FTFA:

So he likes the KDE applications, and wants to have them when he uses Windows. Simple as that!

Well that's because it's not about helping the countries in question, it's about helping the US. The US produces a lot of IP, so from a US perspective good IP laws are those which result in a lot of money being paid to US companies. It's fair enough if you ask me, since the US government is just looking out for its own interests, which I guess is pretty much what it's supposed to do. On the other hand, the governments of other countries might be doing their job best if they tell the US to go to hell.

I used to have a Nokia 5100. The thing was so tough that I used to throw it as hard as I could against brick walls, the pavement or whatever to show people how it wouldn't break. Of course I only have weedy nerd strength but I still thought it was very impressive. After many years of faithful service it died unceremoniously in its sleep, which seemed ironic considering what it had survived. I now have an N900, which is very nice and all that but somehow I don't fancy its chances against a concrete floor...

No need to freak out. Nokia says that there will be an open mode, which will be open and freely modifiable like Maemo 5 is now, and a closed mode which has all the DRM stuff for the app store and media store. Switching between the two will require a device reboot, but if you want a totally open device the option will still be there (or that's what they're saying now). More information can be found on Nokia's wiki here

Of course if they backtrack on this at all and just totally close the thing down, then that would totally suck. But that's not what they say they're planning.

This reminds me of a recent feature in The Guardian, which calls for the preservation of a nuclear power plant in Snowdonia, Wales since it was designed by the British modernist architect Sir Basil Spence. Linky.

I guess that's true now for the core OS install (it wasn't in the past) but on Windows I find I spend a lot of time messing about installing the different pieces of 3rd party software I need. Even when I know the names of all of the software I need, it still involves bouncing around a bunch of websites, sitting through all different installers, often being asked to reboot each time.

In Linux, I find the path to getting a full system much quicker, since it's just a case of going into the package manager, clicking the things I want then playing solitaire while the things download and install automagically. Oh, and it pretty much only needs a restart for kernel updates.