You did the math wrong. I'm GenX, my parents are Boomers, and my kids' ages range from 24 to 30.

The youngest GenX are 40 right now, so their kids might be turning 20 but those are only for the very youngest. The oldest GenX are 54 and many are grandparents by now.

Many businesses out there do actually use a lot of the features that Office provides. We receive hundreds of spreadsheets from our customers every week. Some send us simple spreadsheets made in Office 2003, and some are huge XLSM files that use VB and macros. We would go out of business fast if we didn't have MS Office installed on our workstations, and a pretty good number of the features are used. We rely on them for business so we have to make sure we can open whatever they send us.

I used to test out the Office alternatives every couple years or so but I've stopped because it's always a waste of time. It's never taken more than 2 minutes to see that they can't come anywhere near replacing Microsoft. It would be really really nice if there was an alternative, but nobody makes office apps that are anywhere near compatible.

The only good thing about this whole thing is that we were actually able to get rid of the Access databases that were mission critical for years, and I no longer have to install the Access runtime on our workstations.

Way to prove he's right there man.

You forgot the "Doctors hate it!" part.

It's not nearly as addicitive as it's been made out to be, and the chemical addiction only lasts a few days. A number of the other chemicals and toxins in cigarettes pile on top with additional addictions, so when someone tries to quit smoking they're fighting multiple battles. After the short chemical addition there is a psychological addiction though too because it is actually somewhat beneficial to your mind and you'll miss those benefits. It's used to help treat schitzophrenia and bi-polar disorders since it helps the person calm down, be more alert, and it helps with memory. Just do a search for "bi-polar nicotine" and you'll find a lot of sources of info.

Isn't it though? Business took advantage of the one thing we geeks are known for, and that is that many of us have an incredible desire to constantly mess with technology. Instead of messing with what your boss wants for 40 hours a week then going home and messing with what you want for another 40, your boss gets all your time and you get none.

You don't fight back. You stop caring. Calling someone out as being gay was an effective method of destroying them up until just a couple decades or so ago. Now if you try it people will just look at you funny for thinking it matters. It stopped working because people got to the point where they no longer cared if someone was gay or not.

So someone slept with a journalist to get a favorable review. Who cares?

So someone filed a DMCA complaint for a stupid reason. Who cares?

So someone is a prostitute. Who cares?

The next time you see someone trying to spread gossip, your only response should be "Who cares and why are you being an idiot for thinking it matters?"

The Dolphin browser for android has this option. I see three settings, always on, always off, and show in wifi.

You just emphasized his point and gave it credibility.

I would if that had anything to do with our business. If we recieved docs like that from customers or business partners then of course I'd have to set up a way for us to use them. We don't though. I've never seen anything but MS Office docs come into this business, so there's no reason nor point to do the test you describe.

In business you use what works and what fills your needs. In my testing in this business, every alternative to MS Office fails testing. That is all that matters.

"What really kills open source is that it doesn't have a functional GUI or a dearth of useful apps. "

Every couple years or so I check to see if we can replace MS Office in our company. I grabbed some of the larger, more complex word and excel docs we use here and tried to open them. Every time I try, all of the alternatives fall on their faces within the first few minutes of testing. In a business, if you can't replace MS Office then you're not replacing Windows with Linux.

This is a city that loves open source. Do you really, honestly believe hundreds if not thousands of people got bribed and not a single one turned it down and reported the attempt to the press? That's a pretty serious and frightening case of paranoia you've got there.

If he did then he wouldn't have been able to come up with the idea of teaching his kids the difference between fantasy and reality.

Nobody is forgetting that because it's now partially irrelevant. Need to upgrade ram in a server? Migrate the VM's to another, shut it down, upgrade, turn it back on. Have a server catch fire and die? HA has already migrated the VM's for you. Getting low on ram or cpu hits 100%? Look! An alert!

Hardware does still matter, but it's no longer something that must be watched closely and in fear.

If the H-1B process increased the number of jobs in the USA and gave all of those displaced workers better jobs then you'd be right, but you're not. It's very much the opposite. Those jobs are lost and all of those people end up fighting for much lower paid work, and many times have to take minimum-wage jobs.