Some distributions have become better at it recently but it used to be the norm that after setting up a desktop linux box you would have to add at least 1-3 3rd party repositories to get non-free software (graphics drivers, adobe stuff, ...) and software of dubious legality (DVD playback, msfonts, media codecs, ...).

I also remember very well having to install some early OOo versions into /opt via a standalone binary installer because the distribution I used at the time didn't include it at all.

So to answer your question - I wold tell the user that he is missing media codecs for some obscure video format and ask him to add the repository containing my "fake" codec packages to his package manager. That way I can make sure he always is running the latest version of my malware.

There are also linux-based software distribution systems that bypass a distro's package manager - klik, Zero Install, Autopackage, RUNZ, ...

buy Apple if you see extra value in the operating system and the model you are considering to buy has been refreshed recently.

My experience is that Apple computers are usually priced quite competitively at the date of their release but their refresh cycles tend to be very long and there generally are no discounts until an improved revision is released - so Apple's offerings become more and more overpriced towards the end of the cycle.

hate to break it to you (in fact I don't but nvm) but 540 people isn't that dramatic... Even in the small town I grew up in this would barely make a dent in the population graph - let alone in a city with a 13.8m population such as Mumbai.

The same guys who were later crucified by Crassus (iirc) all the way along the Via Appia pour encourager les autres?

worked really well for them...

Spartacus was 70 BC, gladiator fights were gradually abolished in the 4th century AD, slavery was never abolished in the ancient Roman Empire.

by whom?

This is generally believed to be wrong: there were 3 different slave trades going on in Africa: trans-saharan, over the indian ocean and last the atlantic slave trade. the first two had been going on for several hundred years before the last one started and it is (afaik) believed that african tribes had no concept of slavery before these slave trades introduced it (they had however concepts of serfdom by war prisoners - which are sometimes equated to slavery by more right-wing historians did, however, not grant the level of ownership that is usually equated to slavery). However, even then adoption of slavery was only a regional issue and most of the regions directly affected by the atlantic slave trade would probably not have come into contact with slavery before.

Once the alt-fuel schemes are on the verge of becoming feasible, oil prices will probably drop and pollution will spike - Green Paradox.

TextMate is great IMO (has a nice plugin system, too).

And I'm a scientist - so let's test that. I'll hold a piano over his head suspended by a pulley and a rope. The Pope can say that he declares gravity to be heresy. I'll let go of the rope.

Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.