I fail to see that this will do much good when the bittorrent protocol is blcked on many ISPs (including mine).

Bnetd was created to bypass Blizzard's cd key check so people could play pirated versions of Starcraft online.

No. That was just ONE of the things bnetd did. And the reason it bypassed cd-checks was because (as I read some years ago) Blizzard refused to provide the info that would have allowed the programmers to check cd-keys. The PURPOSE of bnetd was to create an open server product that would address many of the shortcomings of Battle.Net

Now, I have some sympathy for BLIZZARD not wanting info about their cd-key algorithm to become public, but the bnetd developers DID try to cooperate with BLIZZARD on that issue.

Pirating was the main reason for bnetd. Period. If you can't come to terms with this, then you aren't living in reality.

And back in the day the movie and TV companies claimed that the main reason for VCRs was the pirating of broadcast content. Didn't make it true.

What I REALLY want to know is: Who is responsible for the taking away of the fair use rights we used to have as a result of SONY vs BETAMAX? The law used to state that even if the primary use might be piracy, it was still legal provided there were significant non-infringing uses! BLIZZARD vs bnetd seems to have changed that.

Blizzard's license says 'thou shalt not reverse engineer our services'

bnetd devs never agreed to any Blizzard EULA, and besides, bnetd worked through reverse engineering network protocols, not Blizzard code.

Blizzard made several unsubstantiated accusations during the case (I would like to see how Battle.net code was stolen without access to the Battle.net servers - and no evidence was shown to back up this accusation). Basically, bnetd was shut down because Blizzard lied in court and got away with it.

Blizzard has acted too evil for me lately (bnetd, LAN play, etc.) I don't care how good their games are, they do not deserve my support.

Hear, Hear!

For now, perhaps.

As more people discover streaming video, and demand better picture quality and less jittering, the demand for bandwidth will skyrocket. One HD movie per week would be over 200GB per year, probably closer to double that.

I used it to set up a demand dialler and firewall on my old 486.

It was interesting because there was an error in the diald package. The distro included a newer version that used different file locations, but the install script still used the old file locations. I learned a lot figuring that one out!

Wing Commander 2, now, that was hard to beat.

I found WC2 had only 1 mission that was near impossible. WC3 had several, as did WC4.

In the case of Thief 3 . . . Quite a lot of the people who played it first like it.

Actually, I know this to be true. However, several of those people that I know revised their opinion of Thief 3 after going back and playing Thief 1 and 2.

every Civ game has at least a couple low difficulties that should be trivial for anyone who enjoys that sort of game.

I found Civ3 and 4 had no difficulty levels that were easy, let alone trivial. As I said, "Even at the easiest difficulty settings these games are very hard to beat."

Might and Magic IX - Went for eye candy over game play.

The third Krondor game - More eye candy, virtually no game play.

Thief 3 - "Consolized" the game. Missions were composed of several small linked play areas instead of large rambling areas to explore. This was done to adapt the game to console hardware limitations.

MOO3 - An example of change for its own sake. Did anyone actually like this game?

Wing Commander III and IV - Examples of challenge disorder. There were too many missions in these games that were virtually impossible to beat, and the dynamic difficulty setting system made it impossible to adjust the games to your personal skill level.

SimCity 2 and later - Added too much complexity, ruining the game experience. Remember: KISS!

Civ3 and 4 - More challenge disorder. Even at the easiest difficulty settings these games are very hard to beat.

There are more, I am sure, but I'll let other Slashdotters come up with them. And yes, I am aware that many people enjoyed many of these games but, speaking from my own knowledge (from conversations with other gamers), each of the games I have listed lost a large part of their audience, with only the hard core fans of the franchise claiming to like them.

Same as in the movie "The Day The Earth Stood Still" I think?

Which one? The remake and the original take different views.

And when that happens, I will almost certainly move to Linux as my primary OS (right now, for various reasons, it is secondary).

I've heard that one before.

Which is why, last time I did a Vista install, both the printer and network drivers mysteriously disappeared a week later, only to mysteriously reappear the next day. New equipment, with Vista certified drivers, btw.

Okay, I'll give you that one.

and this perception exists, perhaps, because Vista really DOES suck?

I keep hearing that the problems with Vista have been solved, but every time (yes, EVERY time) I have tried Vista, or set it up for someone, I have had problems. I simply no longer believe any claims that Vista has been fixed.