I thought it was a close call on init systems (and to be fair, systemd isn't exactly the mature, rock-solid solution a replacement init should be!)

The votes for a replacement on the Debian list should have gone with Upstart IMHO as it was the most popular option, although only 1st choice for 2 of the people who mattered.

Still, it doesn't really matter now - what does matter is that the init system is rock-solid, has buy-in from the customer base (ie the community who use Linux, including server admins) and doesn't require too much re-training to understand and administer it. I'm not sure it has any of those 3 currently.

To be fair, Linux has always been multiple components that you can chose which one suits you best - whether its vi or emacs, gnome or kde, sendmail or postfix, apache or nginx, etc

This is a good thing, where you can swap out component A for B for any reason, and keeps the project competing with each other to get better and better.

If only you could swap out Systemd so easily, things would be great.

a system like this never stores /etc or /var on persistent storage

including /var/log?? Well, I suppose that's one way to hide the fact that systemd's logs get corrupted.

Not quite - more likely 2015 will be year of FreeBSD on the server instead.

it's a rare thing for a business to admit that they were wrong

not really, they were wrong a lot and said nothing, it was only when they had a profit warning that they were forced to say what had happened and this made them admit their fault.

If sales had held up even slightly, you would only have heard how great DRM was.

or maybe they've taken the time during extended support to replace all vulnerable PCs with Win7 and unplug the rest from the internet.

Maybe you should click the link to his CV, he's been teaching in some capacity at universities since 1994. So I rather think its more the entitlement culture of the children he had the misfortune to teach.

Seems to me they were only there to pay for a certificate, not an education.

you must enjoy cold showers a lot!

(I think you calculations are off by a fair bit. I spend more than $10 a month just boiling the kettle for tea).

The points mentioned will be how the system will be sold to the public ... this history course is brought to you by JuicyFlakes, the breakfast for winning children. Chapter 1. How nutrition was changed in the past, and how the introduction of new, exciting breakfasts revolutionised the workforce and helped make America what it is today. We start with our founder....

I can see how it'll work out already. Hopeless advertising instead of true education.

so the crime he was committing was making money for himself instead of for Goldman Sachs.

I think it tells us everything we need to know about how corrupt our society has become.

not so - all big companies lease their equipment so they can mark it as a taxable expense and claim tax back on it and reduce their capital expenditure budgets, after a few years the manufacturer contacts them and asks if they want shiny new kit to replace the old junk that is now out of warranty and they always say yes.

Its all about getting someone else to buy your equipment for you.

Now I can't say if this is true of telecoms companies too, but even they will replace their kit eventually.

Andrews and Arnold will give you IPv6... but you forgot to say which country you are in, so maybe this information is useless to you! (they're in the UK BTW)

But we're making progress, a few years ago the routers weren't IPv6 compatible and everyone said why should they bother if there wasn't any ISP support, and the ISPs wouldn't add IPv6 support as the routers weren't compatible.

Now this chick-and-egg situation is broken, they have no excuses.

lol. "Dear Google, we realise you have decided to pull out of business with the EU member states so we write to you to regretfully inform you that all your companies in Ireland and the Netherlands that you created for some reason or other will also be pulling out of doing business with the EU. We have communicated this information to the US treasury department as we believe the cash held by those companies will be sent back to the USA and we're all wondering whether you'll be paying the tax bill by money transfer or several truck loads"

I was referring the OP to it. I have updated OSM data for my local area when I found it was lacking absolutely vital information on the location of the local pubs. I also helped my work colleague fix a road section as it wasn't giving him the correct satnav details for his drive home.

OSM is awesome because I can do these things. Its not difficult to do either, just enough of an impediment to deter those who might want to deface the data.