in the free market businesses form and compete for consumer money with other businesses, it is the competition that is pro consumer. Unions, like any other political formation, exists to protect special interests, preventing businesses from competing to the best of their ability and pushing prices up - anti consumer.

Businesses are pro-consumer by definition, unless they are government subsidized. Being anti-union (as I am) is being as pro-consumer as possible. Unions push prices up, consumers want lower prices, unions are anti-consumer.

This is the kind of thing that keeps me coming back here - putting out my own thoughts and in return reading something insightful that likely would never have occurred to me.

Thanks. I didn't think of that, but it makes sense.

Most interesting - I wish I had mod points to give.

In drinkypoo's defence, I can make what he said more compelling by changing just one one word: "It's a pragmatic EXISTENTIAL decision".

If those top funders were to withdraw support - as well they might given the influence that Linus and Linux bring to any such discussion - it might spell the end of Linux as we know it. I can't say that such a consideration actually crossed Torvalds' mind, but if it did I wouldn't be at all surprised.

Xi may feel that:

A) The international economy can't be stabilized under the current US regime
B) Even if the States reversed course tomorrow they couldn't get their shit back together fast enough, and
C) Doing everything possible to shore up and cushion the rest of the world at the expense of Uncle Sam is the safest way forward.

I think the rot at the heart of the US military-industrial complex, (which has merely been exposed and exploited by the current regime) - along with the rate at which the rest of the world is rushing to distance and decouple from the US - makes banking on American financial stability a long shot at best.

Good call on the bitrot. I'm not sure about the "safety factors" angle though - I think they always compromised on that a bit in consumer gear.

Then again, counterfeit components have become a thing, so even if the specs indicate a good safety margin the actual part may be shite.

FTA: "Salamanca is the only incorporated city in the United States located entirely within a Native American reservation. The school district serves roughly 1,300 students, including 32 percent who identify as American Indian or Alaska Native and 79 percent who are economically disadvantaged."

The skeptic in me notes the relatively high percentage of indigenous students - and the quite high percentage of economically disadvantaged students - and wonders why this experiment isn't being conducted on rich, predominantly-white kids.

I'm also aware that the motive here might be to give these students a leg up on their disadvantages; but history makes me doubt that.

I dunno. The twenty-bucks-plus-copying-time spent on something you value and care about - which may be MUCH more expensive or even simply unavailable a few years hence - sounds like the very definition of an appreciating asset.

In the scenario described in TFS, the customer "actually gets owned" and "actually gets taken"...

After all, owning customers is the entire goal of corporations.

That's probably a little closer to being true than it once was; but any electronic device which contains electrolytic capacitors should be powered up every once in a while to keep the dielectrics formed and the oxide layers intact.

That's especially true of digital devices whose input voltage can't be raised slowly by using a Variac; theres's an (admittedly small) risk of damage or data corruption, as the different voltage rails may reach their spec'd voltages at different times.

In America, common sense seems to be a non-renewable resource in short supply. Perhaps they shouldn't be using such a precious commodity in aid of waging costly, world-economy-damaging, reputation-destroying wars.

You're welcome!

Their goal is to tell you what you want, not to give you what you want. You seem to be under the mistaken impression that you're the customer and not the product.