What I hate most are the meta-discussions; discussing what we're going to discuss. And the meta-meetings; meetings to decide when we're going to meet.

Ding ding ding! This is exactly why people who remember still hate Microsoft. Using their monopoly muscle to make vendors pay for their Windows product whether they use it on a machine or not was a despicable practice.

You mean "obvious to you and me." "I" is a subject and "me" is an object. It doesn't make you sound more educated to you "I" everywhere. Well, it does to some people, but it shouldn't. Just as you don't say, "Give that to I," you don't say, "That is obvious to I."

This reflects my anecdotal experience of late as well. My Dell server just turned 3 years old (and I had a 3 year service agreement on it). It came with three 1-terabyte drives. All failed before my service period ended and were replaced; the last of the three was replaced this past summer. 100% failure of the original drives in less than 3 years.

Yes, remote graphical desktop work of all kinds has been wrecked in the recent versions.

When I finally got the computer to boot with wdm (by editing the startup scripts) I quit looking for other solutions. But I admit I didn't try mdm. I went through the 8 or so display managers that are packaged with Ubuntu, and did not go outside to build something external like Mint.

For a decade, I've set up a server with listening VNC servers for remote access through our switched network. Yes, it is somewhat undesirable from a security point of view, and we require SSH tunneling or VPN for machines off the immediately local network.

I can tell that less emphasis is going into "remote" use of X11 and more going into the "desktop" experience, because this work pattern is almost entirely broken of late. I can't find a display manager to reliably work with XDMCP (and supply session switching, language choice, etc.) under the most current update.

Crazy stuff is broken. The menu option of KDM just doesn't work (i.e. the widget is just broken). Some incompatibility with the new X11 apparently. LightDM is so unstable as to not be usable. WDM has an upstart bug that prevents the computer from booting (though this is the manager I use--I edited the rules in the script to fix the boot). GDM has the annoying 'Super-D' bug so no one with a D in their username can login (yes, this can be fixed and the session startup scripts are still a problem on my platform).

It's absolutely insane that you can't find a display manager that actually works properly over VNC. It breaks a straightforward work pattern that I've used for a long long time.

These people think they can make a phone. In my experience with Ubuntu that viewpoint is absolutely self-delusion.

I ignored them for a long time. Now I press 1 every time, and start asking questions as if I'm interested but don't have a clue how this can work and who they are. One of of the reps said, "Gee what an idiot," before finally hanging up on me.

I'm not sure, but the pace of their calls seems to have slowed now that they know I'm just going to tie them up and cost them money.

I'll second this. It seems like no one does "useful" like XFCE.

The more obvious approach is to join and support the ARRL, the most successful amateur radio lobbying group. It's not unlike gun owners joining the NRA. Even if you don't like all their actions, they're working harder than anyone else to preserve your rights.

Instability is also my big beef with the recent Ubuntu. It seems to be due to three causes (so it's been forever for anyone to make progress on fixing anything): Intel wireless drivers suck (kernel issue), gnome-screen saver sucks, and the Unity interface sucks. Getting rid of gnome-screensaver and installing xscreensaver is probably the best improvement I've seen, after finally finding a kernel where the Intel wireless driver worked. But I've put my computers on XFCE (with the menu bar on the left like Unity) and they're finally usable again.

It's what I did too. Debian and XFCE4 on my daughter's laptop. I'll be doing the same thing on my own laptop the next time it gets a re-install or upgrade. I've got a few work machines that'll probably go over to Debian as well.

Since this morning's update on Ubuntu I can't pull up Gmail. It's pretty darned annoying and now I've gone back to Firefox to wait for the next update to fix whatever is really busted.

Bank deposits are not guaranteed by the government. Bank deposits up to a limit are guaranteed. My deposits are guaranteed. So are yours probably. But my employer is big. The amount of money required to make single payroll is more than is guaranteed under the limits.

So my money is secure and your money is secure. But at the end of the month, suddenly my employer can't make payroll because a bank failed. Perhaps yours can't either. That's a big deal.

I use PagePlus too, with a Droid 1. I just turn off the data feature. It's why I chose PagePlus actually, to have a smart phone without the requirement of a data plan. Since they use the same backbone as Verizon (my previous carrier), I get essentially the same service quality I had before.