So your solution to contending with the inherent issues within Open Source software is to be a thief?

Got it.

Tom Baker without a doubt.

Ecceleston was a good doctor if only because he had a similar sense of humor though. I really just don't care for Tennant at all. I'll be glad to get this new guy even if he does look a bit foppish.

I suspect there is something going on behind the scenes that keeps them from targeting the Mac. Perhaps a joint venture with Safari in the future, or something new that is a hybrid. Mac is a stable development platform, so there has to be something business-related going on.

Speaking of development platforms:
Which linux distribution should they target? Which packaging system should they use? Which compiler version should they compile against? Should they make it QT-based or GTK-based? Will GNOME crap on it for breaking their precious HIG? What about in 6 months when all of those things needlessly change and break?

No matter how you answer those questions, someone else in the linux community will tell you that you are WRONG. This more than any other reason is why I don't see it ever being ported by Google. Who would want to have to deal with the hassle of perpetual fragmentation and breakage?

Perhaps they are secretly laughing at us right now since the code is out there and no one is doing anything with it. Tin foil hats abound!

I love how "liberals" are to blame for pretty much everything now, including gag items in online stores like this one.

I don't know if you are an actual conservative or just a Limbaugh-mouthpiece, but there is so much more to the world than red vs blue, conservative vs liberal, etc. You should really try unplugging from everything for a while and maybe going outside for a bit.

Politicians and the media in general have been getting away with false dichotomies for far too long. People need to get some perspective.

I'd suggest riding a bike or just going for a long drive with the windows down and the stereo off. After an hour, you won't even miss the music/radio/phone/pager.

Go ahead! We'll still be here when you get back.

Thanks for the permission to post.

Did you read the rest of the post where I laid out that the NIC, the printer, and multiple monitors failed to work? Using the nv driver by default yields crap results. Yes, I know you can change the driver out, but even having done so, how can I easily get my ancillary monitors to extend my desktop nicely? Windows does it in a few mouse clicks and works very well. I am, of course, completely capable of editing the xorg.conf file myself, because I know how to do such things.. but that isn't really the point is it? The point is that these are things that don't work properly. So, yes, I consider that the inability for either Ubuntu or Debian to easily understand my graphics cards and monitor setup to be a failure in usability.

Don't get me wrong, please. I use Debian at the house for quite a bit, as well as my beloved FreeBSD box, but I recognize the shortcomings in them. To make a blanket statement about the amazing "just works" of desktop linux is just laughable. My Wacom Intuos begs to differ.

Now, to address your anecdotes:
XP was released Aug 24 2001
Vista was released Jan 30 2007

Which you are comparing to:
Fedora Core 11 which has not been released yet according to both:
http://fedoraproject.org/
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=fedora

So, I am not sure what you are looking for here. It seems rather silly to debate stability and feature sets of operating systems that are at a minumum over 2 years apart, and the benchmark is a distribution that has yet to release.

I did. My friends do.

Building your own rig is generally cheaper (Hooray for NewEgg) and you get precisely what you want, which makes it much more attractive than the boxed options at Dell, HP, etc.

You posit that Linux has better driver support than Windows? I am sorry... but this is just laughable. Seriously. What flavor is the Kool-Aid you are drowning in?

I can only assume you refuse to accept any Windows OS since XP since your assertion is so ludicrous I had to read it three times to make sure I wasn't seeing things.

Those kinds of blanket bullshit claims may work on non-technical users, but this is Slashdot and we damn well know better. Are you just foaming for karma, or are you really that deluded?

Ubuntu and Debian are both epic failures on both of my desktop systems out of the box. No ethernet. Refusal to understand multiple displays (which Vista handled perfectly with 3 clicks of a mouse). Printer woes. OH, and let's not forget that it had no freaking clue what to do with my GTS-260.

Please don't make absolutely ridiculous claims where the preponderance of evidence is against you.

I have no idea what you are doing to those poor machines, but the two desktops that get the most family use in my house hardly ever get rebooted. Both are running Vista, one is 32-bit Vista on an old 3.0GHz Hyperthread from 2006, and my personal desktop is 64-bit Vista on an i7 Nehalem. Even with the monthly patch, you have the option not to reboot unless you want to. It's really only once a quarter or so that the update mandates an actual reboot, and that is the only time our machines get rebooted. 4 reboots or so a year is pretty reasonable I think and I have never had a problem with either of these machines slowing down or getting flaky.

I certainly reboot that many times a year on my linux box just from getting a new kernel in my update.

Are you installing warez or downloading questionable torrents or something?

I am so tired of the "license to use a car" argument that never seems to lose traction around here. Cars are just not computers, even if they do have some similarities.

I'll provide a handy reference guide since no one seems to get this:

CARS:
Use gasoline
Transport you physically from place to place
Can be loud if you have one of those annoying exhaust pipes
Does NOT run a spreadsheet
Can be used to get hot women
If you take the top off, you get a breezy fun ride
Can kill people if driven badly
Can get you a ticket if you drive through a red light
Works with my iPod
Serves as a makeshift bed for spontaneous sexual activity
Can be used to see women engaged in lude acts

COMPUTERS:
Use electricity
You don't really move out of your chair
Can be loud if you have one of those annoying huge fans
DOES run a spreadsheet
Can NEVER be used to get hot women
If you take the top off you just look like a nerd
Doesn't kill people if used badly
Can get you a fine if you download movies
Works with my iPod
Would result in bodily harm if used for spontaneous sexual activity
Can be used to see women engaged in lude acts

HINT: Cars require licensing because failure to operate one safely potentially results in the deaths of many people. Computers can only potentially result in yourself being harmed in a non-corporeal way.

I hope this helps.

Because anyone that uses a real desktop to do actual work doesn't give two shits about windows that materialize in from another dimension or menus that fade out like a Dukes of Hazzard scene change?

I mean... Seriously?

A desktop environment should specialize only in getting the hell out a users way so they can actually be productive. I find it continually amazing how much time and energy is spent on making 'teh shiny.'

Actually, the three round limit serves to provide a more controlled ammo consumption than anything else. Having the three round burst as the second firing selection naturally limits the shooter. It does help with accuracy over long distances because of barrel climb, but actually can be a handicap in close-quarters/urban combat.

A standard combat load for a US soldier is 6 30-round clips.

I did some range instruction while in the US Army at both Fort Hood and in South Korea. (My punishment for qualifying Hawkeye in M16, M60, and M203 I guess) A soldier's inclination is always to shoot more bullets than is required. Fully automatic weapons like the M60 and the SAW perform are always abused by newer soldiers because they have just seen too many damn movies or whatever and thing they need to burn belts until the barrel glows. This is why we limit issuing those weapons to those that qualify with them and demonstrate the coolhead to use it like it should be.

The proper firing position for any fully automatic weapon is to place one hand over the top of the weapon just forward of the feed tray/ejection port and rest your arm on it. The weight naturally holds the weapon in place, stops barrel climb, and doesn't affect accuracy like stiffly holding it down would.

I carried an M16 with an M203, M60, and a 9mm my entire Army enlistment because of it.

Conversely, my fiancee owned and loved the graphic novel and I had never read it. We both enjoyed the movie immensely. All of the friends I saw it with loved it too. They had all read the novel as well. I was the only one that walked in there knowing absolutely nothing about it.

You didn't need to have read the book to understand what was going on. It was pretty straight-forward. I realize (and respect) that it was a bit more cerebral than 300 or Dude Where's My Car, but it was not that hard to follow. The resulting conversation that ensued when we walked out of the theater was animated and fun too. It's a good thing when a movie inspires whimsical conversation of sociology, ambiguous morality, and sacrifice. I wish more movies inspired such conversations instead of the usual "Well, it had a nice car chase." or "The camera work was nice for the explosions."

I loved the movie and have every intention of buying it on BluRay when it comes out, plus it interested me enough to read the graphic novel since then and I really enjoyed the encapsulated Hollis novel.

Actually, I do. Since it is only used for coffee, and I am the only one using it, a quick rinse with a soapy sponge is all it needs. I generally retire my foam cup on the weekend at some point when it gets left in the garage and gets covered in sawdust.

It takes me about 6 months to go through a regular pack of those big styrofoam cups.

Throwing karma to the wind here, but the last thing we need is an open source distribution method for games people pay for with real money. I mean, even high-profile projects like compiz get crapped out because developers come and go and lose interest in "teh shiny." That's fine when we are talking about notepad application number 2,387,691 on an OS I didn't have to pay for, but that is not going to cut it when money is on the line and I want to play that game four years from now.

Frankly, the track record for open source for longevity and remaining agnostic about the issue-of-the-moment is not exactly stellar. All it would take is some pissing-contest between developers over "the vision" or whatever, and the rifts would last in perpetuity. XFree/Xorg is a great example here.

Betting on the long-term success of any open source project is about as reliable as betting on sub-prime mortgages in your investment portfolio. I wouldn't put my money into it. Valve has a far better track record and long-term viability despite the DRM inclusion and phone-home nuisances in their products.

Strawman? False Dichotomy? Slippery Slope?

Man... where do I even begin to explain how bizarre this leap of logic is? Not even Evel Knievel could make this jump.