I'm pretty sure Redhat and Novell have profited from from the existence of package managers running on their distros, even if people aren't buying individual packages.

I'm not talking about individuals, but rather groups of people (queue Agent K quote).

Groups are more likely to be influenced by incentives (bad or good) than individuals. For example, I didn't start walking and riding the bus because I wanted future generations to be better off, I did it because I moved to the city and it's cheaper and easier. Many people living around me have been riding busses all their lives, even when they lived in the burbs. Most people in the US make the opposite call for the same reason I did.

There are billions of people on Earth and they all have to figure out what to do every day. Given the vast amount of information contained in the market, better allocation of resources will generally occur when the market is influenced by what people really want (pay for) instead of what they say they want (free X). (note: as awesome as single payer healthcare may be, it isn't free)

You as an individual can make a choice to work part time, or work as a volunteer, or any number of different worthy goals. Non-profit companies are able to do great things (at least in the eyes of the people funding them), but given that they aren't working with a profit motive they cannot figure out how many widgets need to be made.

If the goal of your company isn't to make money, it's a non-profit. If your company is a for-profit, the goal of the company is to make money.

In the case of the latter, how do you know you're making what people want? People tell you with money.

If you want different behavior from a for-profit company either convince other people to stop paying them or change the legal framework so that they need to do what you and the rest of your interest group want them to do. We have seatbelts, clean water, clean air, etc. because concerned people stood up and demanded them.

Although I do have a Steam account and have bought a couple games for my Mac (Civ 4, Gratuitous Space Battles and Torchlight), most of my gaming time is spent either on my iPad or my PS3.

I am a gamer and I don't really care about "rigs". I care about having a good time. Which, hopefully, is the point of playing video games in the first place.

Why would you want to? Ripping legacy CDs and DVDs is easier than lugging them around.

Why would you want to? I've already got much of my music library on my iPad. If I want/need different songs I can always sync different genius mixes before I go to bed.

As for video, shows (or iTunes U) I've already watched are deleted automatically after I watch them, allowing me to keep up with lots of video without having to put in much work (other than subscribing).

Don't give end users forks. They will invariably stick them in their eyes, blame you for the pain and demand that you find a way to make it feel like rainbows and sunshine.

I'm pretty sure that if a child today doesn't have a cell phone and isn't amish, they have no friends. Parents, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong here.

You could just stop smoking pot.

Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos.

That is more time than I spend maintaining all the *nix boxen in my house.

I spend all day supporting Windows machines at work, the thought of doing more when I get home isn't a pleasant one.

Have you tried an iPhone? How about a Nexus One? There are a ton of phones that do a great job of browsing the web.

In the same sense that and for similar reasons why, "everyone" uses Windows on the desktop: Network effects.

The Pirate Bay isn't the only tracker out there.

Yes, yes they are.

...kids finding out about stuff on the Internet. I mean, we all turned out fine, didn't we? ;)

He doesn't use Adblock.