I don’t know or care what version of Linux is behind the curtain on my TiVo; it’s so heavily customized that even though it’s basically a Linux computer, no one buys it as one or uses it as one. I note that Amazon isn’t marketing the Kindle Fire as a full-fledged tablet, and they’ve designed a custom interface that puts media consumption front and center, left and right.
I think a lot of folks are going to be happy with the Kindle Fire, if they go into it with the right expectations. There are a lot of folks who don’t follow technology like we do, who don’t know Gingerbread from Honeycomb, who will buy the Kindle with a realistic assessment of what it can do, and who will love it for that. After a while, they may come up with things that the Fire can’t do, things they never particularly thought of or wanted to do before. And then they’ll be ready to get a full tablet and hand the Kindle down to the kids.
I know most folks don’t follow tech, but the reality is you can go buy yourself a 2.3 or 2.2 tablet for less than the fire already, always have, and they haven’t really sold for a REASON... Amazon has marketing clout, but if FIRE is on top of 2.3, those reasons that other tablets with even larger form factors don’t move when on 2.X are going to shine through the Amazon Marketing Spit Shine, and a lot of folks are going to wind up disappointed.
Fire’s already suffering from user experience complaints, and in spite of their attempt to resolve, will continue to do so... 2.3 just isn’t going to cut it for what folks expect when they are sold what they are told is a tablet.