Choice will always exist. Most people CHOOSE not to use open source products. So respect that choice and move on with your life.

All of the fields you mentioned are possible to enter and excel at without a university degree of any kind, including a liberal arts one. So that pretty much discredits your point that liberal arts majors are useful.

.....or you just want to feel like you didn't waste a ton of money and time on subjects that have absolutely no relevance to most people's daily lives. After all, even if what you say about it being relevant to AI development is true, how many people are going to be building AIs?

Don't kid yourself. Android is outselling the iPhone because you can get Android phones for cheaper. The whole 'I don't own the device' 1. Isn't true and 2. Goes over the head of anyone who's not a geek. By the way, the market of people who aren't geeks makes up most of humanity.

The only way your dream government could ever come into being AND survive over the long term is if all the citizens living in it were genetically engineered to be incredibly anal, detail oriented and highly intellectual.

Thats not the current populace of earth.

Anti-spywareand anti-virus as well. MS Security Essentials does both and so does AVG Free.
So that plus uninstalling crappy software is all you need to do in a lot of cases. Just ask the customer about
each software before you remove it.

Can't hurt to give it a shot.

Removing Malware is easy though. You give the customer 3 choices. 1. You can try and fix XP as it is. 2. You can wipe it clean and re-install XP and all their programs from scratch. 3. Or if they don't have the discs you can offer to install Linux for them.

The vast majority of problems will be malware related. For anything beyond your abilities just say so, people appreciate honesty. The next job will come along that you are able to handle, and as you get better you'll be able to do more. Hang out in IRC chat rooms (channels) and web forums to pickup tips and learn new things about the work you'd be doing.

Sometimes a job is as simple as uninstalling a bunch of crappy Toolbars that a lot of companies like to rudely install on people's computers these days, removing games from work PCs that workers kids install and slapping on the free Microsoft Security Essentials and using it to run a complete Anti-Virus and Anti-Spyware scan. If you do end up having to wipe someone's computer clean, just carry a large capacity external HD with you to save their documents, music, videos before you proceed and then re-install their system. Make sure to check to see they have the install CDs for all their other software as well. Keeping the customer informed as to what you need will make the job go better and faster.

You don't have to be an MIT graduate to do this. Its easier than you think.

Post some ads on Craigslist and hand out some flyers and business cards around town advertising yourself as low cost IT Consultant. Fix people's computers and networks. I bill $35/hr. Its slow going at first but as you gain a good rep your business will grow. Depending on your area you may even be able to charge more starting out but I recommend from personal experience that you charge low and keep the same rates for your first customers and when you start getting really really busy go up $10-15/hr in your rates.

Work around your restauraunt hours for now, and work weekends. I'm doing it now so I know it can be done.

There is no one size fits all product in any industry. Apple products work great for non-geeks, Android works great for geeks. So no, fanboys aren't pissed at Geeks pointing out anything that makes them appear foolish because they AREN'T foolish. They already own the product that works best for them. What IS foolish is a geek not being content with what THEY own and feeling a need to put down others to make them feel better about the multitude of areas in their lives where regular people ignore or mock them.