New technology will come and add to it, that's a given. But do you really think throwing out what we used for ages is a good idea? Can you point me to a new input medium aside of keyboard and mouse that offers better control in a desktop environment? And no, I don't give a shit about how great the new crap works on tablets and phones. I want a DESKTOP operating system. If something else works better on a tablet, do something else on a tablet. Simple as that. Even Apple was smart enough to know that one size fits all works in operating systems about as well as it does with underwear.

Initially, maybe. When the first barns get flattened by M1s, including whatever is inside, the resistance should falter pretty quickly.

Now the state the US is in makes a lot more sense.

The problem with these "emergency modes" is that they run infinitely. With censorship and martial law in place, how would you know that it's time to get back to a normal mode of operation if the powers that are don't want to return to it?

You want to use regular military against your own population?

History is not on your side when it comes to the question of their loyalty.

That's something entirely different. Nuclear war has been planned again and again. Katrina and 9/11 were unplanned and had to be improvised. 9/11 was simply a total surprise and Katrina, well, while it was likely to happen and everyone knew it would, there was simply no money in preparing for it.

Where's the problem? Just ask nicely, they're Canadians!

Well, then maybe you can point me to the US left?

So tell us, when did the US have a system that effectively allows more than 2 parties to exist? Aside of the few transition periods where parties died out and new ones emerged, there has never been a 3+ party system.

The last time a candidate in a presidental election won a state was 1968. The last time a non DemRep came in second was Roosevelt in 1916, though one may dispute whether that "counts" considering that he WAS prez before. But we might as well count it since there has not been a single other occasion since the civil war (which was the ONLY time when there was actually a "free for all" game). But that price is a tad bit high if you ask me just to break up the two party dictatorship.

Nobody would mind a better OS, but when the GUI has reached the pinnacle of usefulness, why try to force a change?

To entertain everyone with the ever popular car analogies, a car has a steering wheel, two or three pedals and a dashboard with a more or less common way to display what you want. The designs changed over time, but that's fairly constant. Why? Because it's been tried and proven as useful and intuitive, and people all over the globe know how to deal with this. It works. It works great. You don't see car manufacturers try to come up with, I don't know, a HOTAS setup for cars (well, maybe in some far out "concept" cars to entertain the press, but sure as fuck not in series cars) or try to be "creative" with their user interface. Despite heaps of changes under the hood in the past decades. Quite seriously, cars ain't the same they were 2 decades ago, but the user interface didn't change at all!

And? Do you see people lament and complain how they don't need a new car 'cause it just looks like the old one? Slap on a new paint job and design the exterior differently and they'll go "ohhh shiny!" and buy it.

Same for GUIs. Keep the user experience the same, just round the edges and make it flashy and gadget-y (and PLEASE allow us to disable all the blinkenlights, for those that don't want SHINY but rather go for useful).

Almost. But it's the OS that's alive or dead, you just won't know 'til you try to save your work.

Sorry, but "Charm Bar" isn't sounding quite geeky. If anything it sounds fruity. When I hear "charm bar", the first thing that comes to my mind is soap. And I do not mean SOAP!

Damn right, I could be productive, why the heck would I want that in an OS that I have to use at work?

Great, now all they still have to do is replace that right portion with something useful and we might get a GUI again that's usable.

Because people don't know anything about it, GM foods are safe? Is that the message?

That's akin to "Most people, I think, don't even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?"