I don't know anybody who pays his/her bills "writing and posting stories". I pay my bills by working in retail, and there are no real Linux options for decent point of sale systems. So yes, for "real work", I rely on Windows.

From a privacy aspect, anybody shopping at Amazon already doesn't care about any kind of privacy.

From a business aspect, I'm shocked that they're not doing it already. They have more information about their customers than probably any single organization on the planet. Considering how badly they're bleeding cash, I'm wondering why they haven't been doing this all along.

No need to call us "monkeys", you douchebag, but I agree. I work behind a register, and I wouldn't take it. And yes, chip and pin will kill this, as well.

People value all kinds of different silly things. The article was implying that Bitcoin has some kind of widespread credibility, which is absurd.

Bitcoin has about as much credibility as Monopoly money in my mind. Asking if something can undermine the credibility of monopoly money doesn't really make any sense.

What does "traction" matter? A good platform is a good platform, and WP is one of, if not the best platform out there right now. I don't understand why they'd use Android on their own phones. That doesn't make any sense.

New taxes are never the solution. Ever.

It's good to know that you have a system as complicated as a country of hundreds of million people figured out with a single sentence. You should consider running for President. Sounds like Sarah Palin would be a perfect running mate for you!

Good!

a. Gas is much too cheap in the US.
b. We need a lot of infrastructure work.

Of course, I'm sure we could afford to pave all of our roads with gold, have diamond-studded bike lanes, and solid titanium sidewalks if we didn't spend half our budget on wars, but hey, I'm not holding my breath. There's not as much room for corruption in building roads in this country as there is building roads in some 3rd world country that we bombed into oblivion.

Speak for yourself. You couldn't pay me to trade my Windows Phone for an iPhone.

Suspension on cars do this automatically, already. That's a big part of the reason we have suspensions on cars. I can't imagine there's that much of a benefit to counter the extra weight and complexity of the system.

Every decision that Microsoft makes affects nearly every human being in the modern world. Microsoft would not be the company they are today if they made changes with so little consideration.

it will not break any existing Windows functionality

You don't know that. There are much smarter people than you, at Microsoft, who know whether this statement is true or not.

You have a gadget that pumps ads to you? That's horrible. I would never spend a penny on a device that required me to see advertisements. That's kinda' fucked up.

I did. For about 30 seconds. There is no software that I need available on Linux.

Then they can switch OS's at will.

Why?

Oh, get off your high horse and come out of your mom's basement. Language changes.