Not sure how much easier it could be. Yes, I'm a technically savvy user, but I haven't had to "exercise" any of those skills on my home machine in forever. If I wan to install a program it really is just as easy as going to Software Center and searching for it - not unlike an "App store" on a phone.

I even find it easier than Windows because the update process for the system takes care of application updates too.

Now I do maintain quite a few Linux servers at work that do require a lot more knowledge, but they don't even have a GUI installed.

In both "major" zombie mythos right now (Romero's world and The Walking Dead), anyone who dies becomes a zombie. You don't have to be bitten - bites simply result in death in relatively short order so that one returns.

People die all the time - over 150,000 per day - sometimes without warning. Now take into account that in most "zombie scenarios" the world is familiar with such a disease or phenomenon. The initial impact of that would be devastating. Many people would likely initially proclaim it a miracle - running up to embrace a loved one that has seemingly come back to life. Or a doctor checking on a patient that had just recently died. Considering that no one would immediately know that incapacitating the brain was required to put them down, I'd wager that many would be bitten trying to restrain the zombie (thinking it alive) and assist someone being attacked.

In the early outbreak I'd wager that each zombie would probably end up biting at least half a dozen people. If they turn within a few hours I'd wager the same thing will play out at least 3 times or so. By that time we're talking about MILLIONS of zombies.

I bet you're real fun at parties . . .

Many people in life have a goal to be entertained and have fun. If you can make work more entertaining without degrading the quality of your work, then why not?

No decent zombie movie has zombies going after brains. That trope started with Return of the Living Dead which was a cheap knock-off that intentionally tried to imply that it was a sequel to Night of the Living Dead. It's a pretty bad movie. All of Romero's stuff though, The Walking Dead, The Dead 1 & 2, World War Z and even comedic stuff like Zombieland and all of them have zombies just wanting to eat flesh.

That aside, "I Am Legend" is hard to call a zombie story. The restriction to night-time only is a big one. Fast moving critters also aren't necessarily a deal-breaker, but are a step away from the norm and dilute the claim. The disease being transmitted other than by bites (well, infected bites - mosquitos spead it in the novel) is also a mark against it.

The final "nail in the coffin" however is that there are certain members of the hordes in I Am Legend (the novel) that can speak and interact with humans.

In general "I Am Legend" may well be a good end of the world type story, but it's different enough from later works that I wouldn't consider it quite as much a direct progenitor of the zombie genre as Night of the Living Dead.

It accounted for the fact that everyone would see this study, think everyone else is going to Glacier National Park and then not go to avoid the crowds, so the park is still the destination to go.

No. I'm speaking of just Ubuntu on a desktop.

Windows still has the problem of spyware. Whether that's due to lack of security or its popularity is a matter of debate, but still, to me at this point using the internet on Windows feels like sex without a condom. Relatively safe if you truly trust what's on the other end, but definitely a risk.

On the other hand I surf the internet without so much as a care on my Linux machine. You still have to not be an idiot (ie, don't type your info into phishing sites), but I have no fear that simply visiting a particular site is going to hose up my machine.

As to the Office competitor - Office is being marginalized. Even in our corporate environment we just implemented Office 365, and when you do that you have an option: an "E1" license which has browser-based office, and "E3" which includes the full MS Office suite. We've put about 80% of our users on the browser based version and they're doing fine. That browser-based MS Office actually works just fine on Linux, and is actually far more limited than LibreOffice - it just is branded MS Office so people will accept it.

Microsoft is being marginalized. My guess is that if PC gaming survives, it'll eventually shift to Linux. I'm just not sure there will be too many people aside from geeks and gamers still using a desktop computer by that time.

This isn't 1998 anymore. Linux doesn't require "expert knowledge" to run and use. My parents in their 50's are using Linux full-time (even though they don't know they are) as is my sister - who knows it but doesn't really regard the fact as more than an interesting piece of trivia.

Linux works just as simply as any other OS these days. You want a program? Go to Software Center and search for it. It installs. The icon appears in your menu.

Yes, you CAN get technical and in depth with the system if you want, but that's no different than Windows having the registry and Powershell available if you want to tweak things.

Right now Linux just isn't popular with gamers because there are no games for it, and there are no games for it because gamers don't use it. It's chicken and egg problem, but it's changing, albeit slowly. I personally use my Linux system for everything EXCEPT games, though I'll admit that I'd be excited to ditch Windows even for the games if I could (I do have a PS4 that I play some stuff on). It is nice though that Pillars of Eternity will be available for Linux and is coming out very soon. I've been waiting for that one for quite a while and it may be the first "real" game I'm able to play there.

Yeah, I'll agree they look worse, but they're not SOO much worse that I'd find it distracting. They're still relatively professional looking. After a while the icon theme just kinda becomes something I'm gonna ignore anyways.

Sorry, but you're wrong on that, or didn't know how to shop. By the time Dreamcast came out CD-R's had been available for 10 years and had dropped in price significantly. I already had a CD burner (actually my second one) in my computer when I went to college the same year Dreamcast was released. It was less than $100 - bought on a part time minimum wage teenager's earnings.

The point was that it wasn't extraordinarily rare. Broadband was very much available at the time the Dreamcast came out. Certainly not at the speeds available today (my current connection is 50x faster than what I had back then), but it was still broadband and downloading a single ISO wasn't all that bad.

In all fairness though, the US has one of the lowest population densities among 1st world countries as well.

Japan: 873 people per sq mile
UK: 662 people per sq mile
France: 301 people per sq mile
Germany: 583 people per sq mile
China: 373 people per sq mile
India: 988 people per sq mile

The United States has 89 people per sq mile.

Its a lot easier to service bigger chunks of your population with broadband when they're closer together.

Party support isn't the same. I'm a Republican myself - I'm against Obamacare, and every other Republican I know is too.

Compare that with Net Neutrality. I completely support Net Neutrality, as does almost every other Republican I know that is younger and/or understands the internet. The only ones really against it are the old guys who don't even understand it but simply say "Regulation is bad, mmmkay.".

Like it or not, everything doesn't boil down to corporate donations and dollars. Popular support weighs in too, and the right just isn't as united in this position vs Obamacare.

Not really. College students have always been a key demographic for gaming, and almost all of them had broadband in 1999. Heck I was able to get 1Mbps DSL in the middle of nowhere a by 2001.

Also - a CD burner back then cost about $75.

Interesting, but no CD drive and it was never actually released.

A 32X CD system for technical specifications wasn't quite in the same league as the Saturn - but it was close. Close enough that I'd wager they could still have done most of the same games on that setup and started with an installed userbase that could either upgrade their system, or buy a Saturn if needed.

I ended up with both a Sega CD and 32x eventually - after they hit clearance shelves. I think both of them were like $30 each brand new at the time.

CD and 32x were addons, not separate systems in their own right.

Honestly given that the Sega CD and 32X could be used in conjunction with each other, they should have released the Saturn as a standalone Sega 32X CD system.