I completely agree with you that the drag-to-applications install method was completely foreign to me when I got my first Mac. That being said, after using it for two years I'm sold that it's got to be the best application install paradigm out there. When it comes time to remove the application, I know exactly what needs to be deleted. I don't need to worry about one file getting corrupt and the uninstall application failing to ever remove the entire program, etc.

Except that even the windows steps start with something familiar, My Computer. Maybe even My Documents. Or if you want to get extremely advanced, open Windows Explorer. The big problem for me when it comes to Linux always has been that people choose the most absurd names when writing their applications. If I'm looking through an application repository how am I (assuming for the moment that I was a novice) supposed to know that Pidgin is an IM client? Why should I believe that GIMP is an image program? I mean, it's not like it advertises itself ala "Photoshop". OpenOffice is about the best example that the free community has to offer when it comes to application naming. I'm surprised Firefox got as far as it did and probably wouldn't have if it wasn't coming from Mozilla's shop. But I don't care who you are, when you're browsing through the default menus on a Linux distro you better be completely uninspired to open Konqueror to browse your file system.

Haha, yeah, that key. Well in all fairness I didn't jump on board til the post Intel days, so maybe those keys came with the x86 territory (you know, since they advertised you could run Windows on the computer as well, might as well have all the keys).

Actually ... I'm using my 'Mac' keyboard right now and the lower left key is clearly labeled "control" and the key to its right is co-labeled "alt" and "option". So it is acceptable, and indeed appropriate, to refer to those keys as "Alt" and "Ctrl" when using a Mac as well.

Or C) bought cheap memory.

Wow, you're so off base it's not even funny. Nevermind that your command on linux has no bearing on how the system announces itself to the network, doesn't affect WINS servers, etc. While it seems trivial at the outset, Windows uses the computers name for a lot more things than an internal DNS reference so the user can ping him/herself. That being said, it would seem to me that Windows could do a simple service restart as opposed to a full reboot.

Considering that almost every time I run YUM there's a new kernel update I'm not sure that this is entirely accurate. While I do think there are things that Windows is ridiculous for wanting me to reboot for, Linux is getting worse faster than it's getting better. When I was running Ubuntu it seemed like every update wanted to restart.

It's probably a reasonable assumption that at least 98.5% of the population is unfit to post articles on Wikipedia so that 98.3 number is meaningless.

I agree with most, if not all, of the proposed changes to the notification system. I agree, for example, that notifications are just "extra information" if you happen to be present and shouldn't require interaction. However, that's not to say that I don't think it would be convenient to have a gesture/keystroke shortcut that causes a predetermined interaction with a notification type. For instance, it would be convenient for me if there was a short snippet about each incoming email, displayed in a notification, as opposed to "1 new message". That way I could know if the email was worth checking or not. If it was, it'd be nice, at the time of notification, to hit a key combo or something that took me straight to mail to see the new content. While I think that's a great idea, I have no idea on how to implement it in such a way that doesn't negatively affect other users.

I think one of the longest standing problems with Linux is the tray / notification area. Too many competing methods, sloppy looking icons, and inconsistencies that create a negative experience for the user.