The answers to your questions are answered in the summary in part, and in the article in full. Perhaps you could try reading either or both?

Anyway, he's a tech writer, so I assume it would be easier for him to call up Adobe and say, "Hey, I'm working on this hilarious project, do you happen to have..." This probably would not work for you and me. Plus, he's not a FOSS luddite, he has written several articles on using old software. The first paragraph of one about DOS:

So that should answer that question.

Because then you'd have the whole Firefox version numbering confusion all over again: "No, Star Wars 8 and 9 are really just continuations of 7, they were in development concurrently and released close to each other. The long-term episodes only occur every three numbers, so 7, 10, 13, etc. are the ones you need to remember."

Except that it's not the only option available. Right here in Chicago, T-Mobile is pushing their value plans which don't subsidize the phones. My wife and I bought our first Android-based smartphones a little over a year ago, paying for the phones up front (still at a discount, but they're locked) but a less-expensive shared minutes/data plan. For a while now, many carriers including the big players have offered pay-as-you-go even voice & data plans.

More to the point, in the last 10 years that I've had cell phones, I don't EVER remember a time when the ONLY option was subsidized phone + contract. I think people generally understand that they pay for "free" or cheap high-end phones with what is basically a short-term loan. (I haven't seen surveys on this, so I could be wrong).

Actually, they were only 5 years late.

Offtopic, but your post reminds me that I really hope Kim Dotcom registers one of those new name TLDs for his last name. Maybe he could host a mirror of /., at "slashdot.dotcom". Then we'd never be able to tell people what the URL of this site is!

Right, so if you do a Google image search, and use one of the results on your website, that violates Google's TOS and you're now a felon and if convicted can no longer vote nor own a firearm? Does the punishment fit the crime?

I was referring to the "free as in beer" (gratis) versus "free as in speech" (libre) distinction commonly employed by the FOSS community. See Wikipedia.

People who carry concealed may do so out of fear, but it is fear of criminals with no regard for the law. Laws such as the New York law are passed out of fear of the law-abiding citizen, since by definition the aforementioned criminals don't care.

"I'm sorry, but your cell phone is in another castle!"

Yes, without his diligence, Slashdot would be overrun by astroturfers working for Big Desk.

Paint.NET fills the niche of people like me who need a quick-and-dirty image editor and find themselves thinking "I really wish MSPaint could do X". It makes the most sense from the perspective of people coming from MSPaint. I also have GIMP and other image-editing software for more advanced tasks, but for most of the simpler things PDN is unbeatable.

I should note that it's not free software. There is no cost for a license (even for commercial uses), but it is definitely closed-source. Free as in beer, as they say.

Somehow I read that as "Adobe makes money by selling souls..."

In June we drove 1100 miles (Pikes Peak to Chicago) in 16 hours. I think we stopped three times. This Christmas we're only going 711 miles (each way). I predict < 10 hours drive time + stops, should be less than 11 hours total. Flying would take at least six, plus we'd have to rent a car, etc. etc. Gas will be cheaper than plane tickets as well.

Although I like flying, I hate the hassle that air travel has become, and prefer to drive if it's less than a day.

I want to see the Apple marketing campaign for their own brand of fMRIs. "We know exactly what you need."