Unfortunately, the Linux version is only suitable for running games native to Linux (as far as I am aware), which is at present pales in comparison to the number of games for Windows. Running Steam under Wine is the easiest way of getting said games to work, especially when you consider the difficulties associated with DRM.

Given that 7.04 was half a decade ago, you might want to use a more up to date example.
Last week I installed Steam under Linux. It was as simple as './winetricks steam'. Admittedly, I still had to know to use winetricks and download a more recent version of it, but that's a significant improvement over 5 years ago, especially as all you need to know for any piece of software now is:
a) use (the latest version of) winetricks
b) check the Wine AppDB if it still doesn't work

I don't need a web interface, so KDE Kolab and Kontact/Thunderbird. It's a full PIM suite, so it also provides centralised storage for a bunch of other things as well.

I have an Nvidia 8800 GTS that's 6 years old, and so far I've only played one game that was sluggish on it.

These days my most frequent migration is trying to find a better distro. I started of on Ubuntu, then moved to Kubuntu, and am now using Debian testing. But Debian's feature freeze is painful, so lately I've been looking for a new rolling release distro.

Sid isn't as up-to-date as the name suggests.
My biggest issue with Debian is that it's only a cyclical rolling release, not a true one. When the feature freeze comes 'round, it affects sid as well as testing. Keep in mind that the freeze lasts for 6+ months (the current one has been 8 so far - http://wiki.debian.org/DebianWheezy), and happens once every 2 years; at least 25% of the life cycle is spent in freeze. This is equivalent to being stuck on the previous release of Ubuntu. e.g. I'm still using KDE 4.8, despite 4.10 coming out last month.

Freezing makes sense for testing, since it becomes the next stable, but there's no reason that sid/unstable should be frozen as well.

While Android being open source is relevant, I'd say the more significant factor is that the Nexus S has an unlocked bootloader.

Squishy doesn't necessarily mean soft - tactile feedback is different to actuation force.

I used to have a Microsoft Multimedia Keyboard, but after half a decade of use, the keys became so stiff that it started hurting my hands to type with it. I tried buying one of the newer Microsoft keyboards to replace it, but the tactile feedback was so horrendous I returned it immediately. I bought a mechanical (Das) keyboard shortly afterwards, and it actually had a lower actuation force that the Microsoft keyboard, and my typing speed has improved significantly since I got it.

I agree absolutely that you need a decent keyboard if you want to type quickly, but I question your assessment of actuation force; I'd say it's more a matter of preference.

Seconded. I've heard aptosid improves things slightly, but a lot of the packages I'm interested in aren't there (e.g. KDE). I've considered setting up a VM to automatically source packages from the Ubuntu repos and recompile them for Debian - not sure how well that would work. (If there's an existing repo that does this, please let me know.) Even a list of repos like this one would be quite useful.

There is a flaw in this analogy that none of the sibling posts seem to have picked up on: only one person can (legally) display a given number plate / be in control of a car at once, whereas multiple people can and do share IP addresses. A better analogy would be "just because a person is on a bus does not mean they are guilty of infringements committed on that bus."

What's wrong with socialism? It seems to be working fine for the Nordic countries.

Nope, wheezy is on 3.2, which is still comparatively ancient given that Ubuntu is on 3.5.

If you're going with KDE, I'm not really sure what the point of going with Mint is, other than to avoid Kubuntu. FWIW, I use switched from Kubuntu to Debian with KDE and have no regrets.

There's not much that needs to be ported, really. All the Ubuntu-specific stuff is in userspace, so it can be used as is or with a recompile at most. The bit that differs between phones is the kernel, and that's where the bulk of the effort will be in targeting other phones (either in modifying the Android kernel to function like the mainline Linux kernel, or merging the drivers into the mainline kernel).

I never said that they made the decision for that reason; simply that that was the reason it happened. If KDE had used C, it's likely that many of the people drawn to Gnome during its formation would have been those who preferred C++.