Yes but... most consumers will never install anything outside of what their carrier offers them in the "market" or "app store" etc. Which means the great FOSS alternatives that get excluded don't get the user base, the feedback and bug reports, etc. They're limited to the niche of those who seek outside the carrier's limits. Now THAT should be the concern discussed in this article, not the software itself but the control over software distribution channels.

So you want to do away with Ask Slashdot? It's a moral dilemma, he's got the potential to do great good but it just as easily might enable those who would use it for evil. Asking peers for opinions or insight doesn't mean he wants to blame others. There might be things he hasn't though of, or a better way to accomplish things. It's just a smart thing to do.

"Dr. is this the correct incision point, or will cutting here kill the patient?"
"If you have to ask, your ethical compass is b0rked. Dumb@ss n00b!"

Can we mod parent up?

Yup, which is why the car manufactures are so big on obfuscating the specs on vehicles. V6, dual overhead cams, alloy wheels? Those terms would just confuse people. And good luck finding out if a truck has a Hemi engine, it's never mentioned, because nobody would try to market the underlying engine technology and go all gearhead on their poor confused consumers.

Oh wait...

Here on /. we like Linux. Next try posting on hotchicksthatstarredintransformersmovies.com and asking why it's news when Megan Fox does *anything*.

We all have our preferences/biases. Yours is quite clear when you mention that installation on Linux is a pain for unexperienced users, then turn around and say it's easy to secure Windows for any experienced user who knows what he's doing. So you've pointed out that doing stuff is easy on any system you're experienced on. Insightful, thank you.

My take? Use what you like best, and what works, in that order. I used Linux and choose to put up with Wine, VMs etc. to get some things done. You've chosen to put up with the constant security maintenance of Windows. It's no big deal to you, you're used to it.

But here's (one reason) why we Linux zelots dislike Microsoft; their monopoly has perpetuated the idea that all non-Apple systems are Windows; so many people don't get to even make the choice that you and I have made. And to me that's sad.

Why do we still see this; someone discusses sci-fi and they get this ridiculous attack of "it's only a movie, get a life"? And yet discussing alternate outcomes to a sports game is perfectly socially acceptable to these people. (And don't you dare say "it's only a game.")
The old stereotypes like "if you discuss Star Trek you must wear flood pants and talk through your nose" are dead. You've been watching too many Revenge of the Nerds movies.

Looks like I need to check out Handbrake, but I really like k9copy, much cleaner than dvd::rip, and more featureful than thoggen but still simple to use and effective.

Hate to fall in to the stereotype, but when someone says "Help! KDE is throwing too many options at me!" I say "Gnome". Right-click your files, click "send to". Besides entering the mail recipient, right there you have the option to "send packed in" and choose the compression type.

Even if you weren't aware that "send to" had compression options, the context menu has "Create archive" with a simple dialog, and the encryption options are hidden under a "advanced options" section. Same functionality, simple presentation.

Your "problem" is a matter of choice of DE (or file manager). If you want to say "well most average users don't know how to choose" then you see why consumer-oriented distros like Ubuntu default to Gnome.

As long as Mandriva doesn't join forces with Linpus, no one wants to hear about Manpus.