This is actually much better than I expected. I'll have to (shudder) give Microsoft due credit!

I think it also causes global warming.

You've succinctly described the real issue here, since machine translators are still not very good.

Preserve the language? Not really.

I believe they are also responsible for global warming.

Change 'downside' to 'upside'. I'd rather work with Google Docs any day. Yes, there may be a little retraining. Yes, Google Docs is missing features that you very likely don't need and are just time wasters. The only real downside I've found is that it's slow with very large documents.

Google Drive sort of offers version control for non-Google-docs. Previous versions are merely saved (which you can argue is not really version control, I suppose). However --- be careful --- they are only saved for 30 days unless you actively go in and retain them. I lost 7,000 words of a novel I was writing partly because I didn't realize this (and admittedly, partly because I overwrote the working copy).

A Google Doc has much better version control.

I mistyped. DMCA.

It's worse than this. You're denied the rights to even use WHAT YOU PAID FOR in the way you wish. Witness Kindle books as one example. Want to read them in the reader of your choice, on the device of your choice? Sorry, can't do that, and DCMA outlaws decryption tools.

Not strictly true, in fee simple ownership, you own a share in the land under the condo complex. For us, a condo is a good choice as we're retired and don't want to deal with yard work and most infrastructure maintenance. Of course, we face a monthly condo fee that escalates somewhat.

Neil Armstrong was a great and honorable man. Nothing that trolling idiots or conspiracy-theory loonies can say will ever change that, or make them into the tiniest fraction of the man he was.

Nothing new about "you have to call." For my home internet I'm on Hawaiian telcom. When I signed up they gave me a "guaranteed rate for life." What they meant was that it was guaranteed not to drop when they lowered their prices.

I have to agree. The guy says it creates poetry that can't be distinguished from "real" poetry. Maybe so ... if you consider any old junk that any self-styled "poet" writes.

Try comparing with a true poet like Tennyson or Teasdale or even Charles Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll).

Warum nicht?

I am myself an MIT grad and I can testify to the fact that foreign language instruction at MIT was every bit as rigorous as CS instruction. That said, MIT did not have a specific admissions requirement for foreign language instruction in secondary school, although it was a distinguishing "plus" in a super-competitive admissions process.

If a university has a foreign language admissions requirement for a specific reason (as opposed to just something put in place by a non-knowledgeable regulator), then it's hard to see how CS can substitute for that. If the foreign language requirement doesn't have a particular reason, there's no purpose in it.

My own opinion, as someone who took the time to become conversant in numerous foreign languages, is that, particularly for Americans, foreign language study is an important means of learning about cultures beyond our shores ... something Americans need to do a lot better at.

This last comment is very insightful and addresses something I've thought about from time to time.

You pay whatever it is that Windows costs (no, it isn't free just because it's bundled on a computer), and then what do you have? Actually, not much. You have an operating system and a few tools (and maybe a bunch of bundled demo crapware).

You install Ubuntu or Mint or similar, and you have a suite of tools, and the means to easily install more, for free. Like Inkscape, as the lead article discusses. Within half an hour or less you can have full-featured computing that should meet at least 90% of the needs of 90% of users (maybe even better than that). I'm not going to get into the arguments about specialized tools or high-end features or cutting-edge gaming; if you truly need such things, go buy them and put them on your Windows system.

Linux has served me for many years. In the early years, things were rougher around the edges, but today, it's night and day difference. As I'm not much of a gamer, there is little or nothing that I need Windows for. I "get by" just fine with GIMP, and the new Inkscape is amazing, as is LibreOffice ... not to mention EMACS, of course :)

Sorry but I just don't see a personal need to spend money on software.