That's the whole problem. If we had 10 years for a sole-proprietor patent, 5 years for a corporation patent, and maybe 12 years for a copyright we'd totally shut down all this wasted litigation money from corporations. I don't think an individual should be able to get a patent; if they aren't planning to make money on it, it should be given to the public domain.

And exactly how would the welfare system prevent you from abusing your slaves? Was it not the welfare system that brought him to this situation where he won't work without a thorough beating first?

I'd like to see some remote desktop speed tests and network file transfer speeds. Vista is dog slow on network file transfers.

And as for the AV, the first thing I do on any company machine is add an exclusion for my project workspace files. The last thing I need is AV checks on intermediate compilation files.

Are you kidding? You think a Linux distro with a few commercial tie-ins will hold a company of several thousand people? Their Mono work is the same way -- there just isn't much of a revenue model for it.

I confess I had to laugh out loud when I saw that Novell was first on the list. 17 years ago Novell had a few billion dollars in the bank. They thought "we should go spend this money on some cool word processing and internet companies". I guess that gives MS 17 years.

Income tax is the right way to do it. O how I wished everyone just used income tax. A few percentage points to the feds, a few to the state, and a few to the city/county. It would be so easy and clear cut. Any other form of taxation increases the scarcity of valuable goods. If the state needs more they raise the income tax a percentage point. Heck, if 10% is good enough for the Lord, it ought to be good enough for the government.