Linux is free. How are we the product in that situation?

We have 3 Xbox 360s in our house, one per person, from when we all lived separately. And we have 3 Gold memberships. I've already converted my desktop computer to Linux and am working on building up a game library on there (mostly Indie Bundles so far, but I've Kickstarted games like Dreamfall Chapters for the future), because I fully expect Microsoft to do something awful in the near future. I'm even preparing for the likelihood that it could be in this very next generation. And you can't expect Sony or Nintendo to be significantly better.

I use Microsoft's "Cloud Save" functionality, and its outages when my internet is working perfectly have been infuriating. I have no faith that they can manage to make an outage-free service, and I don't want my games console to just refuse to work when I want to use it, even if it's the middle of the night on a weekday.

Let's say I work at a company that makes a good, useful software product, which is the best in the market. How can I convince them not to patent my solutions, so that I don't contribute to a system that rewards people like you do the detriment of people who would succeed on merit?

Is that what you think this is? It seemed to me that it was a solution waiting for a sufficiently heart-wrenching problem, like how they doubtless have all the "Cyber-Patriot Act" stuff just waiting for an opportunity (Rahm Emanuel crisis style).

And if you're successfully charging high prices, other businesses/entrepreneurs will see that there's a lot of money to be made and are more likely to spend money trucking in more, helping to increase the supply. You wouldn't get as many generators trucked in at the normal prices. Capping prices makes outside people less likely to rush additional supplies in, because there's no big payoff.

How is this hard to understand? It's why (even though it's still suboptimal) capitalism makes a more efficient economy than centrally-managed price controls. Additional supply shows up where it's needed, because that makes people money.

It can, you just live in the wrong state. Here in NH you can register at the poll. If you care, start working to change the rules in your state.