Yes, Google obviously appropriated a lot of Diaspora's concepts. Diaspora launched far in advance of G+.

I ran Kubuntu for years. It's still pretty good, and they seem to have pulled out of their post-4.0 funk when they couldn't push a working release out the door for like two years without fucking something up (yeah, that's when I left). Last time I looked at it (11.04) it looked pretty good.

I'm still staying with Arch. Once I found out how much easier it was to manage a rolling release system, I can't ever see myself going back to the "guaranteed to break catastrophically every six months without fail" release cycle. Honestly, that is reason #1 why I will not be going back to *buntu.

He thinks he's entitled to get the GUI of his choice bundled with Ubuntu.

I don't see that in the comment in question. I see no requests whatsoever, only a statement about what he does not want.

That's not what I said. I said he wasn't asking anyone for anything. Your original comment referred to a "sense of entitlement." It did not sound to me like the OP thought he was "entitled" to anything. Did you read it differently?

-1 That Joke Was Last Funny In 2006

Doesn't sound to me like the OP was asking anyone for anything. You have issues.

If federally subsidized student loans went away, prices would absolutely have to come down, one way or another. Or big universities would have to find a way to get by with 1/2 as many students.

Your last paragraph illustrates beautifully why the federal government should not be involved in handing out money to colleges. The government shouldn't get to make those judgments.

Social mobility is low. Full stop. Everywhere, at all times throughout history, those who break through to a higher economic class are the exception, not the rule. Social and economic mobility is higher now than at any other time in our recorded history. I have looked it up, thanks.

And if you somehow think that investing your capital in the work of others isn't a service...well, I don't know what to tell you. You're wrong.

As you obviously disagree you either belong to that %1 or are not poor enough to make up your mind.

I don't know what your definition of "poor enough" is. I am firmly in the bottom 50%, but above the federal poverty line. But I think there's a third option there that you're missing.

If Amazon didn't have Penguin to undercut, they'd be charging the same damn thing and you know it.

Ah yes. The "everyone with money inherited it through no merit of their own" troll, backed up with the "investing your capital in the work of others isn't a service" tripe. You're full of shit, you know that?

You stated a desire to "strip the top 1% of their assets." By strip, I cannot help but surmise that you mean steal.

What do you think it means?