Ubuntu is one of the most successful attempt at a Linux (GNU/Linux not something like Android/Chrome OS which just used the Linux Kernel) based.

Ubuntu was one of the few distro's to take advantage Desktop OS gap.
Windows XP from 2003 had a Lot of serious Security Issues, Apple Mac's were picking up steam, but Apple isn't for everyone. Most of the other Linux distributions were like We have GNOME/KDE installed so we are Desktop ready. However Ubuntu actually put in effort during that time to make a decent Desktop OS.
This Ubuntu rise came along with the rise of Firefox. Where Windows XP had so many problems, and people wanted something new.
Then Windows Longhorn took way too long to be release with Vista and it failed to impress giving more years to add converts.

Now Ubuntu failures were that they and there fans, had too much of an ego. Reported problems lead to blame the user, attitude. Funny compatibility issues, where a feature will work OK in one version then after the upgrade it will not work at all. Also they sometimes like to overhaul the whole UI.

Apple came out the Windows Gap period, as the fan favorite. Ubuntu could have gotten a bit more love if they just humbled themselves down a bit. And avoided those Scary THIS ISN'T GPL errors. As most Linux users really don't care about the GNU ideals, they just want something that works.

Your right if I were European I would be outraged. A good portion of my earned money is being wasted on expensive equipment that the child will outgrow in a couple years.
Prosthetics are better spent for adults, as they can be kept longer, and they are mature enough to care for them. For kids the money should go to therapy to work around their issues.
I know people with stunted hands who have flawless penmanship and are able to prefrom most tasks inspite of their disability because they have been trained at an early age.
I know when we see a kid who is disabled we feel sad, but a prosthetic hand isn't the big helper people think they are.

I want to know more of the types of Soda tested.
Real Sugar vs. Corn Syrup vs, Diet Soda vs. Carbonated water.
How about comparing it to other Junk Foods, such as Hard Candies?

Well ExtFS for a Chrome Book is fairly niche.
Normally you get the device and if you plug in an external device is probably would be formatted in FAT/32 so you can share it with nearly any device.

The issue I have with Windows 8, and OS X.10 is the fact that they are trying to make the OS into the next tablet/mobile OS.

Yes the Table/Mobile market is eating up the Desktop share. But this hybrid doesn't make things better. The need for your desktop PC/Mac is for more serious work. And we need a more serious OS for the job.
The new OS needs to be less worried about grandma or the kid who wants to go online. It needs to become a serious Work Station solution. This includes better task switching, and viewing job status. Control of the performance in real time. Data retrieval and backup, and presenting the data in a clean uncluttered manner.

I try to mix both myself.
Agile has issues in terms of scale. It is great for small projects, works for Medium then as you get larger it begins to fall apart. As you have way too many sprints to choose, that things just do not coincide for a long time. Causing disjointed code segments.

Waterfall is too rigid where you have do this by then. Not accounting much for unforeseen issues, means you have to redo the plan, or if you find that things can be done in a different order is difficult to represent.

I find mixing the two together tends to work well. You waterfall your sets of Scrum clusters, and each sprint has a mini waterfall attached to it.

However there is a case where there is a vocal minority using the product for a niche use, that the product isn't designed for.

XKCD

[Buzzword] isn't niche. It is one of the core technologies for [Buzzword] which is designing application infrastructures where IT provides a platform for in-house and integrate [Buzzword] rather than providing [Buzzword] to departments. Many [Buzzword] systems are based on [Buzzward] particularly [Buzzward], [Buzzward], [Buzzward] its a big player for [Buzzward]...

This is the problem with our news delivery system.
We get information in real time... However we rarely ever get quality information, and digging to get the quality information is very difficult.

So they are 2 people in the US known to be sick from this, there is a containment policy that is improving. There are 300,000,000 million people in the US.
Yes it is scary, because if you get it there is a high mortality rate, and it does spread fairly easily.
But it doesn't spread like the flu. And thousands of Americans die yearly from the Flu.

Cloud offers a lot of real advantages over doing it all yourself.
1. Having resources when you need it. Lets say you have some seasonal tasks that needs extra horse power (Quarterly Reports, Christmas Rush, Back To School, Exam Time...) so you can request short term extra power to keep up. Without having all this extra equipment running nearly idle for 3/4 of the year.

2. Hardware upgrade, maintenance, backups... Keeping your hardware up to date is expensive, if you are keeping your old servers you will try to keep them for 6-8 years normally as to get the most out of them. However that means your servers are getting behind the times and are at risk of breaking. As well having to pay for redundant backup servers. Managing good data backup and storage policies. While might be easy for a couple of servers for larger demand it could become a huge waste of your time. The cloud company should be doing this maintenance. They get the advantage of dealing with a larger set.

But I don't like cloud for the sake of cloud. Adobe Cloud, Office 365 and most of your software that you really just want on your PC and not pay a monthly fee for. Sure cloud backup such as Google Drive but your device has adequate power to run these apps without a huge server farm in the background.
 

Certification are just an excuse to get more money from people who have already paid for your product. It is an excuse to not offer proper training and documentation for your product in the first place.

For the most part we get these compatibility issues from someone trying to make something the previous system wasn't designed to do well, so they did some hacks to get it to work.
When we wen't from DOS to Windows. The idea of a common drivers came into play. Before you needed to do assembly calls to support your devices.

Now the real trouble makers are the sales men who push the product as something to solve all your needs, while it was made to solve particular problems.

A small but vocal group of whiners doesn't represent our full culture.
They will always be Xenophibic people, because we will always have problems and will need some one to blame. Europe, Asia, Africa, South America, and Australia have this problem too.

If you are in a majority, having a growing minority group can feel threatening to any person. If the minority is willing to change to be part of us, then we take it as a complement.

The First Amendment law is counter to what most governments wan't as it makes their job more difficult. Being that the courts make sure it is in place and active is positive. Because it is a hindrance towards easy government it is too easy to sliding scale away from it.

So you had the choose of optional Christianity vs. Mandatory Atheism.
Now the U.S. weren't any saints but our culture was separated by an ocean from the war and were able keep our ideals a little more in controlled and more willing to accept different people especially in the more urban areas.

No you wrong.
Some will be slaughtered when the get size, others will be saved for breeding.
Granted they won't live to old age, but they live longer on average with people feeding them, protecting them from predators and illness.
A properly raised animal should have only one bad day in its life.