If you buy the machine specifically for running Linux, there are plenty of options that will run without problems. However if you pick a random machine at the store, odds are there will be some part of the hardware that has less than optimal drivers.

Over the last decade or so I've had more compatibility problems with the specifically-built-to-run-Linux desktop systems I've assembled than the lowest-bidder off-the-shelf corporate laptops that I've been handed at work.

I'm not sure that says more about my luck than my particularly poor skill at building Linux-compatible desktop systems...

Also, buses are awful unless you have quite high population density -- lots of areas don't have enough prospective trip endpoints to justify mass transit.

I have a suspicion that if you remove the driver labour costs, running small (10-12 seats?) passenger buses in areas of lower population densities becomes quite feasible, particularly if you can combine it with a certain amount of smart route/demand planning.

They voted to "separate search engines from other commercial services".

They just voted to break up Google, Microsoft, maybe Yahoo, Baidu, and as a consequence have ensured that no large corporation would bother getting into the search engine market.

At least, that would be the case if it actually had any teeth. I can't imagine it sticking...

You don't want 2/3 of the people who have the best understanding of the facility to be taken out in the first few minutes of an accident.

Understand who I'm talking about here; the bean counters who play around with the numbers and externalize risks in order to maximize profits at the expense of the safety of thousands of people, the economy and the environment, and who usually escape massive disasters caused by their poor planning with barely a slap on the wrist.

If they fuck it up badly enough that the plant even has the possibility of that kind of catastrophic failure, then yes, I do want them taken out, and I don't anticipate it making the slightest difference to managing the accident response.

5. Parts should be manufactured in factories using standard methods and specifications. Parts should be interchangeable from site to site. Minimize customizations as much as possible.

6. Anyone with responsibility for the safety, maintenance and/or operating budgets of a nuclear plant must reside, with their spouse and dependants, on or near the grounds of said nuclear plant for at least 9 months of the year.

This is nothing but yet another one of his charades and PR stunts. He is not fighting for you or your right to keep a "backup copy". Trying to get everyone on the net riled up is just yet another PR stunt. Kim always has been and always will be caring for only one person: himself. And he will not hesitate to lie and step on former friends and partners alike. Never just trusting anything he says should be the default.

... and yet, somehow, he still comes across as less sleazy than the people going after him.

but to any thinking person it's quite clear that the total dominance of a few global superplayers is not beneficial to the market or the people.

I don't entirely disagree, but before they have a go at kicking around Google, there's a whole host of larger corporations with a much longer and broader history of abuse that need a kicking first. That they don't seem to be interested in taking them on suggests that the "benefit of the market or the people" isn't the primary goal behind this little initiative.

That said, if NoScript starts working on Chrome, I'd likely switch eventually -- and no, NoScripts isn't a real replacement.

ScriptSafe seems to work okay. Then again, I was never much of a NoScript power user, so I can't say it'd work for you.

"Robots don't kill people. Robot programmers kill people."

Seven minutes to fly up and down three feet; that's almost impossible to imagine.

Insert union labour joke here

Mono developer Miguel de Icaza has pledged to continue to add Microsoft's code to Mono...

... and the sun still rises in the east.

I haven't given a shit about what Miguel is saying or doing for a long time, and I don't intend to start now.

Unless he gets involved in systemd development and makes a huge clusterfuck even worse.

This is actually a pretty smart idea, but it sounds like what Sun did with Java and parts of Solaris.

... which then got acquired by Oracle, thus providing a graphic illustration how a large corporation can open source something and then promptly proceed to fuck it up.

I believe you might be confusing "conservatives" with "Republicans". Common mistake.

6 passengers per flight. That's six rich people and/or some really famous people.

When you put it like that, it makes me want to cheer for the fiery explosions.

Why can't I be proud to be white or be proud to be male?

You can be, if that makes you happy. I'd have second thoughts about writing "white pride" on a banner and parading it through town, but that's pretty much my point.

In an equal society, pride in your particular genetic expression would be treated as essentially equivalent to pride in anyone else's genetic expression. It works both ways. You want to have a "gay pride" parade? Fine? A "white pride" parade? Equally fine.

But, realistically, if both "white" and "gay" were equally treated as "no big deal", would there be a point to a "pride" parade?

By the way... People sing "I'm proud to be an American" all the time... should we disparage Americans for that too?

You're asking a Canadian if we should disparage Americans for that? Like we need another excuse... ;)

Seriously, though, being an American versus a member of some other tribe is a choice people can make themselves. Most don't, obviously, but even the fact that America gives non-Americans the choice to become an American makes it a substantially different kind of "pride".