Why the heck is ASL not American English? Perhaps there is a good reason, but it just seems silly to me, and it seems like something that would make it that much harder for someone who is hearing impaired to interact with those that are not. The fact that it is a different format is not a reason. I mean written and spoken English are very different formats, and do not have a direct 1-1 mapping in terms of things like letters to phonemes and so on, but yet they are exceedingly similar. I fail to see why this couldn't be done with ASL. Yes, you are going to want to have signs that represent words, rather than letters or phonemes. No problem, however syntax, grammar, structure, etc should all be the same as spoken or written English.

It even sounds plausible as an alternative to "Everyone at Microsoft went insane at once and the result was Windows 8."

But nowhere near as credible.

There are all kinds of casual interactions that one can imagine where one will just use the screen entirely and not bother to use the keyboard and mouse...

And for that, the ideal solution is to use your tablet as the interface and Allcast to project it onto the TV (You do use Samsung products, don't you? - if not, there's always the Chromecast.) However, command line on a touch screen? No good. Most families are not like mine with four generations of Unix users.

You get to see all your apps through a mixture of burger juice and ketchup!

You and your kids probably have not been using your computer for over 10 years, and therefore do not need to access a large number of programs they use perhaps once in a year, prehaps not remembering the exact spelling of the absurd name the proggie has. Hierarchical menus allow you to look in a specific category, and have mouseover guidance. Metro/Unity gives you a load of coloured blobs with no clear idea of what they are for.

As someone who often uses a program I have not used for over a year, with over 50 useful programs on my hierarchical menu, I prefer xfce. I know barely literate people who also prefer xfce to any version of Windows. I have only seen Win8 once, and was unable to help the owner of the laptop it was on in do anything at all.

You are obviously too young to understand that some people use computers to perform useful tasks like searching for porn. Learning a whole new way of doing things that is considerably worse than the old way, is badly designed, looks ugly, lacks essential features, and infested with bugs, is not condusive to productivity, and does not amuse me, although it may be an interesting diversion for some.

Lawn: off!

There are a ton of HP devices that were fully supported

"fully supported" does not mean what you think it does. Hint: "Like a millstone round the neck" does not count.

Disclaimer: I own an HP scanner and used to own several HP printers.

For the times I want to watch live sports, I go where there is no cost to watch: a sports bar. Living where I do, another possibility is the sports book. The only disadvantge is I have to share the bathroom, and the drinks cost more. I've been off cable for more than ten years. Really haven't missed it.

"Negotiations" were completed on the basis of a thick brown envelope handed to a party now living in a warm climate. Documentation relating to "performance criteria" were handed to the police sone years ago, but have since been "accidentally" shredded. News at 10.

Our student at work has a plan that is like $30-40/month or something that is unlimited data (I don't remember how much high speed, they throttle at some point), 400 talk minutes and unlimited text. It's a prepaid deal.

sorting out drivers.

If you were an actual IT person, you would know the pain of finding/installing Windows Drivers far exceeds that for doing it in Linux (Its easy to find Linux NVidia drivers - they just dont work very well).

As another UK tax payer, I fully support the Honorable gentleman above, In fact, as a victim of MS software, i would prefer it to go on "fact finding missions" "consultancy" from "Miss I Cane" (or Ms Whiplash) and duck houses than to MS.

I have a "How to Press the Left Mouse Button" CBT video that I got when we upgraded from PS/2 mice to USB ones - you have have for a modest^H^H^H^H^H^H payment if you want.

It takes them so long in the morning to decide whether to use an LXDE session or Gnome, or KDE, that by the timne they have made upo their minds, its time to go home (or a new desktop has ben released).

Should have stuck with the original sh(), and not had a choice of csh, bash, etc, thats what I say.

Gert off me lawn

I mean yes, there are expensive Android devices. You can have a nice, premium, phone or tablet if you wish. I loves me my Galaxy Note 3 but it certainly costs a lot, more than an iPhone even. However there are also cheap Android devices. You can get a smart phone for $100 or less (talking full price here, not subsidized). So Android phones are an option on most budgets.

Until recently, all you could get with Apple was the standard iPhone which is like $600-700 full price. Even the new "c" model is $550 full price. That puts them out of range of most people who want prepaid phone plans, which is often what people with lower incomes go for.

Well those people are also likely to spend less on apps. After all, if your finances are such that you wish to buy an economical phone, you probably don't want to ruin it with spending a ton of money on software.

So ya, that will push the average down on Android phones. Personally, I see that as a big positive to Android. There's something to be said for a thing that can be available to a wide segment of the population. Exclusivity to the affluent isn't something I consider to be positive.