'I wish Windows 7 had less features. All I want is the ability to write a letter'

I actually do feel like this at times. When I need to get down to work, to write something without distraction, the modern desktop can actually be an overawing place. A stark white screen with black text focuses the mind wonderfully.

Here's an odd thought: different countries have different tastes and trends. Your 'wonky' might be our 'influential'.

Surely these are false dichotomies? There's no reason why in any of those examples that only one person or entity can be ascribed guilt. It can be neither, either, or both, depending on the situation.

eventually you have no motivation to work/create if you end up being "Unsung, Unpaid"

But this code has already been created. None of the authors had any financial incentive to release it for free, but they have done! Trying to claim that they wouldn't flies against the fact that many projects are and have been created for no other purpose than because their authors wanted to, thought it would be fun, wanted a hobby, or so on. Money is not the only reward.

I, for one, find it quite ironic that they want "full-disclosure" abandoned, yet they know about a potentially devastating vulnerability in OpenSSH and won't tell anyone. Kind of reiterates why we need full-disclosure.

Hardly ironic. If they claim to be against full disclosure of bugs, the last thing they want to do is to disclose their own pet vulnerability. It would be ironic if they were to disclose it, instead.

Apple had a monopoly on powerPC computers.

Not true. The Sam440, Pegasos, and all of the current generation of games consoles would disagree with you here. Non-Apple.

They used it to keep other OS's off PowerPc

Not true. Yellow Dog Linux will happily run on PowerPC Macs, and there are other PPC operating systems available such as AmigaOS, or even Windows NT!

Google has a monopoly on Search

Debatable. They may have a majority, but there are plenty of other search engines out there, such as Yahoo, or even a certain one from Microsoft that's been getting a lot of press lately...

Apple does not have a monopoly, nor abuses its monopoly position with its operating system to gain web browser market share. Different rules apply.

Oh, nothing as exciting as a country trolling, I'm afraid. Just a government, and they do that surprisingly often...

As we all know, nothing may ever legally be distributed for free on the Internet, or in fact, anywhere. If it's not distributed by a record label, film company, or major software company, it is inherently pirated and of no value to any person and should be destroyed immediately for all our own good. Only by buying good, wholesome entertainment and software products will we be preserving the jobs which every industry worker deserves by divine right of kings. Or something.

I'm sick of what seems to be the sudden belief that, unless a game has the most up-to-date graphics and is filled with so-called 'mature' content (which seems to be a euphemism for gallons of blood and swearwords), it's not 'hardcore', and anyone who doesn't play it is a casual gamer by default. Gaming is my main hobby, and I spent the majority of my free time and money on either playing games or other related activities; and yet apparently because I don't own an Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, or a gaming-calibre PC, I'm not one of this self-professed hardcore.

A nation should be judged not upon how it treats its most noble, but how it treats the most deplorable. Anyone can be a monster to someone who deserves it, but far better they who treat such a monster in the opposite.

BUT WHY THE SIMS?!?!?!?

Because it's one of their biggest-selling franchises. If it sells poorly than hoped, they can play the piracy card and ramp up DRM on all future titles with a smug "We told you so". If it sells well, it may encourage them to relax DRM on other games in the future. It's a game that's likely to sell well even with piracy, so relatively low-risk.

WebKit is open source. You can get the code if you want - for free, in the same spirit as it was licensed to them via KHTML. Ue Subversion to grab it: http://webkit.org/building/checkout.html

Now, App Store DRM is another kettle of fish, but to rant about WebKit being supposedly closed betrays a lack of understanding.

It's this kind of irresponsible thinking that represents all that's wrong in society today. We must BAN SPOOOOOONGUAAAAAAAARD!

(brought to you by the Association of British Spoon Manufacturers)