Maybe the Earth is a sort of intergalactic game preserve, and visitors from elsewhere are prohibited by law from visiting or interfering with us in any way, like the Prime Directive in Star Trek.

I have used Linux as my only desktop system since 1998. I am no techie, not a geek, and I must object when technical writers claim that Linux is not 'ready for the desktop.' It is a ridiculous and unsupportable statement!

QST http://www.arrl.org/qst The original geek favorite.

I have been watching TV, listening to radio and reading for nearly 60 years, and I WILL NOT look at ads in my web browser! I use Adblock Plus https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/adblock-plus/?src=ss

I have used Linux exclusively since 1998. My first distro was Redhat, then Mandrake, and now I use Ubuntu and the Fluxbox desktop. Dumping Windoze was a challenge in '98. Hardware hacking was a skill that had a high learning curve. e-mail sent from Outlook looked awful, and God help you if somebody sent you an attachment generated by any M$ application. Things in general were a struggle. But now Linux just works. I can do any task in Ubuntu that I could in Windoze, including create and edit content of any kind. The Linux desktop is working just fine for me, thank you!

Personally, I never use a glass; also, I prefer cans to bottles.

Absolutely! Most Linux documentation has been written by coders and engineers. Man pages and 'how-tos' littered with jargon and technical terms can be almost incomprehensible to the average desktop computer user. Man pages are OK for a quick reference if you already have a reasonable idea of what you're doing, but Google is usually the only solution for most people.