Well, if not democratically elected governments, do they prefer the French or the Mangione solution?

Hostile to MS? Not on this forum. Hostile to U.S.? Maybe. Hostile to Trumpsky? Definitely. But more for the fact it defies Musky's grand vision of corporate (Silicon Valley) control.

Well, BSA does stand for Business Software Alliance. Their purpose is not to ensure good software but to ensure that software is good for business. A.K.A. Profits. So anything they think could cost their members money, they oppose. That used to include Linux. That is, until businesses learned that Linux was actually good for profits. The same thing here. Whether they'll find it's good for profits later, we'll see.

While true, having a sustained, corporate-backed ecosystem will make publishers feel more secure about Linux gaming that we'll all benefit from. Because game studios look at a fragmented ecosystem of individual developers and feel their stomach turn. A stable, unified environment with a corporate name attached makes them feel safe. If they feel safe, they'll use it. Otherwise, they won't. It's not fair, but that's what happens when you run companies based on your 'guts' instead of statistics. And sadly, that's how 90%+ corporations run things.

Politics disguised as business as usual. A group of rich billionaires wants to lie to the public and is buying up media companies so no one can counter their narrative. So that when the next Epstein scandal hits, no one will hear about it.

But, until UBI becomes reality, we have to find other ways to pay people for good things that the oligarchs don't want.

Would an executive at any big tech company go to a nice restaurant and not tip the waiter? Of course not, because it is expected for them to pay for the worth.

This needs to be the case in open source. To not frame it as “donations,” but that worth should be paid for.

But how do we start this? I would love to find like-minded folks to help build a Pay It for Worth campaign. We get businesses to sign a pledge to pay for worth and give them advertising so that we get customers to see who isn't freeloading. And we get a grassroots way for small businesses to take paying for open source to be a legitimate business expense they can deduct on their taxes, unlike the current donation limit they currently have to deal with.

Of course. One set of rules for them, another set of rules for us. What don't you get?

The GOP only cares about 'states rights' when they're out of power in the federal government. But, when they're in power, they trample over state's rights more than any Democrat. Fucking hypocrites.

Somebody drank the Fox bullshit Kool-Aid.

There's a saying in government,"Never let a good crisis go to waste."

Simple. They played the long game. Ever since FDR's 'New Deal,' the old money ultra-wealthy oligarchs have done everything in their power to destroy it, including a coup plot that blew up in their face (Wall Street Putsch). They combined their forces with a Christian Nationalist movement with designs to turn the US into a fascist Protestant theocracy (Project 2025). {The British should have scuttled the Puritans's ships.} These groups combined with Silicon Valley billionaires, hoping to score a huge billionaire tax break renewal, as their windfall tax break that Trump had helped pass in his first term was expiring, to bring Trump back to office.

Of course, the Democratic Party making sure to shoot itself in every single toe, along with both of its feet, helped things along. But I believe that was more hubris and incompetence than a conspiracy. They believed they couldn't lose against the seemingly unelectable Trump and acted like it all the way until election night. And in doing so, helped crown him. It's also why they were such a disorganized mess after Trump took office. In their hubris, they thought they were untouchable. Being proven wrong shook them to their core. Though, they seem to have learned all the wrong lessons from their defeat... again. They seem unwilling to comprehend that it's their sucking up to the big banks and billionaire class that's at the core of their growing unpopularity. They're supposed to be the party of the people, and the GOP the party of bankers and corporate elites. One of the GOP's biggest coups was Reagan making rural southern farmers and suburbanites believe that the GOP served their interests. And with the Dems sucking the billionaire teat, they've never been able to disprove the lie.

The GOP has excelled in getting people to vote against their interests. You have to give them credit where credit's due. They played the long game and fooled half of the American people. Well done. And the Dems? With a few exceptions, they're all a bunch of morons with god complexes. Well, both parties are, but one is clearly better organized.

I was coming here to post this exact thing. I remember the Cupertino campus posting sentries outside to warn employees when he was coming so they could all get to their desks and 'look' busy. He had a habit of firing people for walking in the halls for a power trip, and if you spoke to him without being spoken to first, automatic termination. He was a petty, pathetic tyrant who got his jollies by bullying people who couldn't stand up to him, refusing to acknowledge he ever had a daughter, and denying the genius of Apple was anybody's achievement but his. (Sorry, but the other Steve was the genius, not you, Jobs.) Good riddance to bad rubbish.

The IRS has been trying to implement such a system for decades, but the tax filing lobby and their (mostly) GOP allies have killed it time and time again and are threatening to do so once more with Trump's so-called 'Big Beautiful Bill'. (Really, just how obsessed with Biden [and Obama] is Trump?!) There's little to no need for commercial tax filing software for most people. The only people who require a professional tax preparer are people who itemize their deductions. Mostly, these days, that's business owners, or people with extensive medical bills.

I looked it up and the pay per view price of the world cup looks upwards of ~$30 for the game itself and ~$2.50 per lead up game. Note, this is in addition to your normal cable rate, which may be between ~$125-200 if you have sports packages (many cable companies won't allow you to drop sports packages, because of how much money they make off them). And, if you are a sports fan, many games aren't shown anywhere but cable, making games impossible to watch legally if you're a cord cutter. The entire industry is a rip-off and people are finally waking up to this fact.