My grandmother said that you could bitch about the government, though you would not be allowed to do that on TV or radio. Well, at least after Stalin's death.

Also, I am not saying that the US is the same as Russia (or USSR), but it's getting there. If this continues, then after a few decades, it may become even more of a police state than USSR ever was. After all, the various agencies have spying capabilities that the KGB could only dream about. Automatic tracking of cars by photographing license plates, internet data mining, call data mining (speech recognition beats a guy listening to one conversation at a time).

I noticed that as time passes, there is smaller and smaller difference between the US and Russia. It almost looks like the US government is looking at Russia as a model of how to do things...

I haven't seen people typing (long) documents on a cellphone or a tablet, though I guess maybe it is convenient for some.

There are ways of making the Linux router invisible to the ISP, unless they really try to detect the unauthorized equipment (but that would take time and the ISP probably does not care THAT much). It depends on what is actually done with the management. Stick a Raspberry Pi on the other side of the ISP router to simulate usage. The result should not stand out in the graphs etc, so the ISP will not be looking at that particular router for problems.

Also, if the ISP still manages to detect it, just play dumb and say you do not know anything (and put everything back the way it was then someone from the ISP comes to check).

That would take me much more time than to configure a Linux router to be stealthy.

Or, think up a technical solution.

So, the problem is that the ISP provided router does not work properly. Also, if you replace it with a proper router, the ISP does not like it.

So (I'm assuming here that the uplink is Ethernet):
1.Figure out how the ISP accesses your router (packet sniffer with a managed switch or a hub),
2.Configure a Linux router to pass management packets to the ISP router, but otherwise act like a router for your network. This way, the ISP can still access their router, but you do not have to use it.
3. Don't forget to set everything back the way it was if there's someone coming from your ISP.
4. Profit.

Well, I said primarily about the foreign policy. I do not live in the US or in Russia, so what is in those countries in a lower concern for me. What is a concern for me is getting a bomb from either country dropped on my head. In that regard, both countries are "obey us or get a bomb". Just ask Iraq or Ukraine. In addition, ISIS was created because of the actions of the USA (destroying the government of Iraq and just leaving instead of annexing the country or at least installing a proper government there).

Smaller companies do not use AD or group policies, they usually do not have a server. That leaves Windows+Office and if Windows is primarily used because of Office...

Well, if the government did it without the permission or knowledge of said companies, then, I guess, the companies made a bad decision when choosing a country for their factories. Similar to how Chinese companies may be suspect because Chinese government probably does the same thing the CIA does. At least now everybody knows about this so the companies can make a decision to avoid the US (and China). And seal their equipment so it shows evidence if it was "enhanced".

- American IT companies are losing billions because foreign customers are scared

Those poor companies! They will make a few billions less after getting truckloads of money from the government to introduce backdoors in their supposed secure products. Maybe next time those companies choose to protect the privacy of their customers...

They will be rebuilt, however, spying on citizens may be reduces somewhat.

Except that the people now now about this and can take more precautions against being spied on.

Yea, with all the spying and wars, I am starting to have trouble seeing the difference between the USA and Russia, especially if looking at their foreign policy. Do something that either one of them dislikes and get a bomb on your head.

Also, Russia probably could shut down all trade and be self-sufficient. It has pretty much all naturally occurring elements and energy sources (oil, gas, coal, nuclear), so if they really wanted, they could just manufacture everything locally.

It would more likely be negative. The current PCs would remain with Windows, but if the company was buying new PCs, those new PCs would be with Linux.

iOS and Android are not OSs for a PC, you probably would not use that for editing lots of documents.
On the other hand, Linux can be used in a desktop PC and can be used to edit documents, however, Open/Libre Office is not as good (and has problems with file formats) as MS Office. There is also no alternative to MS Outlook that, coupled with Exchange allows for things that would be a big problem for Thunderbird.

So, since quite a few PCs in the office are used for browsing the net and MS Office, making MS Office run on Linux would result in a lot more Linux desktops being used.

Even worse, with .NET it may be easier to run Office on Linux. Now that would be a huge problem for Microsoft.

Natural selection, evolution.

As long as humans figure out how to manufacture food straight from raw materials before the edible species die out - I don't care...