Takes less than five minutes to root and load CM10 for Jelly Bean goodness but I guess I can see how some people don't do that.

Honestly, if you're going to go for an Android-based phone I'd go with one of the Nexus devices. They're a lot easier to modify and get software updates before any other phone. The Galaxy Nexus is available on all carriers and is fairly similar to the S3, spec wise. The iPhone 5 announcement was severely underwhelming and every "new" feature is something that's been floating around Android for a while now. Stock Android 4.0 or 4.1 works so much better and smoother than any of the 3rd party skins like TouchWiz or SenseUI that just hog resources. It's also a lot better, imo, than iOS 5 that I'm forced to use at work or with my parents. The UI just makes a lot more sense to me than iOS.

The determining factor is definitely cost. A tape loader or even just a single tape drive is pretty expensive, even when buying used and provided you have the right equipment to house it if it's not in its own enclosure. The price of media is comparable to physical drives of equal space. Honestly, it would be cheaper and less of a hassle to build a disk-based NAS.

It's kind of interesting how Linux fans brag about all of the software that comes pre-installed with every Linux distro but bitch and moan if any extra software is installed on a Windows box. Why isn't the software that you'll probably never use on a Linux box a bonus but gets called bloatware on Windows? I'd personally rather start with a blank slate or a standard image with standard programs that are always used by everyone (PDF reader, Office suite, Flash) than have to go through to uninstall a bunch of shit I won't use.

I'll tell you the main reason my company doesn't use Linux and restricts its usage - because it's FOSS. The integrity of the code is, at best, shaky. I'd also say that having an anonymous FTP, SSH, and HTTP server running on a box right from the get-go is a giant security hole and should be plugged up quickly if it won't be used. Also, have you heard of Windows PowerShell? It's pretty much the bee's knees for a shell (and is secured by default) and comes standard with Win7.

In a properly secured corporate Windows environment (basic AV/malware scanner and non-paper thin firewalls), malware is a non-issue and easily caught to be fixed. There's multiple good solutions for pushing non-MS software updates, Lumension being a step above the rest.

In a home environment, Linux is good enough for most anything except bleeding edge gaming. Gaming is a huge market for computers. Something that Linux cannot compete in without Wine which only works sometimes with some games and not easily configurable for the average end user. Most of Linux is really just not very friendly to your average end user even with a lot of the improvements I've seen the Linux desktop go through over the last decade. It's friendly to techies and computer savvy people but to average people, there's a steep(er) learning curve compared to Windows. Who here that installed Linux for their grand/parents didn't have to sit and show them some of the basics for getting around that would've been fairly intuitive on Windows?

They bomb them.

Bomb them.

Not sure what you're getting at. I've flashed many recoveries on many devices in ROM Manager with no issues at all, even without the "erase recovery" option when flashing. Koush does have a habit of making sure an image works before pushing it out to RM to prevent exactly what you're talking about. And if it's an unsupported build of CWM that you're trying to flash then that's up to the person that ported CWM to verify its integrity since CWM is open source. Eventually, after testing and fixing it can make it to officially supported status. And there's no way to manually flash an unsupported recovery in RM. You'd need to use joeykrim's Flash Image app (if your device is supported)or use fastboot to flash it.

Why are you even talking about ROM Manager when you haven't used it in what seems like a couple years? Your experiences from then are completely baseless for it now.

Are you aware that you can, in the free version, go into the options and turn off ads? It's also up to the ROM developer to put their ROM in ROM manager, not Koush's decision what ROMs are there and which ones aren't. As for the premium ones, besides the CM nightlies, it is once again up to the ROM developer to decide if they want to offer it free or premium. The only time a phone is ever actually bricked is if the bootloader is corrupted and you can't get into a recovery mode. It will, typically, only allow you to download and install a recovery for your phone and your phone only. If you flashed a recovery for a phone that isn't your phone somehow or flashed a GSM ROM and not a CDMA ROM for your phone, then that's your fault and not ROM manager's for causing a soft brick.

What's wrong about usage statistics and seeing what an app's install base is for an indie developer? Once again, you can disable that in the options.

When was the last time you actually used ROM manager?

Your two best choices in the 7" range are the Kindle Fire and the Nook Color or Nook Tablet. I can't speak on the Nook Tablet (since it's fairly new) but the Kindle Fire and Nook Color are both easily rootable. But, you really don't need to root either to do what you said you'd like to do. There's rumblings of an iPad Mini that's a 7" coming out next year, most likely. The 7" Galaxy Tab or HTC Flyer (/Evo View) aren't bad choices either but those are a bit pricier.

The only tablet out that has the ability to root with the least hassle is the Motorola Xoom which you would just do a "fastboot oem unlock" from the command line (requires Android SDK installed). That doesn't fit your 7" criteria as it's a 10" tablet.

Android itself isn't licensed using GPL or GPLv2. It's licensed under the Apache2 license. The GPL'd code that it does use (Linux kernel) Google and manufacturers release to the public with their modifications for each device as a new version of the kernel comes out. Are they timely releases? Sometimes, not always.

http://developer.android.com/resources/faq/licensingandoss.html
http://arstechnica.com/old/content/2007/11/why-google-chose-the-apache-software-license-over-gplv2.ars

Mitsubishi and Sumitomo, so far.

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/business/T101219002181.htm

I don't particularly like bathing in dirty water to get clean. Do you?

Molycorp, if you pay attention to the news at all, is a publically traded company as of last summer. It's being funded by the shareholders and obviously corporate interests that intend to make use of the products that Molycorp produces as well as people that have been buying their products for years. They get no breaks on environmental regulations, especially since they fall under California environmental laws along with federal law.

The radioactivity from the waste water deposits is so low it's just above normal background radiation but still fall under the EPA's guidelines for radioactive containment. You wouldn't want to go bathing in it but it wouldn't take decades to clean up, that's for sure. The accidents were no where near on the scale you're comparing it to.

Too soon.