A pen and paper are more credible than OpenOffice. Seriously, I would be embarrassed to admit that I developed or used that piece of useless garbage. Only die-hard MS haters actually use it and even some of those are really closet "MS Office" users.

<quote>Will slashdot ever do away with the anonymous coward abilty to post? That would eliminate most of the trolls.</quote>

+1

<quote><p>There's no need to look for ulterior motives (like antitrust) for supporting Mac - all you have to do is look at SEC filings to see that the Microsoft's Mac Business Unit is quite profitable as a standalone entity. That's plenty of direct motive to keep supporting the platform.</p></quote>

Considering that they really have no competition, unless you are so foolish as to actually believe that OpenOffice or it latest sibling LibreOffice is actually any real competition, they cannot be anything but profitable. Perhaps if MS Office were still stuck at Office97 that might be true but certainly not today.

<quote><p>Oh come on. Even Apple only supports OS/X for blatantly self serving purposes.</p></quote>

True, but you will never get anyone here on Slashdot to publicly state that.

<quote><p>The way to address these patents IMO is to fight the corrupt system that gave them validity in the first place.</p></quote>

What you really mean is that you want someone else to do the hard work of development and then you or some other slimy socialist/fascist wants to use said development for your own nefarious purposes sans payment. Thank God that there are hard working people who want to develop or invent something with hopes of recovering their investment and making a profit rather than a group of scum bags who just want to feed off the sweat of others.

The fact is that their products are way ahead of the curve which is why KDE, Gnome and others are always playing catch-up.

So tell me, how many dollars has the *nix/BSD community contributed to society? Please list the hospitals they have build, the food they have supplied or other humanitarian deeds that they have preformed? I can see your problems with that question since the open-sore community is by and large a socialist/fascist group that expects to be serviced sans any reciprocity action of any kind.

Most great scientific and mathematical breakthroughs are achieved by individuals before the age of 40. In fact, a large percentage is achieved before the age of thirty.. The mind, like everything else in the body, starts to slow down.

Most great scientists and mathematicians who are 50 years or more in age are living on their achievements accomplished decades earlier in their lifetime. It is consistent with virtually all athletes, etcetera.

If I am reading this correctly, the offender gets three warning (strikes) before any legitimate action is taken. May that should be extended to where the first to felony offenses are not counted against an individual. Show it be inferred that a burglar has two free attempts to ransack my home before I can call the police? Seriously, what moron conceived this idea?

The number of sites distributing illegal or counterfeit products has been multiplying exponentially for quite some time now. I for one am glad to see that something is being done about it.

Are you joking? Finding printer drivers compatible with Linux is hard enough. Finding ones that work with FreeBSD is virtually impossible. Good luck finding a Brother color laser printer driver that works on FreeBSD. I have had scores of ink-jet printers that have no drivers available under Linux.

And it gets worse. I have seen all to many cases where a printer will work under one applications but not another in Linux/*BSD. If I have a printer that absolutely, positive must work I use it via Windows. At least I am sure I can use the printer to its full capacity.

Without knowing anything about your father's work or home environment it is extremely difficult to ascertain how he might have contracted cancer. What amazes me is that your father died of cancer meaning that you are predisposed to developing it yourself and you continue to smoke yourself. I usually do not call people complete idiots; however, in your case I might make an exception. Seriously, are you suffering from depressions and trying to commit suicide? I mean this in the nicest possible way, get help and quite this smoking habit. It will be the nicest gift you can possibly give yourself or your family.

Cigarettes cause cancer. The user stands a good chance of ending up in a hospital or other medical facility. Whether in the US or some European country, this inevitably leads to others; id est tax payers, to foot the bill for these cigarette smoking morons. The very least any government can do is attempt to get as much money out of these parasites before they go on to become a ward of the state.