You're just arguing semantics, and no one said anything about "most straightforward and convenient".

But there are some Linux programs that have no Windows equivalent either, including very basic stuff. Try 'sed' in Windows.

Wrong. Native Windows versions of Linux tools exist. No Cygwin needed.

What you can do in Linux you can usually do in DOS/Windows as well. You might need to go about it differently, but you can do it.

98 was a better 95. It fixed the rough edges.

98 was a 95 with IE4 rammed through its throat, bringing with it lots of bugs and stability issues. There was no reason to move to 98 when 95B existed. 98 made the interface worse by adding a pointless Windows logo on every window, web features due to IE4 integration, quick launch, a dynamic Start Menu, treating the user like an idiot by trying to discourage the viewing of C:\WINDOWS and Program Files, etc.

Windows XP was a big step forward in reliability, merging consumer UI with NT kernel.

At the same time it dropped DOS backwards compatibility, removed Windows compatibility, added activation, required loads of RAM to even work properly compared to previous Windows, etc.

We do not complain about opening doors for women, or giving up our seats on busses so they can sit

What does misguided chivalry have to do with being a man?

Along the way, there were numerous failings - Windows 3.0, Windows 95 (while successful, was buggy) Windows ME, Windows Vista.

I'm used to seeing Windows Me and Vista on this list, but Windows 3.0 and Windows 95? Also, how is Windows 95 a failure if it was successful in spite of bugs? How was the first release of Windows 95 any more buggy than, say, Windows 98 First Edition?

We have various political parties here instead of a two party monopoly, which definitely helps. The only worry is that there isn't a healthy representation of the 'left' anymore. The current crop of lefties have accepted the current situation instead of wanting to change it into one better suited for social programs.

I am a fan of compulsory voting. It helps to ensure that everyone votes and as a result is represented. It's closer to true democracy than having the right to vote, in my opinion. Now, in theory, there is a fine to be paid if you don't vote, but since 2003 they've stopped collecting them. The last time we had to vote our minister said it was "not a priority", which is pretty baffling as upholding our democratic system sounds like a priority to me.

The multi-lingual culture is a source of strife... for politicians. The people themselves get along just fine. It dates back to the early beginnings of Belgium, where in practice the Flemish got the short end of the stick. In theory, Dutch and French were the two national languages. In practice, government and administration was practiced using French. In the past 100 years the Flemish fought and won the battle of having their language recognised, and this tension is still present today during negotiations. Look up the whole Brussel-Halle-Vilvoorde debacle for a great example of this.

Finally, the structure is convoluted. We have a federal government, a Flemish government, a Walloon government, a Dutch community government (which has been merged with the Flemish government in recent history), a French community government, the government in Brussels, and the German-speaking territory that we got after World War II has its own set of governments as well. It causes a lot of unnecessary overhead.

The good thing out of all of this, I think, is that there are so many varied viewpoints at the table, and as a result compromises have to be made.

I hope this makes some sense. I'm not an expert, but I do show more interest in these matters than the average citizen. :)

Please don't put words in my mouth. You're twisting what I said to the other extreme. The statement I was taking issue with is that everywhere the shitwaffles are the only viable choices. Disagreeing with that does not mean that I'm saying that there are countries free of greed.

*sigh* Typical flawed human logic.

I live in Belgium, by the way.

It's the same everywhere.

No, it isn't. Please don't generalise.

I don't live in the US, though. Yay! :)

Or you could stop voting for those shitwaffles that keep introducing such legislation instead of blaming "the government".

You do realise that Do Not Track is a joke, right? It's only a suggestion. No website actually has to honor that request.

Seriously, running and hosting a website is expensive. If you completely removed all adverts from the web then many websites would simply have to close as it is impossible to reliably host something popular without incurring costs.

Ads aren't the only way to financially support a website. Also, $DEITY forbid that a website would cost something to keep online. The horror!

The least you could do (besides an adblocker, assuming you haven't already got one and are whitelisting slashdot) is disable all cookies, enabling exceptions for sites you want.

Discrimination is on the rise, though. First it was the user agent string, then disabling JavaScript, and now they are targeting users who have cookies disabled. Imagine my surprise when earlier this week I tried to read something on TV Tropes but was denied because of my web browser settings: "This site requires JavaScript and Cookies to be enabled. Please change your browser settings or upgrade your browser."

What I want is better hardware quality in general. My first laptop's power pin broke, so I can't use it, but otherwise it still worked great. I need soldering tools worth $200 to solve this problem, but I don't have them.

The laptop I'm currently typing with is a hand-me-down from my sister's boyfriend. In general, it works well, but there seems to be a bad connection between the LCD screen and the motherboard. If you move the screen too much (often a little wiggle is enough), it will freeze and reboot. Sometimes it won't even boot until the screen has been moved a couple times. It has been suggested to me that the motherboard is dying, but I hear it's been doing this for a couple years now, so...

You seem to think that they only have a computer around for guests. They offered a Linux through boot CD, hence they didn't want to wipe Windows as they still wanted to use it on that computer.