Linux has undoubtedly had an effect on PC world. I wonder if we can know really what that is, since it's hard to run alternative simulations in the real world, we only have this one history that is all-inclusive, if done right.

Linus is an example of how a project being controlled by a single actor can be very efficient in getting a fairly standardized product out (more so than many commercial operators), meaning, of course just the Kernel here.

In the future, I suppose it should become a committee effort, since there will be too many people, who want to influence it for him to work with eveyone, and too many people getting suspicious of the project being controlled by this Finnish-American guy, who may or may not have political ideas, too... Besides, the Chinese and the Russians already have their own ground-up distros that they use. They probably have government backdoors to every system???

And then the committee members will be bribed and boughtt by megacorporations and they will screw the development in behalf of their employers. Et cetera, et cetera...

Then, one day a guy goes out and buys a very basic computer and build a new kernel for a new kind of OS, because GNU/Linux has become such a f*@$kfest that you'll never be able to predict what's going to happen (if it doesn't end in some megacorp's pocket).

So no, I don't think that the world would have changed a lot. Perhaps Hurd would have gotten more attention, perhaps the BSD legal hassles would have been solved. Perhaps someone else would have created a kernel, and then been able to work with many people to make it better.

BTW, seems the Linus-mocking comments come from AC a lot. M$ fanbois or just people who like to yell "fire" in a full movie theatre?

I make spelling errors despite my good intentions.

But my basic attitude is, that if you don't care about what you're saying enough to spell it, then don't write it. There are plenty of insightful people, who will write readable text.

So is M$ Word file format documented for the general public now?

It might also be, that the company has already made some money from RIAA, MPAA and/or M$.

Who would most like to get P2P off the web? The first two, because they perceive it as a threat.

Who creates a virtual-monopoly desktop OS that has ridiculous vulnerabilities they don't like to address? The last one.

Besides, it is well within feasibility, that Micro$oft execs think P2P is responsible for a big chunk of the (albeit slowly) growing popularity of Linux. I mean, they hired Seinfeld as their spokesman, and then launched a funny service called "Bing". These are guys, who live in late 1980s or early 1990s and think they just nailed two of the biggest hit shows on air.

Conjecture, I admit. All of the above, except the bit about RIAA and MPAA wanting P2P off the web, the monopoly desktop OS, ridiculous vulnerabilities someone does not like to address, Seinfeld deal or... Bing, was it?

Bada-Bing! Hahahahaha....

You mentioned "trust" and "defense contractor" in the same sentence.

Something in the Multiverse will break for that!

I mean, really, is this a trick question? I know there are a lot of (mainly right wing) blowhards yelling "you'll get my assault rifle, when you pry it out of my dead, cold fingers!" but is that really what the founders meant?

Did they mean, that the government can't require gun shows to do reasonable checks to slow down the gun running from U.S. to Mexico by Mexican drug lords — guns that often enough find their way to the good ol' U.S. of A. for the above mentioned blowhards to use as an argument in "guns should not only be in the hands of criminals" and "in New York City you can't get a handgun legally, but have no trouble getting one illegally".

Unfortunately, the Virginia Tech moved the issue in the wrong direction by making any mental patient unlikely to ever get a legal handgun in home state, but have no trouble finding one in another one. And this, because mental patients are the most likely to misuse it? No, actually, people, who do something like that have seldom been psych ward patients, and are only afterward seen to have exhibited signs of inordinate stress, violent behavior etc. — and have quite often been begging for someone to notice they're looking for help, but everybody just tells them to "cowboy up, everybody feels down every now and then."

I know that in my arguments I am using the same kind of tactics as the above mentioned blowhards. Well, another of their favorite sayings is that "you gotta fight fire with fire!"

I am also quite aware that there is no simple way to solve the problem.

In other words, the more illegal they are, the less likely they are to do mischief...

Like, a criminal mastermind would probably not use a stolen car that stands out like a sore thumb to transport a dead body to a dumpster crosstown.

RTFA! It was NOT in a home, they had payed 800 pounds to rent and haul the equipment there, they're obviously covering their asses now, after the fact.

Besides, the cops follow these things because too many people have thought it "funny" to invite people to an all-night party in someone else's home.

Reference books are definitely in a class of their own. Own almost all of them, if I can.

I have many more books on loan (longer or shorter term).

Can't help it, just love books!