From their own page, right now:

Linux Mint recommends the following search engines:
Engine Preserves your privacy Funds Linux Mint Description
        Yahoo The 2nd largest search engine on the Web, full of features.
        DuckDuckGo A safe and secure engine providing augmented Yahoo results.
        Ixquick A safe and secure engine gathering results from multiple search engines.
        Startpage A safe and secure engine providing augmented Google results.
        Amazon The largest online store.
        Wikipedia The largest online encyclopedia.

Why aren't some search engines included in Linux Mint?

Engines are included based on the following criteria:

        Funding: Whether using the engine funds Linux Mint
        Privacy: Whether the engine provides users with best-in-class privacy/security features
        Non-commercial: Whether the engine is popular and non-commercial

So, sorry, but for whatever reason in the version I had Google wasn't an option -- and figuring out what was required to change it wasn't worth it for me.

I was shopping for a distribution, not an ideology.

However...A Big Part of the issue was Ukraine wanted to join the EU and NATO, however the Ukrainian president at the time decided to side with Russia while most of the country wanted to be with the EU.

So we are in kinda of a gray zone here.

If the App store doesn't have Angry Birds a search for it may mean Disgruntled birds will show up.

I'm holding out for Mildly Irked in an Ironic Post-Modern-Sort-of-Way Birds.

That would be cool. ;-)

I completely fail to comprehend why most Slashdotters seem to push everyone towards DRM'ed iPads and Chromebooks that put Palladium to shame instead of more open Windows PCs.

I guess it's more about Microsoft hate and the desire to bring them down than software freedom.

You know, it's as much about giving our friends and family a user experience which a) won't drive them insane, and b) won't make them come to us for tech support.

And, really, for many of us this whole "software freedom" thing is a little overplayed.

I've always found Stallman to be a bit of a crank, and the vast majority of people hear this stuff, and they think of teenagers spouting Marxist theory because the school cafeteria switched from Coke to Pepsi ... it becomes a little tired and melodramatic.

I'd wager that 99% of all people will never audit their IP stack, recompile their browser, or otherwise want any involvement in this stuff. They want the latest cool thing, and not some near approximation of it which comes in a kit.

What they want is a tool to get the stuff done they need/want to, and they want it with as little hair pulling as possible.

And, really, let's be honest here ... Windows is no more (or less) open than Apple, and in the places where they're more open, they're trying to be less, just like Apple. Everybody wants their own walled garden.

Hell, I installed a Linux Mint VM image a while back, and it wasn't even possible to set the search provider to Google, apparently because it's not ideologically pure enough or something.

So, if my Mom was looking for a tablet ... I'm going to find her one which suits her needs and will work for her, and I am never going to say "ZOMG, but this software is teh free".

Because my Mom already rolls her eyes at the rest of my loony rants, and doesn't give a damn about software freedom.

So, if you want to know why people aren't doing this, it's because when someone starts screaming "viva la revolucion" over software freedom, people roll their eyes and try to get distance from you.

Don't get me wrong, I likes me some Open Source software. But, have I built an entire ideology around it? Hell no.

They did... 20 years ago... CISC had changed its ways to be more RISCy

Being that X is low. Is exactly why they should be deleted.
The voting method isn't that good for low values of X. Because there are plenty of gaps that will make even low voted scammer apps get high on placement. If the App store doesn't have Angry Birds a search for it may mean Disgruntled birds will show up.

As stated. Microsoft did try to get developers to change to avoid the confusion, many did, some didn't those who didn't... Why? Probably because you were up to no good with your app already.

It is expensive because of all the prior improper risk taking.

It is expensive because you're deliberately trying to artificially inflate the cost of nuclear power in order to make renewables look better in comparison, just like the enviromentalists have been doing for decades. Unfortunately, that tactic won't work, since renewables aren't capable of providing reliable baseload power, so all you'll end up doing is shifting to gas and, once it runs out, coal.

A bunch of apparently quite dumb, reactionary and fearful people somehow dictate policy for multi billion dollar industry with armies of lawyers and wads of cash to throw at lobbying.

That's the dark side of democracy. Everyone can see there's something very wrong with the world, and no one wants to look into their own soul to see what it is. So any demagogue who comes out and blames it on someone else never lacks followers. Fear sells, but beyond fear it's the good old "the world will become a paradise just as soon as we exterminate this one last evil opponent".

That said, democracy is still progress: a couple centuries ago Greenpeace and nuclear lobby would had been killing each other. Unfortunately, avoiding outright war is not enough, so I guess humanity's about to be tag-teamed by climate change and energy crisis. And it's all you hippie's fault.

Yeah, what evildoers, giving Russia a slap on the wrist for the petty offense of invading and taking over part of another country that had insolently decided to no longer be under Russia's thumb. Next up, the evil tyrants in American and Europe will send Putin a sternly worded letter! Maybe he won't even get a Christmas card from Biden this year!

See: US to sanction Russia over annexation of Virginia

My thoughts exactly.
Back in the day there were a lot of tricks that enhanced the graphics due to the blur.
The IBM CGA Display Used tricks on old monitors to enhance the output The Composite mode which is what standard TV's were like were blurry in high resolution 640x200 but, created color artifacts that could be utilized. The RGB displays were crisper but made all those tricks moot and you ended up with a B&W display.

Nintendo didn't want people to see the pixels they wanted to see the characters. So they did the graphics so the details that they felt was important showed.

IT seems we had a successful program selling guns to Mexican DrugLords a few years back... I'll be they will gladly buy them.

Editors can't spell (or read), that gross poop eating guy, Time Cube guy, Cowboy Neil, dupes.

I'm sure there's plenty more.

I, for one, welcome our new meme-studying overlords.

While I completely agree, subjectively, I also understand enough psychology and statistics to know that a) the feeling of control is mostly emotional, not rational. It's why your mother in the passenger seat is scared in situations where you as the driver are completely cool - you are in control, she is not. That she's more easily agitated only makes it more visible. It's a well-documented fact that experiencing the same situation once in control, or even just seemingly in control, and once not in control is experienced very differently.

Statistics, on the other hand, show that even at this early stage, autonomous vehicles have a better-than-average track record. So while you may feel less safe, the numbers say that you are actually more safe.

Which is why autonomous or semi-autonomous (assisted driving) vehicles do not rely on one input source alone. V2V is not intended to replace all the sensors and stuff, it's one more input source.

Humans are really, really bad at paying attention to monotonous tasks for extended periods of time. The sooner our cars drive themselves completely, the better.