Sound more like the problem is religion. Perhaps they should embrace the Flying Spaghetti Monster and he will provide for all.

If it is Apple, you must buy all your content from us and can only be watched on iSomething. We will say when and how you watch it as well

I am pretty much the same way, Games, Apps, Drivers. I have done things with my PC's beyond the PC, like home automation, I can turn lights on and off in other rooms etc. None of this runs on Linux so basically I would be back in the dark ages of having to use a light switch. Yes I am being serious, this is not an attempt at humor. I do like Ubuntu but lets face it. I am a developer for a global fortune 500 company. I develop all kinds of stuff for windows servers from services and websites and add ons. I am beginning to do android development for apps and things but my whole company is windows, I develop for windows, I have more tools and software available for windows, so I run windows at home. Like I said I like Ubuntu, but there is no real compelling reason for me to switch. I don't hate Windows, I don't hate Linux, I do not like Apple though. I wouldn't mind the OS and stuff but the fact your stuck in their world at their mercy just turns me away. If I switched to Linux all my purchased apps that are available in Linux I would have to repurchase. No I am not going to go spend hours downloading and installing free versions trying to find one that can meet my needs. So like I said there is no real compelling reason for me to switch.

I am betting none of the music you purchased was Beiber or Spears. Perhaps if they were all like you we would finally get some good music. I am 40 now and I used to purchase a lot of music. A cassette tape then CD a week. I still buy music once in a while, but maybe 5-6 albums a year. Simply because most new pop music sucks. This month is the first month I purchased 2 new albums in the same month in a very long time. Five Finger Death Punch and Evanescence both released new albums this month. However there is nothing else I am looking forward to. If you are wondering, no I do not just like metal. I like classical and some rap and a wide variety. Just no country twang stuff. Still only maybe 5-6 albums a year are even appealing to me. I will buy music if they make good music. Also they really need to find a new way to market music. Radio stations have also gone away for me in the midwest. I stream radio from LA now. Most radio here went pop, country twang, or sports talk radio. When I was younger MTV used to play music videos, and I would watch and listen and find new bands and new music. However that path of advertising music has gone away. So if it doesn't stream anywhere I don't know it exists.

When I went to get my droid device and switch from Windows Mobile way back when. I was on AT&T, I would have stayed with them as well except they had 2 Droid devices at the time and they had not only changed but locked in Yahoo as the only search engine. You couldn't change it. So I switched to Verizon. Anyway the Android operating system not only can have the search changed by the manufacturer, but also by the provider. So not sure why there even would be an investigation in the matter.

I would suspect your right in they are trying to play the exclusivity thing. However, it doesn't work if you are a Google apps account either, you have to create a profile first. However, the Google profiles don't work with Google Apps accounts. So after going round and round trying to sign up, I finally said meh, and went on my merry way. Personally, I am already sick and tired of all the buzz and news and articles on Google+ either let me in or quit interrupting my regular news with vapor ware. I am honestly reminded of Duke Nukem Forever, lot of hype, lot of talk, but sorry only certain select few can see it. I don't mind it being in beta, but public beta would be better.

Well the big problem and difference here is, your electric company does send huge surges of power to your house and force you to pay for them because someone else thought it was a good idea. Specifically I am referring to advertising. When you go to a majority of pages if you look at the actual data size and what comes through on a page the actual content is minuscule as far as data. However Flash ridden advertisements and JavaScript making call backs to the servers and things is what is chewing up your bandwidth. So why should I pay for advertisers to send me things? First things that going to happens is you are going to see apps being built that actually start refusing connection to advertising sites and blacklisting DNS services to advertisers. I know I will be looking into this because I am not paying for some advertiser to send me adds. I have created massive host files to block advertising servers before and this might actually be a great startup business for someone. Right now you don't care about huge flash ads cause they cost you nothing. Now you have to start paying for them because what would you want your usage spent on ads or the stuff you want. Second, information is power. The more information and data you have at your fingertips the more powerful you can be. What you will see here is Rich getting more powerful because they can afford more data real time. Take a stock broker for example. Getting multiple emails, data on stocks and exchange rates sent to his or her tablet constantly. Powerful tools right there. However, the richer person will now have this access and this data because they can afford it, the poorer person can not.

I would agree. I ordered the Zune HD myself and should be at home when I get there. One of the guys in my office and I have been debating all day, he is an iPod zealot. The last argument was to me the most hysterical but the most scary in showing how biased some people are. I am an Admin, and I run both windows servers and Linux servers depending on what the business need dictates. I prefer windows for my day to day work, quite simple because it is easier to use and I have a ton more utilities, self developed and free I can use. Please note I am not a republican in any way shape or form and he knows it. He actually said to me. "This made me think of politics. Youâ(TM)re a Right-Wing Republican (Windows Lover). A person who is a full-blown Mac Geek zealot would be a Left-Wing Hippie Democrat. I guess that makes me an Independent as I like my 360, love my iPod and iTunes, can settle for Office and am stuck with crappy Vista." Which I quickly corrected him. The Apple is in comparison a republican party. A small group of people that want to dictate exactly what you can do and not only that but exactly how you can do it. I never thought of them like that until this day and well it gave me insight to the mind of the Mac Zealot, they do not want to think of themselves like that, they like to think of themselves as having another choice than windows, I also pointed out to him he could go to Windows XP if he wanted or Windows 7 or Linux, but if he wants a mac he must buy mac hardware from mac at a super high price. Which I guess growing up working on mainframes, Apple 2, even Trash 80's, watching the browser war and so on and I know competition is a great thing and I know I have a choice. Which is why when my 4th create Zen device died choose not to get an iPod and to try the new Zune. Which offers open development through the XNA platform, yes it does look it up. Not only that the developer are allowed to share ideas and not be quelched. The docking station so you can watch hd movies from your zen device on your TV doesn't make a bit of sense to me though. I have an HD TiVo with Access to downloads from Netflix and Amazon. Why would I want to download a movie to my zune then plug it into my TV.

History Channel or maybe Biography Channel has a 2 hour special on Les Paul a couple years ago I watched with amazement and how interesting the guy was. They told a lot of funny stories about him as well. Like one of the houses he owned before he had a studio he would wander around the house looking for the best acoustic place to play for his enjoyment. They also showed a lot of his inventions that I have used but never knew he invented. I would imagine this show would be airing again soon. If you get a chance to see it, check it out.

Actually that whole area in Chicago is great, there is also the Field Museum of history, the Shed Aquarium and the Planetarium all withing walking distance. I would seriously plan on a few days to see them all. Also get a Chicago City Pass, it is like $70 or $80 per person but gets you into all these places free and also you go right to the front of the line. I have seen general admission lines take over an hour wher City Pass gets you right in.