I don't use SuSE, either. I wasn't happy with the way that Novell bought DR-DOS and basically laid there like a dead fish.

I've been planning to avoid MS Win8 from the beginning. If I wanted a tablet, i'd have one by now. If I have new hardware, I'll put the OS I want on it, and if I can't then I won't buy it. It's that simple.

This whole thing makes me pissed at RH/Fedora because they're effectively letting MS think they can turn this into a "win/win" situation: MS either makes money selling half-assed operating systems that hardware is locked into using or MS makes money by licensing access to that hardware.

Screw them, screw the hardware.

I think it sets a really bad precedence, to be perfectly honest, and I don't like it a bit.

As for the beer, don't lose sleep over it: I don't drink.

I thought science was about observation and describing what already exists.

Do you have a time machine? I'm sorry, I can't even prove that a second ago existed. The past is as remote as the future. I *can* say data in the present seems to support the idea that this universe has existed for more than 10,000 years, but I have no proof that the whole damn thing isn't an illusion thought up by a sadistic God to try to fool us into damning ourselves.

"and not be swayed by fear of authority figures."

Every atheist I've ever known refers to authority figures, usually by quoting the logical fallacy of appeal to authority without realizing that the entire concept of a logical fallacy depends on an authority figure.

Got a time machine then? I mean, I'm no YECer myself believing more in Theistic Evolution (evolution as God's engineering methodology, as opposed to Intelligent Design, I'm a software designer myself and I know very little intelligence goes into anybody's design), but even I have to admit that absent a written historical record from 11,000 years ago, I can't actively disprove YEC. I'm pretty sure we have good evidence that is far older than that; BUT absent a time machine, I can't rule out that evidence being created as is 10,000 years ago.

I just find it awfully strange that it would be.

Actually, I usually find that Atheists have a much worse understanding of science and don't understand why science can't disprove God (one big reason being that science is based on OBSERVATION, and you can't observe a lack of something).

I'm a knowledge worker- ok code monkey- working with extremely complex issues every day- and I've NEVER seen offices for my level of worker. I certainly do feel that I'd be less distracted with an office, but if I'm honest with myself, I'd only spend more time on slashdot.

I've been a fan of Red Hat/Fedora since... well, just after they started providing a distro on the Intel platform (some of us remember when Red Hat was only available for the DEC Alpha)...

I think it's time to consider a new distro, if this is how they want to work. I've been putting off looking at Mint, but I guess that will change soon.