I'll be impressed with Google's solution once they leave the comforts of California and drive day to day on the snow and ice of places like Minnesota, Montana and so on.

I'm sure they will master it someday but until then, Googles solution is incomplete.

While the page with benchmark data includes an intel v ARM comparison, when it came to the power consumption charts there was no intel data to be found. None.

If one of the major themes of the product is power consumption, wouldn't it stand to reason that Intel numbers to compare would be critical as part of the review?

So let's assume for a moment and this is true and there really were 8-10 million pre-installs of ubuntu on new hardware. If true, this should be detectable and show up in the form of ubuntu boxes running on the network and their users surfing the web. After all 8-10 million is a little under yearly mac sales. Sure maybe not all ubuntu installs will be on the network, but a significant percentage SHOULD be...

But it doesn't add up. Consider:

http://www.netmarketshare.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=8&qpcustomd=0
Apr 2012 Mac 6.5%, Linux 1%

or even:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_operating_systems
Linux ranges from 0.7% to 2.9% Apple's OSX 6.3% to 14.04%

Certainly this kind of measurement is far less then perfect, but what strikes me is that if as Canonical asserts they are seeing these kind of install numbers for Ubuntu and if one were to add in Debian, RedHat and so on, yet still in the counting of web clients OSX is being seen in the wild several multiples more often than all Linux installs together, it would strongly suggest to me that the Linux numbers quoted are at best incorrect. We know how many new Macs are sold every quarter since Apple shares those numbers.

It's not the year of the Linux Desktop as much as we might all want it to be. Sadly Windows AND OSX are kicking Linux's butt when it comes down to number of users.

or more simply put:

Asking if Apple is responsible for the "revolutionary" devices like the iPad, iPod, iPhone vs the first devices in the class is like suggesting George Washington wasn't responsible for a good portion of the American revolution but instead it was all some guy in a bar who was bitching about the British before everyone else was.

I thought 2012 was the year of the Linux Desktop!

For sure.

Really!

Anytime now.

Please?

If you're someone that wants to get into the device, and do plenty of your own modifications then sure get an android based tablet that fits into your desired price/feature range. You'll be glad you did and have lots of fun.

If you want to use a tablet and not fiddle with it then I'd recommend getting an iPad. It "just works" and there's plenty of great software.

You are of course assuming that only Motorola, HTC and Samsung make Android devices. I didn't make any claims wrt those companies and what they have or haven't licensed. You're right, not all makers of Android devices are in trouble unless say the Oracle case goes bad.

Rather my point is that if you make an Android device and you don't have your license agreements in place, that's not exactly a warm cozy place to be. Nokia wants (and needs) their licensing revenue.

Now with Apple and Nokia making up, users of Android are likely in for it next. Consider Apple has more than enough money to make Nokia go away and settle this suit. Apple almost makes more money in this space this all the mobile handset makers combined. This does imply that while the Android makers ship plenty of devices, (more than apple) they don't make a great deal of profit at it.

Nokia is in need of money. A lot of money. So they went after Apple and Apple gave them what they wanted and needed. Apple while no friend of Nokia is slaughtering them in the market... course so is everyone else.

However the next competitors to Nokia are the Android handset makers. Nokia needs more money, so I don't doubt we'll see more lawsuits but now aimed at Android.

So we have a Windows columnist suggesting that Apple is going to kill off OSX?

Sure it could happen.

This is akin to Microsoft killing off Windows.

Sure it could happen.

Monkeys might flight out of my butt.

Hmm so a mere 100 people are responsible for most that is uploaded to BT sites.... their names?

ub3rh4x0r
Al De Boner
PirateBob
Huge Jackman ...

Have these people never seen the movie Sparticus?

Thus far as reported these people are innocent and that it was perhaps a posting to a website or other innocent thing that they did so it's unreasonable for the FBI to take any interest into these people.

Really?

Like the FBI has broadcast to the public all the information they know about these people and what their connections are which has gained them interest by the FBI.

What's the chances that the folks be watched when confronted or approached by the media are going to loudly proclaim something to the effect "DIE AMERICANS! The streets will flow with the blood of the ... " .. you get my point. Not likely.

So I appreciate that one is innocent until proven guilty but I think you also have to acknowledge that certainly 3 letter organizations are going to follow leads and check into people to keep the country safe. That's their job. It's not necessarily evil nor is necessarily good either but that's how these things work in this day and age of bat-shit crazy terrorism.

I have one and thus far comparing it to my 3Gs, reception seems to be markedly better. I'm in a fairly rural area on the edge of AT&T service. I just don't see what the fuss is about.

Yeah ... that Java .. the one that promised to compile once and run everywhere....

It sucked. Least the user interfaces always did. There was never a native look to it. You could always tell you were staring at a Java app.

So, in a way, I'm kinda with Apple on this one. Cross - FOO to iPhone direct... no. C# -> XCode -> iPhone which uses the native interfaces. Yes.

Least that's my reading of it. There's a great deal of concern yet as no one exactly knows if environments like Unity 3D a popular 3D game creation environment which uses C# and/or JavaScript and does the C#/Javascript -> Xcode -> iPhone is actually affected by the 3.3.1 license change or not. It it's affected. Color me in the pissed off camp. But until then... it's hard to get too excited. It's like banning BASIC... yawn.

Census data is akin to medical records. You want your person information to remain confidential generally speaking but aggregated together, it's not hard to argue that such data could be used to benefit research and therefore benefit mankind. However confidentiality to one's family is probably less important. For example if your family has a history of heart conditions, you'd rather like to know that, even if Grandpa so and so never told you.

Having access to census data when trying to even research your family tree is critical. While genealogy isn't as much of a benefit to mankind as medicine, it at least means something to me at a personal level. I'm very very glad that old census records are available.

I completely agree that census data just like medical records is open to abuse. Profiling of any race is just plain wrong and the government should never have allowed that and those that did it should have been caught and prosecuted.