Just as I was reading this (8:10am Eastern time, 12/16/13), the chinese rover was prominently mentioned on the Today show (NBC). They discussed the rover, made a quick reference to the manned moon landings of the US and finished with a summary of the future plans of the chinese for the moon. The segment ended with a round of "that's cool" from all the hosts. So it's certainly not being ignored and the achievement does seem to be acknowledged for what it is, not belittled or downplayed.

As the proud owner of dozens of family photo albums, a stack of PhotoCDs etc which rarely see the light of day, the bigger challenge is whether anyone will ever voluntarily look at those terabytes of photos. Having been the victim of excruciating vacation slide shows that only consisted of 40-50 images on a number of occasions (not to mention the more modern version involving a phone/tablet waving in my face), I can only imagine the pain you could inflict on someone with the arsenal you are amassing.

Or Hoovering up, even.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hoover_Company

Bingo. That's exactly what I was thinking. Instead of "ha, ha, you are all delusional", people in non-US countries should be lamenting the fact that the US has become demonstrably less free, so that a higher standard to aspire (whether real or an ideal) to no longer exists. Or, create the higher standard as an example to the rest of the world. To laugh as we all race toward the bottom strikes me as the pinnacle of nihilistic cynicism.

So, which country do you live in that is more free? Or have you just given up and all you have left to offer is snarky cynicism?

Yeah, well. Job required us to move to an underdeveloped, uncivilized part of the country (New England). We don't have those fancy modern gewgaws y'all have down south. They can barely keep the roads fixed so the heating oil trucks and snow plows can get around. But they do teach evolution in the schools by candlelight, so there's that at least. :-)

Yep. Same experience here. No power for 7 days (we live in luxury compared to your 12 ... sorry). The landline was on the entire time.

We also experience frequent power outages (non-storm related) here in the lovely northeast US, and the typical routine is this:

1. Find flashlight.
2. Find the electric bill with the customer service number on it.
3. Go to the POTS/landline phone in the house.
4. Report power outage.
5. Marvel at how every other damned thing in the house doesn't work, but the "old" landline survives just about anything.

Exactly. "The guy behaved badly ..." . The guy - singular. It takes the contribution of a lot of people, both "employed" and volunteers to make a Linux distribution happen. Rejecting the good work of all those people merely because the public nature of FL/OSS development allows the comments of a vocal minority to be blown out of proportion because it serves the needs of those who need to make newsworthy headlines by creating false controversy strikes me as ill-advised and narrow-minded. Judge the work on its technical merits, not on irrelevancies resulting from humans being human.

Fair enough. Been using Linux for many years myself. But part of the FL/OSS model is to do things in public, because that's considered superior to face-saving-do-it-all-in-secret approach that hides all the actual work behind a veneer of congeniality. So don't 'get over it'.

With all due respect, working on Linux distributions is, for the most part, a thankless job. People certainly aren't doing it for the money - they are doing it because they passionately care about what they are doing. Aaaand ... passionate people sometimes react before they think, sometimes they are misinformed, because they are crazy busy doing their best to provide quality software to you for nothing. Because they care enough to do what they are doing when few others do. And they do it all in public for all to see ... and are judged for it, quite often by those who don't participate or understand. I'd ask you to take that into account before you dismiss passionate outbursts as "pissing matches" with a wave of the hand - you're just getting a glimpse into "how the sausage is made". Get over it. That's how humans operate. The beauty of the FL/OSS ecosystem is that you don't have to listen to the discussions that create your software for you - just use what you like based on its technical merits. Maybe if you feel gratitude for the gift you've been given you might even say "thank you" now and then. But if you're making your technical decisions based solely on what you misperceive as "politics", you are doing it wrong.

This calls for the Slashdot Summary Corollary to Betteridge's Law of Headlines. Then mythosaz is entirely correct.

This wasn't the headline. Duh.

No.

... if it were FLOSS!

Let's do the FLOSS dance!

http://suitelife.wikia.com/wiki/Floss_Dance
Youtube clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8JPDg3DkSM