So long as they remember to wipe, they can pop out all the Zunes they want. Those things are shit.

Awesome... reminds me I need to get another cup : )

Anyone who has been using office software as long as I have probably finds the ribbon to be disastrous and wasteful. The OpenOffice interface is exactly what I used for many many years and I have no problems locating menu items or using it.

I have Office 2007 because I occasionally need to tell someone exactly what menu item to use, or provide a screenshot or documentation. I really do not use it the rest of the time. I use OpenOffice / LibreOffice and it works very well for my use cases.

Wow this sounds like a shill thing to say. I don't know of anyone who feels "imprisoned" by an interface, and who can't figure out how to use Google or RTFM.

If you're going for drama, great, you win. If you're trying to be persuasive using facts, you failed miserably.

If the wifi use is that occasional, why not just turn it off? Seems like just another security hole. Maybe you're using some combo device instead of a separate WAP. Still seems easier to just unplug the WAP when not in use.

All software has deficiencies, and in this case a large portion of it is caused by the need to reverse-engineer Microsoft Office behavior. Without even getting into that topic, and as explained by others, even documents created in one version of Microsoft Office and viewed in another version of Microsoft Office -- even the very next version have problems with word wrapping, frame and picture layout, pair kerning etc.

It's a big mistake to pretend that these issues -- again with different versions of Microsoft products -- don't exist and to pretend that somehow LibreOffice / OpenOffice's inability to precisely mimic individual versions of Microsoft Office is some failure on their part. We would all be much better to have some type of real office document standard so our files appear as originally intended. ODF is superior in this regard: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenDocument .

I greatly prefer the new Chewie.

It would be nice if enough stones get thrown that everyone's glass houses are broken. Apple has the cash to survive it, and we need real reform with patents to move forward. Let Apple be one of those who start this process of breaking down the current system.

I thought at first that the Apple Maps would be a big deal. I mean, I'd heard about it *everywhere*, so surely it would be a huge step backward.

But you know what? I'm sure it affects somebody, but it works fine for me. Until it becomes a problem for me I don't really care. And Google? I don't trust them as much as I trust Apple, so there you go. Apple just doesn't have that level of personal info on me and Google does. I don't want *any* single company to have so much it's dangerous.

tl;dr? Apple Maps works for me, sorry you're upset but not so sorry I will lose any sleep over it.

Whether it's successful or not is immaterial. The "free" in FOSS has nothing to do with revenue. As otherwise stated, there are successful companies in this market, but it remains to be seen what impact this will have on others. I'm happy to have more choice.

The "free" to which you refer has nothing to do with price. Think of "free" as in "freedom".

The Ribbon compared to a traditional menu system is much like comparing a McDonald's register to a regular cash register: A significantly simplified interface with pictures / icons instead of textual menus.

Read into that what you will. For some of us, it's a tear-your-hair-out, dumbed-down experience. For someone else it's nirvana because they are clickers, not typers and reading that many words hurts their brain. As someone who's been using office software since it was created -- think GEM desktop and others -- and who has used many many systems, this change is unwelcome and feels wrong. It's slow to use and takes up too much room.

If you want to have the same skills as everyone else, go clickie at the pictures. And now it's much harder for you to use any other system because your "hamburger" button isn't there.

Yes, this is a point I don't see a lot of people making. The help features in OS X apps are pretty nice. I especially like search-as-you-type in help, showing menu items in a separate group; hovering over them results in an animated arrow showing you exactly where that particular menu option is located. Very user-friendly and quick.

My father was a Mason but was very secretive about it. He wanted a Masonic funeral when he died. The Masons showed up and basically unnerved everyone with their weird chanting, hand gestures, and phrasing. I almost left in the middle of the service. Creepy and religious was what I got out of it. The addition of the almost-shame and secrecy was enough to tell me I don't want to be a part of that group.

You still need people to program, to come up with new ideas, to push the technology forward. Or it will eventually collapse on itself as the ones who know retire and die out, leaving the shiny to people who don't understand how it works or how to even repair it.