Android OS has supported two ways to "sideload" software outside Google Play Store from day one. One is through "Unknown sources": if you download an Android application package (APK), you can open it in a file manager (or even just the Downloads app) and install it. Just about every Android device, except AT&T's first few months of Android phones, has a checkbox in Settings to allow "Unknown sources" installations. But even on those more restricted AT&T devices, one can still use Android Debug Bridge (ADB) to install any APK through a USB cable. Google in fact requires ADB to work as a condition of being allowed to bundle Google Play Store on a device (source: Android CDD).

So how should people go about becoming "seasoned, professional programmers" in the first place?

I imagine that Microsoft didn't offer Windows 8.1 to Windows 8 users through the normal Windows Update mechanism because Windows 8.1 introduced additional hardware requirements. For example, unlike Windows 8, Windows 8.1 requires NX and SSE2 support in the CPU.

That can happen if all GPL code gets relicensed or rewritten. VideoLAN's page about VLC for iOS states that it was relicensed under the Mozilla Public License, and presumably that wouldn't include any contributions from a contributor who declined to relicense his contributions. I wasn't party to the relicensing negotiations, and I lack my own iOS device on which to evaluate this app. Are any significant codecs or containers missing?

The difference is that every platform I can think of that uses APT allows root to add signers.

Debian-based PC operating systems allow the administrator to add third-party repositories with their own certificates. They also don't require that code be signed just to execute; one can install applications from outside the repositories or use applications compiled from source code without having to pay a recurring fee for a "developer license". This is in contrast to platforms designed to work with only one repository maintained by the operating system publisher, such as game consoles, iOS, Windows Phone, Windows RT, and the Windows Runtime environment of Windows 8 and 8.1.

The monopoly app store of an operating system with the market share of Windows cannot be curated as tightly without raising red flags to regulators that Microsoft is abusing its monopoly. True, the US gave Microsoft a slap on the wrist after George W. Bush took office, but at least Europe's competition regulators still have some testicular fortitude. Apple and the major video game console makers get away with it because their market share is not necessarily large enough to produce what economists call "market power".

Windows has been phoning home since the introduction of Windows XP in the fourth quarter of 2001. Yet most people don't care, as the ability to run Windows-exclusive applications and drivers for Windows-exclusive peripherals outweighs the pain of product activation and Windows Genuine Advantage checks.

Apparently Microsoft is putting major service packs for Windows on the Windows Store now. For example, the upgrade from Windows 8 to Windows 8.1 is offered without charge through the Windows Store application. But if you waited until Windows 8.1 to buy your laptop, this upgrade was already done for you.

All this means is that companies like Apple and Mozilla happen not to have notified Microsoft of the infringement yet. So if you're worried about it, go tell Apple's legal department and Mozilla's.

FSF says it's perfectly fine to distribute free software for a fee, so long as the license is followed.

But platforms relying on a single app store have in the past made copyleft license compliance difficult or impossible. The GNU General Public License, for example, defines "source code" to include what GPLv3 calls "Installation Information" and GPLv2 calls "scripts used to control compilation and installation". When a platform requires all code to be digitally signed, a signing key is part of this "Information" or these "scripts". And the terms for obtaining a code signing certificate tend to forbid developers from sharing the private key with the public. This is why GPL software like VLC can't be on Apple's App Store, nor can ScummVM be on the Wii console.

That isn't "Melancholy Elephants" by Spider Robinson, is it?

When "Disable Advertising" is off, all I see are a bunch of blank boxes with Flash Player logos on them. Flashblock and other browser features or extensions that make plug-ins require a click to play are probably the most effective ad-blocker that isn't specifically an ad-blocker.

I read AC #47693289 as referring to something.w, anothername.w, etc.

But how would that be limited to Dell shops? My employer runs mostly HP computers, each with a conspicuous serial number.

How long until dead artists' heirs latch onto techniques like this to prove "substantial similarity" as part of a copyright suit to try to squeeze money out of working artists?