Oh, so you hated thin clients 25 years ago, and now you could never use one of those, right? Who would ever want to use a small device that has no hard drive, downloads applications from the cloud, and is web-centric? Things change.

No, they don't. The iPhone is flash-based (a local disk) and most apps run 100% local, only using the internet as an add-on (top scores, news, etc.). They don't use the internet as a code repository. iPhone user files are local too.

You make it easy to add repositories which are on a whitelist that the distro maintains. It's not damn rocket science. They want to add a repository, you check first to see if it's an allowed repository. Christ. That's my entire fucking point. Pretty much any repository that had an actual real person or company behind it would be whitelisted.

Oh, that a nice, real-world solution: a central you-can - you-can't list. That's really going to work after 70% of the fashionable apps of the moment are still waiting in the debian repository approval queue. What about closed-source software? Will most distros include Adobe at the allowed list?.

And how are you going to prevent runnable Java applets (what the hell, even Firefox allows full-permission Java deployment these days) that will simply ask the user for the root password? Will you forbid running apps inside the user folder? Good luck with that, you just removed the Personal out of the PC. "What do you mean I can't run CuteBunnyGame? I'm going back to Windows, sorry."

You're still swimming in the failbucket, sorry.

Um, yes, there is. Namely, if they don't have to put in their root password for anything else, they just might get a little suspicious if they have to pull it out for malware. I love the idea that people just do random things to operate their computer. No, they are taught how to operate their computer. In Windows, they are taught to download and run, with admin permissions, the flash installer, or the Silverlight installer, or the Skype installer, or the malware installer, or RSS reader installer, or the...hey, wait, what was that one before the last one again? If you don't teach them that's how you install programs, they don't install programs that way, and look askew at any programs that says they should be installed that way.

You seem to be the failbucket administrator. All of your ideas are complete consumer turn-offs. Teach them? Who is going to teach them? The product vendor, who needs the user for profit / religious reasons? Are you serious? I can even imagine the box: "Warning, this product is not suitable for idiot users like you who will insert their root passwords at any time asked. Please GTFO, RTFM and learn how to secure your computer before using this product".

People won't learn because they don't want to and most of the time they simply can't. And they don't give the root password to anyone because Windows taught them, they give it to anyone because they want to install CuteBunnyGame and CuteBunnyGame is asking for their password. They paid for their computer and they WANT to run CuteBunnyGame.

You zealots simply don't get normal people. That's why you're all swimming wildly inside the failbucket.

I swear, it's like no one here has any knowledge of how antivirus works at all, and is incapable of reading what I actually type. Malicious programs that run under a single user account are trivial to clean up, a hell of a lot easier to clean up than the rootkit infections that cripple Windows. You could even reboot the computer into an 'antivirus mode' where no user programs get executed at all. (You know, sorta like safe mode is supposed to work, except that none of the trojans on Windows are running under user accounts or via the normal startup, but have instead inserted themselves as system files.)

Who cares? The biggest issue is getting infected in the first place, not if it is easy or not to clean it up. If your personal files are gone (or someone is requesting ransom for them) or your computer is part of a botnet, you have bigger things to worry about than "trust the antivirus" or "just reinstall the damn thing". Even worse: most knowledgeable users would not trust an infected machine.

25% of 'the masses' just want a web browser, an email client, an office suite that can read their files, and maybe an MP3 player. Another 25% also want an IM client, Google Earth, torrent client, rss reader, other random small pieces of software. All of which comes with Linux too.

That's easy to quote...
...today. Those applications only appeal to the masses today because they were introduced to the userbase using an OS that allowed people to (easily) install random apps. What will be the famous / fashionable apps of tomorrow?

And another 25% of the public would want to add software from several large publishers, like Adobe or EA or even Microsoft or whatever, people who could easily register their repository with a master list. (We're not debating the availability of software in some hypothetical Linux future, we're debating if having repository as the sole source would work.)

Sure. If you make it hard / long-and-boring to add other repositories, Linux will still be a member of the failbucket of OSes. If you make it really easy (such as "click here and temporarily add our repo. and install any software you want on a single click"), you just made Linux join the Easy Virus And Trojan Club.

And there is no miracle that will keep users from inserting their root passwords at the cute dialogs or keep limited user trojans from sending mails and accessing important USER (what kind of thief cares about boring OS files anyway?) files.

You can't have your cake and eat it too.

Unless, unlike Windows, they haven't been trained into constantly downloading and installing things. That, right there, that mindset, is the only way to keep computers safe...having people know that the way to install things is to launch the 'application manager' and have a nice interface come up with all the applications they can install.

Except that such system would never appeal to the masses. People don't want a system with a "list of apps that thet can install". They want a true OS, not a fixed, centrally-mantained toolkit.

The users WANT to be able to run random, not-distro-managed apps.

For who? Speaking as somebody who does programming and system administration for a living, I can honestly say that vim is my first choice in editors. Nearly always. There's a reason for that, and it's not because I'm "too macho" to use a point-and-click IDE. It's because I prefer vim. Why? Because it's quick, and it's powerful. That's all.

If you're a system administrator, you don't program for a living. You're an occasional programmer, fixing an administration issue here and there. Real programmers won't admin systems unless we are talking about touching configs on test machines, one or two times (15 minutes maximum) a week. A real programmer can easily cost (it's not a salary, it's a cost) US$ 150 dollars an hour, while a system administrator will cost a third of that.

Is IS impossible to do actual programming these days without using a modern IDE. The bar is mich higher these days and writing cute proofs of concept using C is not how programming is done anymore. Apps these days focus more and more on integrating with other apps and protocols, so without a good IDE you'll spend most of your time testing and adjusting. The market is not composed ot lonely C tools anymore. With a good IDE, you can scale testing time back to 10-20% and focus on doing actual coding.

Anyone who says that VI fits better their coding practices is not doing actual programming or not being paid for it. Sure, most volunteers at lots of open-source apps use VI to program. Interpret it as you like.

1. Doing server work from our phones are not optimal, but it is however useful - you are saying that servers only go down when you are at work, good for you, however in the real world the tend to do backflips when the only handful of people with access are on vacation on the other side of the world - this is where having a phone with SSH access is nice.

You're mostly praising network connections. You can use any editor to edit a remote file (you don't necessarily need a remote shell) and you can even install a safe HTTP administrative tool and manipulate your entire server over the web.

2. UltraEdit has a steep learning curve just like VI has - yeah you *might* be able to do notepad stuff right of the bat, but so fucking what? You can do that in Notepad, show me anyone who can do what I can do in VI who has spend less time figuring it out.

You are forgetting a very useful tool that GUI editors make use of: THE EYES. If you pair it with basic language skills, it allows the application to contain OBVIOUS paths to commands, in the form of TOOLBARS, MENU BARS and other graphical representations of commands. It's easy like: "Oh, I want to change something about how I view this document. OH GOD, I WONDER IF THIS 'VIEW' MENU CAN HELP ME".

This argument is always used by most "I'm macho" nerds who think they're really cool for using macho-like old and unproductive tools. And the argument always fails.

3. Your statement about learning curves makes no sense, spending time learning something doesn't require you to give up your life, in fact, spending a bit time learning how to do things a faster way will often save you time over the course of your life.

Faster? HA HA HA.

Me, using my US$ 2500 modern IDE, built for embedded design:

• Start the project wizard
• Choose the proper settings
• Insert my own code inside the basic template
• Compile and simulate/upload using a single click
• Debugging and even code hot-swap are already configured and solved

You, using macho-like tools:

• Headaches
• Headaches
• Headaches

Do you know who achieved more? I DID. Who coded more core, with better conventions and modularization? I DID. That's because you'll spend your precious time trying to fix the tool while I'll spend it USING the tool.

Result: I can finish several projects in a month and spend a lot of times playing with boobies. It's even better considering that US$ (A LOT) - US$ 2500 = US$ (STILL A LOT). I could easily purchase my IDE every week and still be more profitable than using archaic macho-like tools.

And code more, meaning: be more leet than you'll ever be. I will brag about something I built and worked, while you'll still be bragging about being able to use an archaic tool and all you will have achieved is setting up a useless and archaic development environment.

You = "Hello world".

Me = CHANGING THE WORLD, MAKING A DIFFERENCE.

I would invite you to take the blind search test to see which search engine is really the best for you: http://blindsearch.fejus.com/

It's not that blind. Having Yahoo and Google side-to-side really ruins the whole "blind test" experience, as Yahoo's results are just Google's with a slightly different result order.

"Oh, this is not equal to the other two, so it is not Yahoo or Google"

Nuff said.

If I'm paying that much for a machine, regardless of who I buy it from I expect top flight service and at least a modicum of accountability on the end of the manufacturer.

Alienware will provide you with that. As long as they are the only ones handling your machine. Otherwise, they can't guarantee a "top flight service". Nerds are the worst kind of customers, as they're always trying to save pennies are extremely vocal and unpolite when in front of honest mistakes. Selling stuff to nerds is just not worth the trouble. This guy was denied a few parts and is now accusing the manufacturer of telling him that he is a thief. Would you do business with this kind?

Otherwise, they're basically encouraging people to go with third party hardware

If you want DIY repairs and cheap parts, you should not buy Alienware. That's a fact. Most people know that.

Where is Alienware accusing him of owning a stolen computer? There is only one quote at his blog:

The reason we are asking for the system's warranty number is to confirm that you purchased it through our Ebay Outlet Store at http://stores.ebay.com/Alienware-Corporation. Otherwise, we will not be able to provide you with replacements, upgrades, or support for this system.

Where is he being accused of having stolen stuff? Ans more: most manufacturers will not sell you important replacement parts without analysing the machine first and installing the part themselves. Otherwise you can just plug their brand new CPU onto a defective motherboard and ask for your money back when the system fails to work or even worse: when the motherboard fries the CPU.

Sure, that kind of policy does suck, but it has nothing to do with accusing people of stealing shit.

I crossed four lanes of traffic in as many seconds, screaming the entire way, so that I could get out of the hot pool of coffee puddled in my vinyl seat.

You drink hot cofee while driving? You should be banned from the streets.

Microsoft didn't need another addition to their roster of stuff they've co-opted, and IBM should be doing more development instead of acquisitions.

Microsoft could never buy Sun. Buying a Java and Unix vendor would only give them two options:

Keeping the products: I mean, no.
Phasing out the products: That would be a waste of money, as Java would simply find a new leader and Solaris is open-source now, just like Java. Big antitrust issues would arise too.

Rigged voting machines, lying government, involved in wars all over the globe under false pretense, constant and flagrant erosion of our rights yada yada yada thank god for america.

A black man from the DEMO-RATS got elected instead of a warmongering idiot who was in bed with most of corporate america. So yes, it is a freaking democracy. Is it perfect? Hell no. But it is a democracy.

Rigged voting machines? Diebold and others are the only ones actually offering voting machines at the manufacturing scale that's mandated by government bids. These companies are usually filled with stupid workers (mostly conservative idiots, with little actual knowledge of digital systems) and greedy executives willing to sell any kind of broken shit to the government. Unless we bring Stalin backfrom the dead, it would be pretty hard to control this kind of situation, as they're free to try this kind of shit. We're also free to bust their asses and shove them into prison as well.

Lying government? PEOPLE LIE TO COVER THEIR ASSES AND SAVE THEIR CAREERS. NEWS AT ELEVEN!!!!

Involved in wars all over the globe under false pretenses? Stop being such whiner! What do you want? Bending over to Islamic Facism? The world is not a good place. Without such power struggle, there would be nukes and genocide all over the planet. Do you see Sudan? That's what UN-Leftard-Like-policies can achieve. Do you see Pakistan bending over to Islamic terror at the border? At the expense of their own citizens? That's also UN's fault. Iran getting a nuke and missiles too? That's all part of "Talk shit until they get what they want" UN policy too. Sometimes we needs things to get messy and unfair to stop bad guys from doing whatever they want to do. It's better than nuking them out of existence, as that exactly what would do to us if they could. Ignoring this kind of threat has nothing to do with pacifism: allowing the other side to engage in war is just a different form of warmongering.

Constant and flagrant erosion of our rights? That's just part of the system. Some cities are already banning cameras to get their privacy righs back. It's a cycle of confort, freedom and protection.

That's simply the Sony Timer in action. The Japanese consumer is extremely lenient when it comes to faulty products. They won't mind if a product breaks after the warranty expires, as they're always buying new, updated stuff anyway.

Sony was never a synonym of quality. They used to be the usual kind of cheap rip-off oriental electronics company and all their products were cloned crap. The current Sony image was obtained by a marketing campaign from the late 80's - early 90's.

They started to sell a few premium devices by the end of the 80's, as part of that campaign. And now they're able to sell the same crap they used to sell before, while convincing you it's a premium product. The Bravia TV line, for an instance, is a line composed of crappy TVs with a high aesthetic appeal and a good marketing campaign to convince you it is the best TV line of the market. But when you really look at it, they use the worst kinds of panel available (but they configure the boards to saturate all colors, for a "woooww!!" effect at the TV store), along with the crappiest signal boards, filled with the same Taiwanese all-in-one chips used inside TVs costing nearly half as much.