Some people don't even like Gnome 3.

No, they do it that way to to have money and operating funds. It has nothing to do with a pristine copy. The checksums are all online. As another poster mentioned, the full install ISOs are now freely available (and have been for some years), in addition to the net install ISOs.

People who deny science, like MIT professor Richard Linden? http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703939404574567423917025400.html

Well, yes, exactly. Global Warming means exactly three things: 1) The globe is warming in a significant manner 2) This is primarily caused by man's actions 3) This warming will cause large problems If any one of those three things isn't true, the theory falls apart. If the globe is warming, but not enough to matter, who cares? If man didn't cause it, but it is natural, why exactly do we need to fix it? If we did cause it, but it won't do anything bad, why use tons of resources to change it?

I disagree that app engine offers nothing more than the other services. The offerings are different types of services. As proof: app engine comes with the following basic services: blobstore, memcache, database, auto-scaling. Amazon web services has options for all of these, yes, but they are all separate services: S3 (blobstore), memcache (elasticache), simple db (database), auto-scaling (cloud watch). In AWS, I have to configure all of these systems independently of the others, and pay for them, too. I have to worry about upgrades, operating systems, etc. In google app engine, all of this is bundled in already. AWS does have all of the functionality, but it requires lots more setup. After all is said and done, GAE is actually priced very competitively, and even cheaper than, its competitors.

While you make some accurate points, and I'm aware of the morale and other Foxconn issues, I don't think they qualify for this story about moving to Brazil. The complaints by Foxconn about Brazil are well founded. It is highly corrupt, and the taxes are abnormally high. Their workforce is indeed unskilled: a large portion of their population can read (that is, can pronounce the words), but is not able to understand what they are reading. The infrastructure (power, water, television) is paid for by the rich, and literally stolen by the bandits and given away or sold for very little to large populations. Moving a high tech manufacturing plant to Brazil without addressing these issues is an actual concern that makes sense, regardless of the company that is thinking about moving there.

True, but on app engine you don't have to worry about scaling, licenses, upgrades, etc. This is worth the extra cost to some.

A Google employee responded to these criticisms: http://groups.google.com/group/google-appengine/msg/ee70b44979b63842?hl=en

The mailing list has been awash in outrage and suprise as prices rise much higher than most can support. Although all knew the price increase was coming, the optimization done for the past models don't apply to the new pricing scheme, and the community is not happy about the quick change (2 weeks). http://groups.google.com/group/google-appengine/browse_thread/thread/a1b7c68db2243932/043cbc3b7c296d06?hl=en

> Huh? What are these people smoking?

> Also, why is it on Idle and not on, say, science?

I think you answered your own question.