I expect most people if asked, if they wanted their computer to book to desktop in 15 seconds instead of 30 seconds (for example) with would pick the former. So yes they desire what systemd gives them even if they have no idea what systemd is.

The best way to get Linux accepted by the mainstream is to deliver a modern, stable, user friendly, forgiving, slick desktop which doesn't require a PHD to operate, doesn't require a terminal to be opened (ever), and offers the functionality people bought their damned computer (or tablet) for in the first place - word processing, games, browsing, streaming video etc.

The problem with the Linux community is that never seems to sink in. I watched this same thing play over and over through the years. Criticize Linux or a part thereof and the wagons circle. Suggest that an app or desktop isn't usable and the RTFM brigade leaps out to justify the brokenness. Propose or implement change and watch the reactions become outright hostile. This is most obvious with recent changes to SysV to systemd and X11 to Wayland but it's nothing new.

The Linux community can be its own worst enemy sometimes. It's like some like Linux being a niche and have the siege mentality to go with it.

They have a lot of control over their own dist. What other dists do is entirely up to them. Which is why Red Hat uses yum / rpm and other dists do their own thing.

The fact that other dists have moved to systemd may be due to the fact that SysVInit has recognized issues, particularly when supporting modern desktop / server environments and by comparison to other operating systems (Windows, Solaris etc.) and so they've chosen to switch.

The Amiga's GPU was a blitter, able to copy chunks of memory with bitplane / step / overlap / mask info over from address A to address B. Enough for moving sprites around but not much else. It also had something called copper which was a way to video interupt sync certain actions (e.g. switching the palette) but hardly meaningful by today's standards.

The Amiga only really got a proper graphics card when 3rd parties like Picasso stepped in to provide one and even then "proper" only means analogous to Cirrus Logic style cards that appeared for Windows 3.1. Hardly GPU in the modern sense.

The Amiga's Agnes GPU was a glorified blitter and the Paula audio "acceleration" was just a sound chip that had DMA so it could be kicked off to play sound stored in a memory buffer. Neither would help decompress an MP3 - the CPU would still have to decode the next chunk of audio in memory and trigger the audio chip to begin playing it. I'm not sure why anybody would want to play MP3s on an Amiga though and I very much doubt it left much CPU to do anything else, even on a 68030 or 68040 CPU.

Quite obviously 3) although most people are and will continue to be perfectly content with systemd.

Preposterous. What Fedora does in its own dist doesn't mean other dists must do the same. Dists have chosen to go with systemd because it offers a solution to the well known issues with SysVInit when supporting a modern client or server.

WoW fixed a lot of things that were wrong with EQ and had slightly better (albeit still generic) lore to go with it. The grind in EQ was punishing - you might be sat healing for 90% of the time and a session might see you gain a few pixels on your EXP bar. A bad session might see you killed and performing a terrifying corpse drag to salvage your kit. You might be waiting 30 minutes for a boat to turn up and more than once I was thrown off the boat back onto the shore because of bugs. You couldn't alt+tab away from EQ in your multitasking OS during this downtime because the client wouldn't let you. Spawn camping was endemic. And the bugs... The Shadows of Luclin upgrade managed to crash servers and clients so often that I took the opportunity to snap out of the idea I was enjoying myself and cancelled my sub.

That isn't to say I stopped playing MMORPGs - I played Dark Age of Camelot, City of Heroes / Villains, A Tale in the Desert, even WoW (but only free trials), Star Wars Galaxies and many others. I rarely put as much time or effort into them as I did with EQ because I recognized they all used exactly the same mechanics under the hood to keep you playing - grind, more grind, slow travel, exp bars, stupid quests, upkeep, crafting - all stuff to slow you down and suck money out of the economy.

Probably the best MMO I've played is Lord of the Rings Online because it does has the lore to go with it. I bought it when it was launched and subscription based. I liked the game but I found the grind punishing and cancelled the sub. Then it went free to play and they lowered the grind to make it easier to progress and suddenly it's a far better game. Clearly they want people to advance to buy the inventory slots and other things that start to fill up by that point but it still works out far, far cheaper than WoW or similar.

Another overlooked MMO is Puzzle Pirates which is basically a bunch of mini games with a pirate theme but it's still pretty cool.

For obvious reasons - because they don't want crims making unmonitored communications with their buddies / accomplices on the outside.

Extension signing should be the way it is in Android - roll a key, register the key and then continue to sign the extension with that key. It means that when a new version of the extension is uploaded the signature can be verified to ensure the extension is a) not tampered with, b) reasonably likely from the same origin.

SOE only had one major hit with Everquest but when World of Warcraft came along they didn't follow up with anything to compete. The likes of Star Wars Galaxies was an unmitigated disaster and Everquest II barely made a dent. They've made quite a few other MMORPGs over the years, some of which had promise but never took off or were mismanaged. The biggest wasted opportunity was Free Realms which Sony (if they had an ounce of sense) would have pushed instead of Home on the PS3.

I'm kind of surprised they survived as long as they did really. Maybe new owners will put a bit of stick about and focus minds better on fewer products.

I've been laid off in a company where headcount was dictated by stock market indices. Just recently I heard them advertising on the radio for as many people as they can get for the same positions they'd erased about 5 years back. At least they paid people to go quietly even though the process was extremely unfair (no account of performance, skills etc.)

That is no excuse for not vetting drivers who are KNOWN to be convicted rapists or guilty of other serious offences. Or operating a half assed program to vet drivers which isn't as stringent as the one that normal taxi drivers are expected to go through. Uber should be no exception. It is a taxi service and it should abid by the laws that govern other taxis. If that cuts into their profits then tough shit.

The funny bit is if he'd shut up about his fringe economic theories and libertarianism they would have had a harder job finding him.

"Excuse me driver can you refrain from beating raping me for a moment while I reach for my phone, unlock it, navigate to the uber app, find the panic button and activate it?"