R: Your route contained too many branches
C: Your car needs to be 4 exactly spaces from the sidewalk

All very worthy no doubt, but I expected monkey brains installed in a robot...

I am glad I am not the only one who made no sense of the post, even though I have previously read the actual blog linked to (when it appeared in the register).

The old Obi-Wan quote came to mind: "I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened."

I think Intel has a raft of opportunities. However, like a lot of established tech firms, Intel is a big bureaucracy and it does fantastic things but in a half hearted way.

One gig they missed was that they didn't really push a mass market Linux on Intel consumer device, even though Intel has the best solution to offer (for non-gamers anyway) with a stable in-kernel open source drivers for graphics/wifi etc that just always works. The lack of a big push has allowed Android on ARM to become the post-Windows consumer OS, which it will exploit over the coming years.

It is not too late for Intel to turn it around, but I would not bet any money on it. Whatever has stopped them putting their foot on the gas is probably still there.

At the most optimistic, Wayland is still one or two years away from mainstream use. Even then, most apps will run under the rootless X server.

X will finally disappear if and when all apps upgrade to GTK3 or QT5 (which might be never).

Wayland is X designed properly, however it is basically the same thing. It does not seem to yet acknowledge the wider changing context within which desktop Linux has to operate, i.e. we are moving away from a world where manufacturers produce devices for Windows (and don't care about desktop Linux) into a world where manufacturers produce devices for Android (and still don't care about desktop Linux).

Canonical became flame-bait central over Mir and their reactive 'community engagement' (troll feeding), but I wonder if they have a point, that by the time Wayland is widely deployable it will be outdated?

My old laptop had an Optimus card. Horrible things for Linux users. It never switched to low power mode so the battery did not last very long and it ran worryingly hot.

I am so much happier with my Intel based machine (I do admit I am not a gamer).

I also agree that you should just hang in there and get some kind of degree. It is a "MacGuffin" and a stupid system but you really do need a degree to open certain opportunities. You will not be left behind by waiting until the end. Also you will never have so much free time as you have now to pursue side interests, so make the most of it.

BTW, at University, you also you have the greatest selection of potential life partners you will ever be exposed to, dive in while you can. Afterwards you might find slim pickings :)

Yeah I do use suspend for short periods, it does work.

Good for you, obviously you have been much luckier in your choice of hardware.

In prison, "work" is the best possible approximation of real work but it is not real work with real responsibilities or control, and there is not real pay and conditions.

Making an "application" based on a digital prison is an approximation of a real app but based on a false foundation. There is no real control or security over the platform.

... because hibernate is pointless and never reliably works anyway. Set everything to autosave and get a distro that boots up quickly.

That was exactly my first thought. Intel didn't price their boards very competitively, probably out of a desire not to annoy the downstream manufacturers. I often admired the Intel mobos but always then went and bought an ASUS instead, the extra money saved can be spent on the processor and RAM.

Exactly, when the hype dies down, everyone will go back to their keyboards connected to static desktops.

However, I actually do run Emacs on my Samsung S3 using a small bluetooth keyboard. Nothing wrong with the form factor if you stick to a resonable line width (e.g. 80 characters). The port however to Android is immature and sometimes dies because Android does not provide all the shared libraries a normal Linux distro would, however, once they get that sorted out it will be better. You still have to prop the phone up somehow though which is not always simple.

I once met David Prowse at an air show in Norfolk where we has doing signatures, cool guy. He taught us a (perhaps ironic if TFA is true) set of words for the Star Wars Theme:

Star Wars
Made me a fortune
Paid off the mortgage
Bought me a car

Obviously it is funnier sang to the theme :)

Please wait for assistance...