Agreed. Not to mention that many of the google services do have alternatives. There will be a hardcore of people getting pissy, but how much will the average person on the street care about restricted access to google and its products?

There are other providers of maps, email and search, people will move to alternative (probably inferior and state backed) services and then continue with their lives.

Having been out of high end PC Gaming for a number of years, I'd need an accessible go to resource for specs and support info before I considered investing in and building a box for Steam on Linux.

Is there a candidate for such a resource already?

I get to add another OS to my MacBook. It was so difficult to find games worth playing on OSX that I installed Win7 with bootcamp. Now I'll feel morally obliged to install Linux too.

Interesting that Windows 7 continues to be the most stable operating system on my early 2012 MBP since I upgraded OSX to Mountain Lion. I wonder if I'll have as much luck with a Linux install? I wish them every luck, and will certainly show my support as I do my best to stay away from awful walled gardens, but it seems like a big ask compatibility-wise for Steam, which on both OSX and Win7 is already a programme with multiple bugs and infuriating crashing habits in my experience.

I'll only address the bit of your post that isn't wearing tin foil.

I sure hate it when there's an article posted on Slashdot that causes a healthy debate about energy efficiency and computer use. I don't come here to read about computers and the real world, I want to hear about the latest trends in aluminium milliners and the protection their products offer against meningitis or Felix Baumgartner landing on my head.

Post on text on a picture?

The paedos could be looking forward to catching a break for once.

won't somebody please think of the CHILDREN?!

I'm not sure your sexual activities are necessarily relevant here.

and we can all benefit from the savings on distribution and packaging, which is why my £45 digital copy of Diablo 3 was considerably cheaper than the £45 hard copy in Game down the road. (also my digital download was a US client despite downloading from eu.battlenet which left me unable to play when the US server was patched but EU servers weren't - noobs.)

My worry with digital download services is that in my experience they are more expensive than wandering down to Game/Tesco and seeing what's on the shelf. Competition between game retailers and supermarkets/amazon drives price reductions and promotions. Microsoft don't have substantial price reductions, sales and promotions because they have a captive audience, where else are you going to download your Xbox game from? Switch to digital only media and the console manufacturers hold even more power than the substantial amount they do already.