Ok I'll bite. Show me where I can buy a Linux laptop, with a i7-4710, 1TB HDD, 8GB of RAM, and a GTX 850M. I can't seem to find one which doesn't say Windows 8.1 included in price in the specs. Note how I pointed to laptops? You ever realise that most of these issues don't seem to arise with PCs as people are able to build their own from the ground up?

Giving examples of the worst system integration you could find and using that as a reason why I should be forced to pay money to a company who's product I don't want to use is disingenious. Geeks tied up in knots about Linux Audio? There hasn't been a Linux distro I've used in the past 2 years where audio hasn't worked out of the box, then prior to the Pulseaudio debacle it also just worked though not as feature rich as now.

Now what is fraudulent is selling a product with a separate End User License Agreement, and then not accepting a return when that EULA is not accepted. Really sit down and have a read of the OEM Windows EULA next time you have a week or so free. There is a line in the EULA that says if you do not accept the terms of the EULA in full then you should remove the copy and seek a refund from the distributor. The only fraudulent act is not abiding by the very terms you try to force on your customers.

By the way I lied about the laptop. I do get a choice of OS. The choice is Windows 8.1 or Windows 8.1 Pro. Amazing. I feel so empowered.

There's a reason for that. The market does what the people in power tell it to, and the people in power locked up the PC market in contracts. The "marketplace" isn't clamouring for an alternative they don't know about? Really? Say it ain't so!

In other news, Android tablets, iOS tablets, OSX machines, Chromebooks, etc are all seeing incredible sales. Why? Marketing. Pre installed machines sitting in shops for people to play with.

Here's a trick. Get up right now and go outside. Just walk up to the very first person you see and ask them to explain Linux to you. At best you'll get a confused look as the person tries to get away from you. At worst you'll get mugged or shot.

Except that there is only a very tiny market for hamburgers. The net result is that the cheeseburger people get exactly what they want and the few hamburger people are forced into buying something they don't want because the market won't cater for them.

Analogies aside, until I can buy the exact same PC with or without windows, and not just a tiny subset from a tiny manufacturer, the free market solution will fail and we continue to line the pockets of Microsoft executives against our wills.

I'm not familiar with the concept of buying a sim. No really I'm legitimately curious not trying to be funny. I though sims were provided by carriers for their networks. I thought all this is free as part of any contract and that replacement sims are likewise free. I'm struggling with the outrage. Isn't the carrier specific sim the reason for all those phones on the market with more than one sim shot?

They don't but I invite you to look at the driver they proposed for Linux: https://lkml.org/lkml/2014/10/23/129
I especially like the line with the comment: "/* Attempt to set Vendor ID to 0 */"

That is the exact opposite of ensuring it doesn't break. That is actively and maliciously breaking something. Also the cloners are producing a product that is perfectly legal when they use that VID/PID pair. It's against the USB spec to use another vendor's ID and then use the USB logo on your device, but I've never seen a USB logo on these devices, so it's all ok.

The only thing illegal here is they are printing FTDI's logo and model number on the chip. If they didn't do that it would be a 100% legitimate product.

I saw that a while ago. Thanks for your efforts. I ended up using the LUFA library and bootloader to implement Serial CDC on my ATMEGA32U4, but thanks all the same.

Even more thanks for that 128x64 LCD driver. You have saved me a world of headaches coding for my hobby projects. Wish there were more people like you :-)

So what you're saying is that FTDI intentionally took a device that wasn't theirs, detected it as not theirs, and then modified firmware on the device even though it wasn't theirs with the specific purpose of setting a PID from one they own, to another they own (PIDs can be anything except 0, they are not licensed), but one that is guaranteed to not work on any machine even if the driver on another machine hasn't changed?

Got it. Totally not malicious. Definitely didn't break something. No sirrree. Nothing to see here. Move along please.

Also as an aside Windows doesn't handle PID of 0. You can't write a driver for a PID of zero. You need to manually force the driver on the hardware every time it's plugged in.

False. All OSes do not like receiving a PID of zero, and the OSes can not automatically assign a driver to it.

Have to manually force two drivers to be used with a device every time it is plugged into a PC is a good definition of something that is broken. Windows doesn't remember the driver if the PID is zero.

What does your hate of FTDI have to do with your love of PICs?

Here's a list of microcontroller brands which include built in USB in their lineup:

PIC
AVR 90, mega and xmega
AVR32 UC3
STM32
MSP

Actually the only standout I really could find was Parallax Propeller series. They don't seem to produce one with USB support built in.

Prolific had some counterfeiting problems too, and while they didn't brick devices by changing them they did release a never ending stream of updates with the only improvement being that they no longer worked with counterfeits.

The real alternative is to stop working with USB bridges. With so many microcontrollers come with native USB support and excess memory to implement it. They only real problem then is you need a VIN, something you got automatically when using a bridging chip.

I don't know what's worse, that you think this is how Ebola works, or that someone modded you up for your clueless opinion.

People don't try OSes out. People buy a computer and the OS is incidental. The end result is you either use the OS you have or install another one. Nothing is forcing you to use OSX once you buy a Mac.

Tell it to the GP. The RPi is the fastest embedded system in my house. Most of the others sit between 8 and 20MHz, all of them serving useful functions.

My RPi has no problem decoding 1080p video as a media centre.

You don't need to connect to a WiFi network for this to work, you just have to have WiFi enabled on the phone.

If you think a mac address can help or is needed to help with ad tracking then you need to do some real reading on how networks and how ad services work.