of thing I spend time on this site for, but those sorts of discussions are far and few between. Maybe its just time to move on, I can't relate to 90% of HN comments anymore.

"Back when they were the pinnacle of technology", he thought but didn't say.

The computer in my pocket doesn't needs to be the "pinnacle of technology". It just needs to be "good enough". But, until we arrive there, some people will have to be willing to accept options which are still not "good enough" or else we'll never arrive there.

It is sad that pioneers and early adopters often suffer more and are anonymous heroes that enable advanced user-respecting technology for the rest of the people.

Think of this like the people who used KHTML based browsers. Their compromise allowed us to have the quick browsers we enjoy today but they had to endure broken websites for years.