For a start, Ubuntu is a high-memory distro, because it tries to be everything to everybody, simple to install and use, and as automated as possible.
Blow it away, install Debian 7 with lxde, and you'll run the entire thing in nicely in your 512MB with room to spare.
99% of Windows is exactly the same to the user for Windows 8 vs Windows XP. The only difference is, if you click the start button you get a screen of icons vs. a menu of icons.
Plus, that stupid "PC Settings" screen, with a bunch of toggle switches for options, instead of a real control panel....oh, wait...it DOES have an actual control panel, but the organization of it is completely different than XP, Vista, or 7. And what settings do you find in the Control Panel, and what ones are in PC Settings?
Then there's turning it off. Where the heck is the Shut Down option? Oh...it's over here at the opposite side of the screen, completely hidden by the desktop equivalent of "mystery meat navigation."
Then there's the whole hideousness of the UI itself, and its flat, Windows-2-esque window chrome. When the graphical elements of your quarter century old OS are more appealing than your latest and greatest, you know you've screwed the pooch. Royally.
That is the reality of wanting an alternative operating system, and is a choice of the people. If you want simplicity as an end user, windows is currently OS of choice, as its specifically built to install itself automatically with all the necessary drivers and settings by OEM.
Errr....you've never actually installed Windows, have you?
In all your examples, the part that you're suggesting should be left out is made by the same company that makes the rest of the item.
In the Microsoft/hardware manufacturer case, they're two different companies.
In the obligatory car analogy, rather than the paint removed, it would be more like every car manufacturer (except for some niche ones like TVR, Saleen, Koenigsegg, and Caterham, none of which you can afford) sold you a car, but required you to buy a Nokia cellphone along with it. You already have a perfectly functional Samsung cellphone and plan, but you can't buy a car without this extra Nokia phone and plan being forced on you.
The thing they're removing is the Nokia, not the paint on the car.
A law that forbids selling hardware and software together would increase innovation. Consumers would only be able to buy hardware and software separately. That way, hardware vendors are encouraged to document the hardware and software vendors will compete on quality. Installation procedures would become very easy very quickly due to market pressure.
Normal people don't like that though. Let's say that you try and sell product A to somebody that requires product B to function. This person has neither used nor ever had interest in A or B. Most people aren't interested in one or the other. Normal people want an A+B product where somebody else has worked out all of the compatibility problems.
The thing is, in this case, product A doesn't require product B to function. It can use product B, but it can also use product C, product D, product E, or product F. It only requires one of them, but when it's sold to you, even if you want to use it with product C, D, E, or F, you are required to buy product B.
Apple doesn't develop their own supporting chipsets, CPU or GPU hardware, or any other such thing. At most, there may be some proprietary "System Protection Chip" that isn't needed at all for the system to work.
In fact, Apple themselves have instructions on their website for how to install Windows on Mac hardware. I guess you need to catch up to what the world has known for a while.
What people? A handful of geeks who've heard of Linux?
Maybe the municipal government of Turin?
Which is probably the case. 1 idiot mayor says Linux is gone. A whole bunch of council members say it's not.
If you don't have all the same fonts installed, this can happen transferring between the same version and patxh level of Word, on two different computers.
Hardly a LibreOffice compatibility issue....
Minion 1: His head!
Minion 2: It`s on backward!
Scroob: Why didn`t anybody tell me my ass was so big?!?!
Hey, it's an APK sockpuppet, which doesn't really count as a sockpuppet, because everything APK posts is AC. Stop trying to pretend you have supporters here, by posting without your APK sig.
Maybe if you weren't such an abusive asshole, you wouldn't get karmaslammed into oblivion, and you'd actually be able to use a real account, instead of your AC crap.
It doesn't matter if what you say is true or not (and I'm not saying it is completely, even though you do have some legit points at times), but when you present your points like a maniacal raving psychotic, it doesn't matter. You're branded an asshole from the beginning, and rightly so.
there isn't a clear line of sight to them from my house, even with a 16' mast and large antenna point correctly. I gave up on TV with the switch to digital and I find that I really haven't missed much.
A 16' mast? That's tiny for my area. My parents have a two story house, plus attic, so the building's got to be at least 27 feet high, maybe over 30. The antenna is a good 10 feet higher than the highest part of the roof, so it's got to be 40 feet high.
My brother has a ranch, with attic, and his isn't as tall, but it's still got to be 20 feet, and it's the shortest antenna I've seen anywhere.
I don't have an antenna, because I'm in town, and use satellite.
"I'll pass on the latest climate change panic..."
Oh, that kind of idiot.
Yup. That's right. He had the gall to question the one world religion. Burn him at the stake!
who is cleaning up the bodies? show me 1 picture of 80 dead birds at one of these facilities.
You don't get a body when it's hot enough to incinerate the carcass. You might as well say someone isn't dead because all you see is a bunch of ash in an urn.
fake owl from harbor freight and stuck it on a poll.
Crows, what are you more afraid of?
1. Hawks.
2. Eagles.
3. Hunters with shotguns.
4. A fake owl.
5. None of the above. I ain't scared o' nuthin!!
Never test for an error condition you don't know how to handle. -- Steinbach
