Anyone else think Slashdot is over covering the Raspberry Pi? It is getting to the point were I want it to fail just so I don't have to hear about it. Now I know how anti-Apple people feel.

We have better smartphones because of the iPhone (Visual Voicemail, a browser that displayed HTML just like our desktops, a trustworthy online store to buy apps for phones) We got a better iPhone because of Android (cloud syncing, usable notification system, multitasking.) Competition between Apple and Google drove better smartphones more than the open source community. The open source community helped raise the bar but it isn't the primary driver. Battery tech and chip manufacturing processes also drive smartphone quality more than the open source community. Better hardware drove better routers; N standard, on-board USB ports for printing and NAS, better chips for improved power efficiency. I really haven't seen any new software features for non-geeks (90%+ of the population) on routers in several years.

Why should they share their IP? They bought it, they can do with it as they please.

It is also immoral to develop a cure for cancer. Think about the effects a cure for cancer would have on the food supply (more mouths to feed,) public and private retirement benefits, and social/political culture (do you think legal gay marriage would happen sooner or later if the "Greatest Generation" didn't die off.) Extending human life without improving the quality of life is unethical.

Why is this a shady deal?

Brings back memories of building the 2.2 Linux kernel on a 486 in 2000. I was a poor freshman CS major and this was my introduction to Unix. Took 8 hours to build it I remember right. After someone told me I'd have to repeat this process after each update, I quickly looked for another Unix based OS. I think OS X was released within a year. I'm very happy Linux and my hardware have made this process less painful.