How about this. Make VMS on Atom->i5 free and charge for VMS on i7->up on Intel and do the same with AMD. Make it free on the lower end chips and more expensive on the workstation and server chips.
You might even get some interesting apps made for it and maybe even pickup some support contracts.
BTW I know the i7 is often used on high end systems besides workstations. If you wanted you could slice it up by socket 1150 being free and socket 2011 and up being pay.
The idea is to get the OS out for more people to use. Frankly I bet HP could still be making money on Alpha and PA-RISC systems if they had wanted too.

And these comments have pushed me right of the maybe legalizing pot is ok into the not a chance.
You all are nuts.
The argument that it is no worse than tobacco is at best amusing since tobacco is a terrible drug.

Actually it is more a warning about what happens when growth slows.
As long as people are getting richer everything is good. It is only when thing slow down that the problem start.
Greed is satisfied when it is fed, put in on a diet and it gets ugly.

You have a tiny self selecting sample. In other words you have no idea if "a lot" of people want slide out keyboards or not.
The manufactures on the other hand do well planned studies and have come to a different conclusion.

Only on Slashdot would some one compare heroin to alcohol and tobacco.
The difference is that you can use alcohol and not be addicted. Tobacco while really bad does not seem to cause health issues as quickly as heroin.
I don't drink or smoke and even I can see a world of difference between them.
BTW Drunks do often get thrown in jail for any number of reasons. Drug users often get off with community service and drug treatment programs for first offenses.

ummmm.... Isn't that what I said? That society is a way to change what fittest means?

" I guess we're going to find out how much of that system we can destroy until we ourselves go extinct, or figure out a way to exist outside of the food web. Remember, just because you don't care about some little tree frog somewhere doesn't mean that the symbiotic and inter-connected nature of the system doesn't care.
"
Wow you see this is what makes me crazy.
1. humans are not destroying the system. Changing yes but not destroying. The ecosystem of earth seems very resistant to destruction and no Place on earth is completely lifeless.
2. No the interconnected system doesn't "care". If you are not religious you need to live in a reality that nothing outside of humans and a few other higher animals care about anything.

I agree. But to be honest Darwin's theory of evolution pretty much proves that biggest jerk wins. Society is seems to be humans way of saying that we are going to choose what fittest means. AKA it is the anti jerk force.

It has taken care of us very well. We are thriving. That is kind of how nature works the fittest survive.

" I doubt that Germany KNEW that we were listening in on their gov officials"
The US has anti spying agreements with the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. The German government knows that and the US does not have one with Germany.
Are they really that dumb?

And yet we all want the benefits that come from spying. Even the first arms limitation treaties where based on the ability to spy to verify that they were being followed.

Some did and some did not. It is unfair to judge the individuals of a nation by the actions of other individuals. None of us know what we would do in the same situation. We all know what we would like to say we do but that is not the same thing.
Of the nations of Europe that had to live under the occupation Norway probably has the best record for resistance. Frankly the Germans didn't treat the Norwegians badly at all. They thought of them as fellow Nordics. They could have sat out the war with little grief but instead they tied down massive numbers of German troops. That being said sitting at your computer and making accusations is not helpful in the least.

The sun does not shine at night. The wind does not blow all the time. Batteries suck. Anyone that makes that statement has never sat down and done the math. Solar is not base load, Wind can be base load if you have natural gas backing plants but Nuclear is great base load.

Simple, low.
The greater the heat differential the greater the efficiency. To use low temperature aka low pressure would require massive turbines. BTW temperature and pressure in a gas are very related. So much so that you can almost treat them as the same thing.

As I said, "the greens will never stand for it". Well if you look at the amount of mining for Nuclear verses coal over the life of a power plant....
Yadda yadda. You can fight nuclear or climate change and win. You can not fight both.