I thought hitting people on the head WAS the RIAA legal strategy.

"Photoshop user is using Photoshop software and we do not have a license. We can either pay Photoshop dollars for a license or use this freely available alternative that will provide the same functionality."

"Joe Blow user is using Joe Bloe software and we do not have a license. We can either pay Joe Blow dollars for a license or use this freely available alternative that will provide the same functionality."

"700 user is using 700 software and we do not have a license. We can either pay 700 dollars for a license or use this freely available alternative that will provide the same functionality."

These equations make no sense!

As an open source game programmer, I take offense to this. Heavy offense. As an open source gamer, I disagree. Open source games are great because if you find a problem, you can dig and and fix it. You're free to improve them.

Contrast this with, for example, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance. I love the concept, I love the gameplay, but what I don't love is the huge number of typos in the dialog. I can't do a thing about it. On the other hand, I was able to do a complete overhaul of the dialog in FreedroidRPG, and I'm now a member of the dev team.

As far as your experience with open source games, I doubt you've played a significant portion of them, and I highly doubt you've kept up with the updates. Yes, updates, new developments that get pushed out for public consumption. You don't get that with many proprietary games. You might get 3 patches, and that's it. No new content, just bugfixes. *That* sucks.

That could be a very good reason.

By the way, for the record, I'm using Slackware with the default kernel, and have been for a couple of years now. That's just in case anyone wants to accuse me of using some bleeding edge distro or kernel.

Linux's NTFS support is a joke? When did it stop working? I've been using it without problems for a couple of years now.

Whoosh!

Pellets don't reproduce like exploits in Microsoft software, though.

I beg your pardon. You're referring to dependency management. Slackware has had "real" package management for YEARS.

For real people... stop the FUD!

Yes, and I passed the General written at 14 without studying. There're two local kids I can think of with their license, one 9, one 12, and the 12 year old used an aluminum canoe as an antenna. Call me when a group of fifth graders do this, THEN I'll be impressed.

I sincerely hope you're griping about the fact that Fedora forced its users to switch to KDE 4.0, which KDE strongly discouraged distros from switching to in the first place. If you think of it as an open-source tech demo, you're close to the purpose. A complete rewrite takes time, and KDE is all about openness. So, while they were busy working on a newer, more flexible version, they allowed people to try it themselves. The upcoming 4.2 release is extremely usable. I'm thrilled that I can boot up my desktop, and wow my non-Linux-using friends with it.

So my point is this. Fedora screwed up here, not KDE. KDE followed its principles, and has maintained the entire time that what they were working on was not "ready for production use."

I believe that's what the "Steady Beeps" refers to. For those of us interested in shortwave, that's the sound produced by radio stations WWV or WWVH. You can set your clock by it. It's also the signal that any of your fancy self-setting clocks tunes to.

I'm sorry, that wasn't close enough to a real car analogy to satisfy me. Could you explain this again, in terms of engines and brakes?

Bjork bjork bjork?

Technically, I'm giving my money for a cause I believe in, a greater cause. I am not taking that money from anyone, I'm earning it, which makes it mine to do with as I please. Nobody is "subsidizing" this in any way, shape, or form.