In fact I just ditched my first generation iPhone for a G1 running Android. While I admit the iPhone is a better device, the G1 with Android is good enough and much more freely hackable.
Android's the future.
it's funny to remember, though, that Symbian was the future when they announced it was open sourced. And then Maemo became the future. Then OpenMoko...
Android is the only modern, out of the box, touch based platform not designed to pus hthe agenda of aparticular handset carrier.
What I can say is that the HTC skin that is on the Hero will not make its way to any other manufacturer (officially). Keep in mind that Google is aiming Android at multiple manufacturers. In the best case this situation will allow all users to switch between skins in an open environment where the competition drives innovative UI. In the worst case, we'll end up with a WinMo like marketplace where phones with the same underlying OS and similar hardware act completely differently, fragmenting the landscape. There is currently only one main Android manufacturer (HTC) so this isn't an issue but with major manufactures (i.e. Motorola and Samsung) releasing Android phones in the near future, we'll see how the situation plays out.
Check this: http://www.htc.com/www/product/hero/overview.html
Also probably you haven't tried the latest distro versions of Linux or an Android phone or WebOS.
Then you say: "Why do you call me fanboy?" read your comment and you'll know.
Based on, yes. But the stuff that makes the iPhone an iPhone -- Cocoa, multitouch, etc. -- is far from open.
That said, both the Pre and Hero's implementations are also proprietary.
This won't change.
What do you say about projects like GnomeDo with great interface?
IMHO yes, there are some OS X apps that are very good in usability but there are a lot of exceptions:
Banshee > iTunes Gnome-do > Quicksilver (even though this is not from Apple) Nautilus > Finder (yes this is very true)
I'm not even mentioning the apps that just don't exist in OS X: a real multi-desktop, Tomboy (even though there is a port), a real app manager.
An important lesson here for free software advocates as well. Only now are free software operating systems catching up in usability and user friendliness. Let's not make the same mistake on mobile devices as well.