Really? Put that much money into open source and you'll have one fork for each $20 put in. Then the project is going to be complete in the mythical Year of the Linux Desktop (TM)

That's the goal. Reality is not there yet, at least not for most applications. Results at the moment are more like 35-40% reduction, which is still excellent.

I'd like some of the drugs you are taking. An H.265 file will be 35-50% of the size of the same file encoded with H.264. The idea that a 4K file will be half the size of a 1080p with the two different files encoded with H.265/H.264 is absurd, and seriously outside of even the most optimistic goals of the organization at the outset. The original goal was that the same file encoded with the same visual quality would be half the size. I've never seen that happen, I've seen somewhere between 35 and 40% at best, but the implementations are still improving.

Because Linux was written specifically to learn about the x86 platform (specifically the 386). There was no multi-platform support until much later.

As said below - it was a power grab. In the 1940s they used guns and bullets, now they are trying with monies.

Here is a piece of interesting EU history - does it sound like democracy?

1. The leaders of Europe wants to move EU closer to an actual union, and they therefore craft what is intended basically as an EU constitution. As all bureaucratic works it is crap. Nonsense. Unwanted. The countries of Europe are going to hold referendums to validate it.
2. It quickly becomes clear that there are very few, if any, countries in Europe that will approved it through a referendum, so they alter it. In reality they change the headlines and the color of paper it is printed upon. No real changes.
3. Since the constitution, sorry, agreement, is no longer really a constitution, though it has basically not changed, the EU concludes there is no longer a need for the countries to have a referendum.
4. Some countries protest, Ireland in particular, so the Irish hold a referendum also on the new agreement. Ireland says "NO" to the document.
5. "Sorry", says EU, "that't the wrong answer. Try again." The Irish are not amused by the EU response and tells them to go fuck them selves. EU then starts building up the pressure on Ireland.
6. There is then a "sudden" economic disaster in the world. Ireland is hit really hard. In Brussels they smile and go "Now we've got the bastards". Again they start the pressure on Ireland to have a new referendum to correct the bad answer from the previous one. One of the things they make abundantly clear is that if Ireland votes wrong again, they are going to fuck them over badly. If Ireland will not fall in line the EU threatens severe economic sanctions on the Irish economy, which is already in free-fall.
7. Unsurprisingly Ireland votes "yes" this time, and the leader of the German people goes back to the her bathroom and shaves off the small patch of hair that's been growing underneath her nose.

EU is the strongest threat to democracy in Europe since before Napoleon.

So the only thing EU has done is to give Greece a line of debt? Really? Why don't you google "greece austerity". The austerity measures basically guarantee that Greece will be unable to get out of their recession and thereby never be able to eve think about paying back their debt.

These measures and the threat of EUR exit has made sure Greece never pulled an "Iceland", which is what they should have done before accepting any "aid" whatsoever. For Germany this was never an option though. If Greece had pulled an "Iceland" in 2010 rather than receive "aid", a number of very large German and French banks would have toppled over night. EU has spent the five years in between moving toxic private sector debt to public sector debt and Greece was a significant part of the tool chest. Nobody gave a rats ass about the Greek, who everybody knew would suffer tremendously.

No, giving it a credit line is not. Enforcing austerity measures such as those enforced on Greece, is. Thousands of Greeks have died as a direct result of these austerity measures. HIV infections are up 200% in Greece as a direct result of austerity measures. Mental care facilities are moving towards non-existing. Many hospitals have had to stop using surgical gloves since they can not afford them. More than 200 types of medicine previously available in Greece are no longer stocked.

Austerity is not the same as shooting people, but it is the same as killing people. Thousands of people are dead due to the austerity measures. I am sure the families of those people do not give a rats ass whether it was a German bullet or a Germany-imposed austerity measure that killed them. It's a bloody war all the same.

All of this was designed to get Greek health-care spending down to less than 6% of GDP. Six percent. A number significantly lower than German, UK, France, the US etc. Why is this important? To make sure Greece suffers? Greeks die?

Iceland pulled, obviously, an Iceland in 2010. Today that economy is booming with a real growth of more than 4%. Greece should pull an "Iceland" and extend the middle finger to the German without the funny mustache.

There are many problems in Greece, all of them exacerbated by being in the EUR. Some of your assumptions are faulty though. Yes, Greece appears to have a very low pension age, but that applies to public sector employees. Also, these have taken a 40% cut in the past few years.

The problem for Greece now is that they accepted the bail-out in 2010. That was a bail out, not of Greece, but of European banks exposed to massive amounts of toxic debt after these banks had made some seriously retarded investments. Greece was the tool to enable the transfer of billions of EUR of bad private sector debts to the public sector. Every economist in Europe knew this was a good deal for German and French banks and bad for Greece. Most of them said so, particularly in UK and US media.

The bail-out was never sustainable for Greece, but they were threatened with expulsion from the EUR if they did not accept it. Since then the ECB, IMF and Germany in particular have foisted austerity measures on Greece that are guaranteed to make economic growth in Greece nigh impossible, Good idea right? You increase Greece's debt to unsustainable levels then you severely hampers Greek ability to recover from their recession so that they are guaranteed to be indebted forever. Finally you allow German and French interests to purchase Greek assets that you have forced them to privatize.

The EU basically took a knarly stick of wood, stuck it up the ass of the Greek and told them to smile.

Of those EUR 300bn, somewhere around EUR 240bn went to rescue German (and other European) banks with toxic debts. You should ask them to pay it back.

By staying in Greece is probably going to be under German administration forever. Since Germany does a terrible job of administrating Greece, that's probably not a good idea. If Greece exits now, declares bankruptcy, it will probably take two to three years of really bad times, but then they will again experience real growth. Greece should look to Iceland who told Europe to go fuck themselves, imposed massive currency restrictions and who are now back at one of the strongest economic growths in Europe.

Five years of the "medicine" prescribed by the IMF, ECB and Angela Markel has not worked. The patient is sicker than ever. There is no doubt that a continued treatment of this kind will kill the patient. It's time for another treatment. It is also time for Greece to stop taking the blame for the misadventures of European banks.