Regulating commerce is not the same as regulating the entire commercial entity. Of course, that's not the road we've been going down for a very long time. It's much easier to consolidate power in Washington where the lobbyists have a one-stop shop. On the other hand, actually respecting the 10th Amendment would require an informed and intelligent electorate, so I guess my point is moot.

How is this the domain of the United States Congress?

I dropped my cable TV subscription over a year ago, and went with OTA only. This happened wen the cable company forced us to use one of their receivers for each of our four wall-mounted TV's. No thanks. Kept my cable modem, of course.

I've been very happy with it, except for one exception - NBC Sports Network (was Versus) exercised an option in their contract with IndyCar (practically the same day I dropped Comcast, I might add), which took away just about all online streaming. Since I don't get cable, I don't get NBCSN. So I'll be watching yesterday's race tonight via a torrent.

I'm also a very heavy user of Netflix. I love it. My wife and I are watching Battlestar Galactica now - we never saw it while it aired. We're making our way through the series at our pace. I also tend to turn on Top Gear or old Twilight Zone episodes when I want background noise.

My point is that I've adjusted very nicely to not having cable or a dish. I like it a lot. They're only going to manage to frustrate people like me with this move. I'm not going back, so they're really not helping themselves any.

One, can I make it look like 10.04? Specifically, I don't like big icons I can't remember that chew up screen real estate. I like one little-bitty bar across the top with words that I can read.

Two, if I make it look like 10.04, is there any point in upgrading? Or is it only UX "improvements"? If I stand a better chance of getting halfway decent performance out of my ATI card (and my first question goes favorably) then I'm all over it.

Hah, ok, yeah, it did sound pretty pretentious. It's all true, though. I remember looking at some Apple system that had 128k or so in a glossy magazine thinking of all the stuff I could do with it. I have no idea what that was, but apparently it was some killer stuff. And then I went to work for a guy who gave me a used 286, and I was in the IBM PC world for good, trading up for better parts whenever I could.

And, seriously, I've never owned any iAnything. The walled garden thing is spot-on. I'd rather do without than opt-in. I just found it curious that I never managed to own any other Apple item, even back in the "good old days".

Started with a used ][+. Strangely, to this day, I've never owned another Apple product. In the early years, it was a matter of cost and availability to me. These days, I just prefer to stroll around outside the walled garden. But, man, I loved that computer.

To take this down another tangent, why aren't sports available online? I'm missing a race today that I would love to be watching, but I don't get the channel it's on (NBC Sports Network). Of course, they won't provide a streaming option, even a delayed one. So, I'll be avoiding much of my online news sources for about a week, until I find some torrent I can grab and finally watch the race. Why is it so difficult?

I helped a friend transition from an old XP laptop to two new Win7 laptops. He bought Office 20-whatever. I didn't open the shrink-wrap. I put LibreOffice on and told him to try it for a few days. I also pulled up his old version of Excel on his old computer, showed him a screenshot of Excel 20-whatever, and then opened the LibreOffice counterpart on his new one.

After a week, I've heard nothing about LibreOffice, but he doesn't like Win7 at all. I would've put Ubuntu on, except for two reasons: 1. He runs QuickBooks, and I was not in the mood to try to get that to play nicely under wine or some other hacky route. 2. Even though I run 10.04 LTS, I've seen Unity and absolutely don't like the direction they're going. Had they stuck with the interface in 10.04, I probably would've at least given QuickBooks under wine some thought.

This friend is not particularly computer-savvy. He runs an HVAC business. He doesn't want latest and greatest. He wants something familiar, and he wants it to just work. I think the open source community in general, and Ubuntu in particular, missed a golden opportunity when Win7 hit. If your product matches what the user was already using more closely than the next version of what they were using, you should be pushing that. Hard.

I have contact with lots of small business owners. If I suggested to them an OS that was free, looked and acted like their existing 2000/XP OS, and still ran their office suite (or a free 90% look-alike), and still ran their accounting/bookkeeping software of choice, they'd be all over it.

Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution: The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

It's not their jurisdiction. The CPSC shouldn't exist. That should be left to the states. So if Florida or California or Texas or whoever decides they want to slap a label on their video games because parents would rather have a nanny state than take responsibility for their own kids, they're welcome to do so. Then, when academic research proves out that kids in the nanny state are no less violent than any other, the rest of us can point and laugh and then go about our business.

Instead, we hide behind the grossly-over-interpreted commerce clause and let everything happen in Washington, where lobbyists have all the power and legislation like this is just pandering to keep voters from paying attention to all of the real issues. /rant

There are three arguments:

1. They're right, and labels should be added.
2. They're wrong, and labels shouldn't be added.
3. It's not their jurisdiction.

The most distressing part of news items like this is that the third argument is so frequently overlooked.

First, the wicd example was from Debian Squeeze. You're right, Network Manager does a fine job. That's why I'm back to running 10.04.

Second, I think you're missing the distinction between "does not work" and "does not work well". I would refer to the former as a functional issue, and the latter as a nonfunctional issue. What you're describing are nonfunctional issues.

Furthermore, what you're calling an issue is just fine for some people (like myself, obviously). So the justification for fixing these issues is subject to the audience. Going back to that VPN example, no matter of opinion is going to change the fact that PPTP on wicd on Xfce on Debian Squeeze does not work. On the other hand, I would say that the menu system works fine. That's my opinion.

As for supporting different UI styles, I would argue that maintaining the current one while developing a second one is a valid approach. If you were to propose developing two UI styles side-by-side, I would see the problem with that. But Ubuntu already has/had one good UI. What's the harm in allowing it to persist?

First, thank you for replying sincerely. Second, I understand these complaints, but they're not functional issues. Call them whatever else you want, but they don't keep the operating system from operating. On the other hand, I had to revert back to Ubuntu from Debian Squeeze with Xfce (which I tried after seeing Unity firsthand) because PPTP VPN access (a feature I need) is not available using wicd. That's a functional issue. It flat-out doesn't work.

By the same token, there are plenty of does-not-work issues in Ubuntu. Instead of reinventing the GUI, fix those. That's what I'd like to see. Or, if you are going to reinvent it, allow crusty old fools like me to keep doing it the old way.

Ok, then a more accurate statement: There is no problem that is apparent to me. But what I believe to be a problem is the need to change for what appears to me to be change's sake. But if there is indeed a functional issue with the menu-driven system, then what is it? I'm genuinely curious.

I tried Unity. I hated Unity. I went back to what I think is the best Ubuntu to-date, 10.04. I have no intention of trying to acclimate myself to yet another GUI either. Why fix what isn't broken? What's so wrong with the menu-driven system that it needs "fixing"? First Microsoft's ribbon, then Unity, now this. Their time would be better spent making the graphics work more smoothly with more cards. I know I'd be appreciative.

I work for a firm that conducts a periodic release of code to its production environment. Those of us who regularly work the "release night" know what it means to document code well (and no, it's not just comments in the code). What our firm, and others like us, needs to do is rotate everyone through that situation, or others like it, so that they can see the flipside of their effort. Having to troubleshoot poorly documented code is a good way to instill in a developer good documentation habits.