Quote:
[...] "I did not miss having to chase the proper package for my current version of Linux, or beg someone to package something. Binaries just worked." [...]

I can agree to this to a certain extend. I am actively using Linux as my primary desktop since Linux 0.99pl14 came out. Having used/configured/compiled fvwm/olwm/olvwm/CDE/twm/piewm/wm2/AfterStep/Enlightenment 16-17/KDE1-4/GNOME1-3, thus I consider myself able to handle things quite well.

Whenever I (more recently, i.e. GTK2/GTK3) tried to install a new GNOME program I ended up updating my whole stack of applications breaking others on the way, having to fix them later on.
*This* never happened to me when upgrading or installing KDE programs. They are simply designed with a rather stable API and thus are much more forgiving of one not having the bleeding edge library "X" on ones system. Sure even KDE programs sometimes require one to update libs along the way, but the APIs for "older" programs seldom breaks.

So I can only agree with Miguel if he states that he needed to chase the proper package, which is, if at all, never available for your current distro (Murpy's law). But if GNOME (the project members) kept things more clean and stable instead of making major API changes while making minor library number upgrades the problem would never have occurred in the first place.

Well, even if it is 2013 and we have tablets and 25" LCD's all over the place, I have consciously switch from playing games at the PC to playing games at my PS3.

I cannot stand upgrading my PC every half year and trying to follow M$'s next version of DirectX Something just to be able to play game X.

I have encountered really bad behavior of expensive joysticks at expensive soundcards when trying to steer planes in flight simulators, and I was never able to calibrate any joystick/joypad on an soundcard I had. Maybe it got better with USB based joystick but anyway.
The PC controllers are "cheap" compared to the PS3 ones and the PS3 ones usually come without a cable (unless they need charging).

All in all, I enjoy sitting one my couch and switching on my Onkyo 10:2 sound system to play e.g. Fallout 3 on my beamer (approx. 9') or LCD 42" TV. Nothing in the world beats this, even the downloading times of updates when inserting a new game are less enervating then upgrading my Windows box again.

BTW: the PS3 sits next to the TV anyway for watching Blu-ray movies

just my 2 cents

Yes, sure, and while the eggheads are at it, why not as well enforce a "non-smoker" tax, i.e., everyone who smokes less than a pack of cigarettes or equivalent (zero is less) has to pay a tax for not smoking ....

Reading this headline as a European makes me think that some politicians in the states have lost their marbles ....

Since you wrote, you are used to Perl, the gap between Perl and Python is somewhat smaller than between Perl and Objective C.
And Python fun part is the indentation what makes your code automagically more readable and you have less curly braces.

I would even look for specific Python offerings related to the astonishing Plone (http://plone.org/) which is based on Zope and that is based on Python. In the EU, for example, we are struggling to find Python/Plone developers.

The iOS stuff binds you to one Platform (i.e. Apple's) and makes you vulnerable if that goes down the drain.
If you stick to an open language and settle for an "ordinary" job, you can always find someone else to pay you.

Good luck,
Holger

... in an alert box of it's own:

javascript: and data: URIs typed or pasted in the address bar are disabled to prevent social engineering attacks.
Developers can enable them for testing purposes by toggling the "noscript.allowURLBarJS" preference.

Browsing the Web w/o NoScript is dangerous to the core anyway.

Just my 2cents

- Holger

I for my part tested KDE 4.x since it became beta in the old days ... I revisited nearly each minor KDE 4.x update, but always switched back to KDE 3.5 (now 3.5.10).
And yes, openSUSE 12.1 certainly takes the pain out of it. Even though some KDE 4 parts keep popping up, like e.g. yast2 and if you do not install all KDE 3.x programs you might end up with one from KDE 4 in between ...

The only sad things is, that the Firefox and Thunderbird Themes matching KDE 3's crystal ceased to work :-(

I think I also remember an ubuntu project called TDE that should keep KDE 3 under a new alive for ubuntu ...

Cheers
- Holger