I have used Windows 8 only so far as to install it, but in login menu the power and accessibility buttons were just flat.

What is the policy of Canonical regarding work with upstream projects, like GNOME? While some other parties are working quite closely with upstream (for example, RedHat is working very closely with GNOME, and GNOME is working closely with gstreamer), Canonical is inclined to make stuff in-house (SSO, online accounts, Unity etc.).

You don't need to look that far to see it in action. Look at scientific ideology taking over school system. Ideally every thing taught is scientific or at least not contrary to science of the time. Just because most on /. approve this vigorously doesn't make it any less true.

In that case MS should be able to buy that advertisement space. If Google doesn't let them, then again it is a breach of EU rules.

People are not born equal. That is a fact of life. Although USA is in high up in social mobility ratings, poor are still more likely stay poor and rich are more likely to stay rich. Ignoring reality and pretending that reality matches shouldland is silly at best.

And your part of the world is?

What demands on the user?

If the summary is correct, the guy is facing 5 years because of "God does not exist". This is a strong claim. And there are quite a lot of atheists in the strong sense of the word.

Closed votes can be worked around — company pays the party if the bill gets passed. If you want the money, vote for it and hope others will do the same.

It really depends on what you want form the beast, but I would suggest looking into Pentax Q camera.
Strong side: really small (camera and lenses), solid, has controls of a DSLR.
Weak side: expensive, small sensor, not many lenses (without adapter at least).
Small sensor is not always a bad thing. It depends, if you want to fight with focusing.

You talk as if religion is some sort of appendix and anyone can easily put their belief away. That is hardly a religious person.

What is the wrong with that exactly? If I want to run gnome-calculator, I don't type the whole thing, in my locale, all I do is press + k + a + . Four keys and I am done. With mouse and gnome panel it would be Applications (aim, click), Accessories (aim, click), Calculator (hunt, aim, click).

For those who "just want to browse web", there is Ubuntu LTS. It is basically "install this for normal users for a pain-free experience". The other releases are "We've got this cool stuff, wanna have fun?" If you want stability and the latest stuff, there is a price to pay (usually in lots of dollars).

Next, Gnome doesn't and cannot shove anything down anyone’s throat. See the note about LTS above.

When Gnome 3 came out, it was good enough for those who like cutting edge. I even switched distributions (a big deal for me) just to use it, and later had a hard time using the old gnome panel. Why? Launching applications with the keyboard is fast and cool. What's not to like? And if you really need the menu, it's still there. And if you think Gnome 2 was without problems, then you haven't used a multi monitor setup with different resolutions, or I would really want to know how you made icons on the panels stand still.

Further, I don't know why, but even gnome 3.2 still honours the gconf key /apps/metacity/general/focus_mode. Learn your tools. And if you believe that this feature is so important, go to the gnome design IRC channel and try to explain why it's so important (and not just for you). If they say they don't have enough manpower to support it (and believe me, in Gnome 2 it did have some strange undesirable effects), then volunteer to support it. You can't just yell at developers and expect that to make things better.

Speaking of which, one of the reasons why gnome panel was dropped was because it became an unmaintainable mess. I am glad you liked the result, but someone has to work with the code behind it. Should developers be in command? Maybe not, but in free software their opinion counts. You think that you are a developer. Well great, maybe you should have a chat with the Gnome developers who ported and maintain gnome-panel in Gnome 3 and give them a helping hand?

In short, for something to be done, someone has to do it. You can either do it yourself and/or convince others it has to be done. It is not some random rule someone just made up, it is just how life is.

Don't mind me being lazy, but:
1) why do you believe Gnome wants to have shell as UI for every device? Any links to chat logs or anything like that?
2) i know one thing, that makes touch interface better for mouse interface — on touch the buttons have to be bigger and it helps to faster position the mouse as well. Mind telling us the downsides?

More like Gnome doesn't believe THEY should develop different UI for different devices. Why should they do that? Do gnome devs target smartphones? Haven't seen that. If you have seen shell early prototypes, it is clear that they made the shell for desktop, but keeping in mind the touch interface.

Speaking of themes, they sure look nice (sometimes), but changing icons (the main theming after changing wallpaper, which is allowed) can (and does) cause problems, when a lot of recognizing happens using icons.

Finally, if you really want to have fun with the look, the option is there, it is called "gnome tweak tool". And the shell can be modified with CSS.