QNX is junk, at least in RIM's hands. I've been a BlackBerry user for years, and I got a Playbook recently. It was a gift and I am not in the USA. After one week of very light use, the tablet froze for a couple of minutes. I got tired of waiting and forced a reboot.

The thing never worked again. It kept flashing red for a few days, then it won't even flash anymore. It's dead. Since I don't have the proof of purchase, I get no support unless *I pay* RIM some sort of "incident" fee. They screw up and I have to pay. Right?

I am not the only one. Google for it and you shall find quite a few other people who ran into the same problem. If you have the proof of purchase, you're only eligible for support for 90 days. After that, you're on your own. What a paragon of quality assurance and customer satisfaction.

So THAT is the incredibly amazing rock-stable OS that everyone has been talking about? Really? This paperweight I have here now? Please.

I foresee a string of QNX-based OS10 BB phones going belly up very suddenly, and a legion of irate customers shaking their fists and kicking themselves for still believing in RIM.

And I really raised my eyebrows at this part:

"...which would let them sell devices purely on the strength of the hardware and OS, rather than on the ecosystem."

Strength of the hardware???!!! Look, I've always enjoyed the excellent approach that RIM has always had to certain things, like the keyboard or email. But RIM has a notable history of skimping on hardware. I've ALWAYS had friends and other people around me have phones that had much better camera, better sound and more storage capacity. In fact, everything in other people's phones is usuallly better than my BlackBerry, except email. And those phones range all the way from the expensive iPhone to ridiculously cheap Chinese spin-offs sporting brands llike "Sumsang," "BleckBerry," or "HiPhone," whose operating system no one knows for sure what it is. Strength of the hardware? Please, don't write '"RIM" and "strength of the hardware" on the same sentence.

I'm not here to defend Apple or Jobs, quite the contrary, I am glad that mofo's finally gone (there, I said it). But how did you get modded up so high with such a misguided comment? Apple imposes a lot of lock-in, but that has nothing to do with DRM. In fact, Apple fought against DRM in the iTunes store. And won. Apple never inspired any company to use DRM, companies use DRM because people steal software, resort to piracy, etc. Companies put DRM in their products for the same reason that we all put locks in our doors.

Ah, yes. Android does all that through GMail. Email, calendar and contacts. Excellent! And all your business data is belong to Google. Cos you know, privacy is dead. Schmidt said so. Thanks, but no, thanks.

"I, and many others, could not care less about being the most popular OS in the world- in fact, that'd take the fun out."

You are a fucking mindless idiot. You and everyone who modded you up. I want Linux to be a lot, lot more popular, so:

- more software companies will make versions of their software for it (like TextMaker);

- my bank will make their extra security module available for Linux so I can do online banking like normal people;

- my smartphone manufacturer will make its support applications available on Linux, so I can backup and restore at least my contact data, not type all my 100+ contacts manually when I buy a new phone because some basement-dwelling dipshit thinks that using an unpopular OS is l33t and kewl;

- hardware manufacturers will have more interest in offering drivers for Linux.

Do a favor to the world: die.

Ah yes, recording "What you hear" from the sound system is not "locked down" on Linux. Except it doesn't work. One has to deal with the intrincacies of JACK, which never worked for me on any of the three distros where I tried it.

In fact, any sound working on Linux at all is almost a miracle considering how confusing and feeble all the Linux sound architectures are. Even so, it works, but the last second of a song will be clipped, and you're lucky if you can have two sounds playing at the same time. And it all makes perfect sense, since Linux has always been, still is and shall always be designed for SERVERS. Why in the world would anyone need sound output in a server?

I love the CLI and use the terminal all day every day, but in essence, I have to agree with hairyfeet's assessment wholeheartedly.

Just instead of lashing out at the CLI, I complain that sound in Linux is clumsy and flawed, I still have trouble configuring Wifi, Bluetooth is almost impossible to be made to work decently, clipboard management STILL is an absolute pile of shit, Web browsing is noticeably slower than on Windows, Kon Colivas' patch set is refused over some silly technicality, and most window managers are installed with such abysmally lacking default configurations that I can't deny the whole Free Software case is just hopeless. This thing has always been, still is and shall ever be designed for servers. It is all downright hostile to anyone intending to run a desktop/workstation. If I really want to be honest, I have to admit: I use Linux because I am a hobbyist.

I am definitively not impressed.

Post a story about computer security and people will crack jokes to make fun of Windows right in one of the first comments. Like clockwork. Windows 7 is reported to be pretty secure, but Microsoft can't seem to shake off the bad reputation.

Anyone who has a stake at Apple, the company, should seriously weigh how much actual benefit and damage Steve Jobs' cavalier attitude has been causing to Apple over the last few years. The company's financial health is great, sure, but so is Microsoft's. Its health in terms of reputation, however, isn't so good, and it is likely to get worse over the next few years. Then we will see Apple dealing with whatever reputation it has built, that will be coming back to bite Apple in the ass.

"Mouse not found. Click left button to continue."

Yes, that is what software is supposed to do: make up for defective hardware.

Please call me back when this overrated editor acquires the ability to make up for a defective processor, motherboard and monitor. Now I have to run and learn Vim and prepare for the ever likely event of a nuclear holocaust, in which case all Control keys would certainly be swept off the face of the Earth.

No, I am not an emacs fan. Both of them suck.