Xen has a 2% overhead. It's hardly expensive.

I'd also agree. Xfce is great. What I like about it is it provides all the core tools you need and then doesn't get in your way.

It's not flashy or anything, just solid.

I keep getting this image of RMS standing in front of a podium, tears streaming down his facing and sobbing out "I have sinned!!"

Playgrounds shouldn't be risk free, but to be honest, jungle gyms were death machines. Those things probably broke more bones in the 70's and 80's than the Japanese and Italian mafia combined did.

Quantum internet, really? Will I be eating Quantum pop tarts while I surf Quantum porn?

Not really. I use one of these on my 32ft boat I liveaboard: http://www.natureshead.net/

My bathroom on that boat is smaller than most apartment closets.

Actually, that's a pretty good compromise.

No. You have a crypted hard drive. First thing that'd be done would be to copy the entire crypted drive and then try to hack it in its new location. If it gets nuked, just recopy the crypted drive from the source.

"You cannot pee into a Mr. Coffee and get Taster's Choice!"

26 inch LED LCD tv: 44 watts when in use.
Popcorn Hour: 8 watts
WRT54G Wireless router: 3-5 watts
My uplink 800Mhz Wifi link: 8 watts

So my entire entertainment with internet linkup only pulls 64 watts, 20 or less when the TV is off. The popcorn hour also spins down when not in use. So I'm using less power for my entertainment than a single incandescent light bulb.

There's a big security difference. I can store my money in a bank and use debit/credit cards. I'm legally protected when someone steals my credentials and spends my money without my authorization.

A few quotes by a few people doesn't make for a culture of Anti-Intellectualism. The change in how knowledge is acquired over the last 20 years has been beyond drastic. 20 years ago when I wanted to do a paper on super novas and pulsars I spent days in the library sorting through books. Today all that information, and more, is available to me in seconds.

It's completely valid that this sort of change will shake up how humans deal with education and the transfer of knowledge. It's also good to be questioning the impact such systems have on us as a whole(such as how the super organic impacts knowledge when it's completely free flowing and popular opinions percolate to the top). Questioning old guard institutions and methods isn't Anti-Intellectualism, it's quite the opposite.

The cost will simply be passed onto the universities.

Problem solved?

Unless you want to fight it in court.