The calculations are done at least in Sagan's "Cosmos" series. I don't recall which episode; just watch the whole thing again. :D

Creative Commons *is* a copyright license.

This is how you copyright a work: write it. Done!

Now no one can distribute it without your permission (except as allowed by fair use). You can give them permission to use it in certain ways using a new or pre-existing license, like CC (or GPL). There is no "conflict" between copyright and creative commons; quite the contrary, CC depends on (C). The GPL does too, as RMS has pointed out more than a few times.

Consider not the fraction of the market, but the size of the market. How many people have GNU/Linux on their desktop?

Compare the size of the market to the size of the market for various other systems. There were 17 million Commodore 64 machines sold. I suspect there are easily this many people with open source desktops in the world; there are around 10 million users of Ubuntu alone. Does the author mean to say that the Commodore 64 was unsuccessful, was itself dead on the desktop, for having a mere 17 million users? It seems unlikely.

Being the sole desktop option is a hazardous place to be. If you believe in capitalism, you should prefer a mix, you should prefer that users (at some level, potentially corporate) decide which system to use.

I use GNU/Linux: Ubuntu on the desktop, Debian on servers and sufficiently high-end embedded systems. That's not about to change. I'm glad others are concerned about converting people, but only so far as it causes them to make better the software I use.

It seems to occur surprisingly often that the black box cannot be found, because the tail (e.g.) cannot be found. I would leave the existing black boxes in place and add a large number of very small additional devices: just a flash chip in a styrofoam ball. With a bunch of 'em, the chance of finding at least one would be significantly improved. It may be easier to get accepted a system that only adds redundancy, since it can't be less effective than the already-approved one.

You mean, he was a credible scientist? Scientists generally do not say things without caveats, and even if they omit them, you should assume the caveats remain. People with certainty are usually shysters.

You'll probably get modded down for that.... :D

What do I care if Linux works for you?

I run Linux for me; it works for me. I may encourage you to run it too, but it's not my problem if it doesn't work out. Remember the bit about "no warranty"?

Now, if you're paying for a working system or support, that's a different story. If you get a Linux shop to build you a PVR, they'd better give you a working machine. But demanding that volunteers fix your problem is insane.

The only one responsible for making your computer work is you.

Mathematics generally requires TeX. For example, the AMS. (They prefer various forms of TeX, but will also accept submissions on paper, so you could use MS-Word. But it's a world of pain for all involved.)

I couldn't dream of using anything else, even outside of math, if only to get proper kerning and small-caps.