True in some regards, but not all games are giant time-wasters.

For example, I got my (long-term) GF to play through all 3 Mass Effect games recently. While a significant time investment for all 3, that series can be an intense, emotional journey. If you let it happen, you can learn a few things about yourself while playing it. She agreed with this, and is glad she played them.

Likewise, for more co-operative gaming, choose something round-based like a strategy game or a shooter. The GF likes hardcore search-and-destroy on CoD (and murders everyone, she's really good), I hate CoD in general. I prefer Battlefield, she refuses to even try it. I'll show her the light one day =P

I wouldn't build an Ubuntu anything. Too much Unity.

See, that's the fun part. MMOs being only a grindfest is WoW-crap. DAoC was legit stuff. Though, reading about TES:O has not given me too high of hopes, and WoWhammer blew ass.

What evil has Nintendo done to customers?

Not arguing, I'm just uninformed. I though Bethesda and Nintendo where the last bastion of defense for the ethics of major gaming companies.

I can't answer on why they went up to 48, but why they did 48 instead of 50 is obvious:

It's easy to convert down to 24 FPS if need be.

...What state is this?

Are you kiddin'? Maybe 5 or 10 years ago, but these days GPS is quite reliable. I live in BFE and it works well enough.

Well, at least most GPS...

Linux Mint impressed me. It's Ubuntu-based, so it still has the training wheels, but it has a sane interface (I prefer Mate to Cinnamon). It's still a little sluggish though.

Personally, I just use Debian. It's grouchy at first and takes a little time to get it how you want it, but after that it stays out of your way.

I doubt the $50 is from driver QA. It's much more likely because they're not getting the crapware kickbacks that they get with Windows.

Texan here.

The youth is surprisingly liberal -- I have no idea what changed, but the younger ones turned their brains on this time (Not to say conservativism is brainless, but blind parroting of religious right ideals are). Moreso than past youth. I actually expect Texas to be a liberal majority in a generation or two.

I usually overbuild on RAM and CPU and my hardware goes through at least one graphics card upgrade for a gaming rig.