It's not like they need to report line items. They get their money from Google and this is the amount. What else do people need to know?

Amazon offers many, many ways to access the ebooks you buy on their site. Every major platform has a Kindle reading app and, as you said, there is the Kindle web reader for those that don't. This is not an unreasonable approach considering it is the publishers that force the DRM on Amazon (and, therefore, the rest of us), not the other way around. Amazon would be happy to sell DRM-free books, I'm sure, because it would mean less overhead for them and more profit. It is in Amazon's best interest to make the Kindle applications available on every modern platform.

The Kindle hardware is only there as a platform to sell content, nothing more. Kindle hardware is not a profit center for Amazon. If Amazon thought they could get people to buy enough content to make a profit, they'd be giving away PC's.

As a programmer and self-taught database administrator, I understand where you are coming from. However, in my experience, warning the user of anything rarely leads to rational thought by the user, especially when the warnings are frequent. In the user world, TL;DR applies to anything with more than one word, apparently.

Obviously, there are exceptions in user space, but they seem all too rare. :p

That is the problem, though. The better or worse comparisons are entirely subjective. That makes them "equal" in my mind. I do agree that total exposure time is a significant factor in one's ability to appreciate the merits of a piece of software. Windows Vista/7 sucked at first for me until I was used to them, now I can't stand going back to XP. I used to prefer KDE until I had many problems a version of Kubuntu and have since preferred to stick with other desktop environments.

On a personal note, I've had more machines have driver issues with Linux than I ever have with Windows, especially when it comes to wireless network adapters. Don't get me wrong, it's a problem on nearly every system, but in my experience I've had many more issues on the Linux side of things. I haven't had a lot of exposure to wireless adapters on OSX, but the few I have tried had issues as well (resulting in the equivalent of registry hacks to fix/install).

Video card and motherboard drivers have been another sore spot for me over the years. About two years ago I had a system that refused to install three different variants of Linux (Ubuntu, Linux Mint, and Slackware, if I remember correctly) because of motherboard and video card driver issues. None of them would give me a desktop and Mint wouldn't even let me see a shell prompt. That was frustrating so I reinstalled Windows and it went through flawlessly. Go figure. Since that time, most of my issues have been with add-on peripherals like a USB to serial cable I had (though that one is likely fixed now) and many other non-mainstream gadgets.

As for updates and reboots, Windows 7 gets about one update a month that requires a restart (though I'm usually restarting more than that because of other things). Most installs that are "Windows 7 aware" do not require a restart after install, either. Many that require XP compatibility do, however.

As for file compatibility, it is most definitely an issue for Linux users that must frequently cross over to the Windows world. Microsoft Office is a biggie. And before you mention Open/LibreOffice, it is NOT to a level of compatibility needed for many businesses. One word: macros.

Stability is another one of those subjective topics. I've never seen a BSOD (or equivalent) in Windows 7 during normal use, but I have had some related to waking from sleep/hibernate and some poorly made drivers. I can't exactly blame Windows 7 for this because in every case for me, it was third party drivers that caused the crash. But from a "always running" standpoint, Windows 7 is rock solid.

I will admit that over the last several years the vast majority of my Linux exposure has been with Ubuntu and its offshoots (Linux Mint being another primary one). I have given strong consideration to going back to using Debian and will for sure when I set up some test machines coming up in a few months.

Honestly, my experience with Windows far exceeds my combined experience with Linux and OSX. Of the three, OSX is my least favorite as a user and as an admin. I have a soft spot for Linux on the technical side, but as a daily user of computers Windows 7 fills more of my needs than Linux can right now.

How else would you do it? What if you have a file you want to open up in more than one application? In entirely plausible to have multiple processes operate on a file in series. For instance, you use a photo editor to manipulate an image. Then you insert that image into a document. Then you compress that document. Then you send that document via email. That document has been around the block through several applications. What are you supposed to do, give each application individual permissions to access the document? Is this the height of productivity?

I forgot to mention that for every example you gave, I could easily give a counter example where Windows or OSX bested Linux in user experience. But that likely won't matter to you.

I have installed Linux many, many times, as well as maintaining dual-boot systems for years. What you say is true, to a point, for a technically inclined person. It is NOT true for the vast majority of users out there. Sure, distros like Ubuntu make installation painless for most people. Windows/OSX take it one step further by already being there and not needing installation. Most folks can't handle installing Windows/OSX, either. It's the fact that they don't need installing in the first place that gives them a win.

You can compare XP to Linux all you want, but fact is it is OLD. Compare modern Linux to Windows 7 or Vista if you want an accurate comparison. By all means, though, forget about Vista since it was a piece of crap. Windows 7 is better in every respect and has been out long enough (over two years) to justify using it as the "Windows standard".

And nice of you to throw the fanboy card around. Is everyone that thinks Linux is too messy for most users a fanboy of some other system by default? Can't the Linux folks handle a little criticism? Isn't it possible that Linux may be in need of improvement? Isn't it possible that Linux may be "worse" in some people's minds and those people's opinions matter as much as yours?

"User friendly" is not just a valuation of the UI after install. It's a full assessment of everything from installation, driver updates, system updates, software compatibility, file compatibility, device compatibility, stability, etc. Linux is a great kernel and there are many distributions that add to that greatness, but as a complete OS package, Linux + GNU has a long way to go compared to commercial alternatives like OSX and Windows.

It would be good enough to say "Thou shall not breed."

Talk to the game makers and ask them why they are not making games for your modern PC hardware.

And I'm equally sure that Amazon will crush/disable any device that uses the connection for anything other than exchanges with their sites. They use AT&T's network and I'm sure they have plenty of tools in place to help Amazon out with that endeavor.

In my experience, the Kindle e-ink screen does not smudge easily but does clean easily.

As I understand it, they don't make money with iTunes.

Good point. I hadn't thought of the annotation feature since I never use it. I suspect that if you do enough of it then opting to spend the extra $20 for the Touch version would be money well spent (or buy the keyboard version which is still available).

Yes, the $99 version has a touchscreen, the $79 version does not. The touchless one is there mostly for people that do NOT want a touchscreen on their e-reader. And, yes, those people exist in quantity.