I am really curious about this... could you possibly cite your sources?

A large number of projects are run by companies; their main developers are paid wages and keep the projects moving forward. No one stops you from forking, but in the long run, the fork with people working 8 hours a day is going to have more features, progress, and thus more users and mindshare. Alternatively, if the main developers are given money to work on different projects, and abandon their current ones, many might refuse, but many might leave, and a project with low developer participation tends to die. The source code can never go away, but competitive progress can.

Sort of like how governmet is constantly bailing out education? I mean, it used to be privately funded, but now the feds are funding every level to some degree. Why? It's not about buisness, it is about a public good that, while it is a failing model as a buisness, is still neccessary element to keeping our society functioning.

Hahahaha! But no, seriously, Avatar is so unoriginal it is absurd. I laughed at half the lines, and nearly every plot "twist" was predictable beforehand.

There was a flash game once that was really fun... you had to go with your mouse and explore a giant maze, by clicking on things and solving puzzles... you only had 60 seconds or so to solve the maze, but each of the previous attempts were shown, and you could cooperate with your previous selves to finish on time. Either way, its nothing new; just a simple Slashdot publicity stunt.

When I went to the helpdesk and asked to get connected to the secured (and faster) wireless network, they told me that they didn't know how to set it up under Ubuntu. However, some of my seniors in the CS department had long figured it out, and had been using it for years. Thus they explained the process to me.

Yes, you will need to take some initiative, but no school is going to be as insane and purist as some companies. They all basically have to support Mac and Windows, and if it works for them, it certainly going to work with Linux too.

I tried to do this. It didn't work. Sure. I remember almost anything after hearing or reading it once, and sure, I pass every exam, but I never learned to actually sit down and do homework. It has taken me many years to learn to sit down and do what needs to be done, and because the educational system depends so much on menial homework and grades, I ended up going to a rather mediocre University. Teaching kids to be smart is important, but teaching them to work hard is almost as important.

Sure, FSF is the proxy for the open source movement and companies. They rage against everone like mad, slinging mud left and right, and us calm, nice open source people get all the users from the aftermath.

Perhaps the prawns are more "human" then we are... as in, perhaps their psychology is more naturally compassionate and communal instead of self-centered. You really cannot apply human tenancies to aliens, thats not the way it works.

... or, perhaps, digital distribution is good for consumers? Consoles that force low profit margins will see less games, and thus less players, and thus go out of business... consoles that move more digital distribution and use it to provide cheaper prices or increased convenience for end users become more popular. Voila, market results in a nice new efficient way of distributing games that customers and producers both like.

Or perhaps it is suspiciously equal.

One of the developers is dead, and this makes it rather impossible to negotiate a deal with this person.

Just to make it clear... the "self correct" above means hundreds of millions of people dying of famine and starvation, and hundreds of millions more perishing in the genocidal wars that follow.

And then spend much of the waking day chasing deer with spears through the forest. Yes, after a day of strenuous sprinting, high fat and high protein is a good thing.