Almost. It won't be the manufacturer locking you out, it will be the vendor. Why would the vendor do that? For the same reason a vendor would only sell machines with pre-installed Windows (choose the one you like: internal support costs, being payed by MS to promote it, alien conspiracy, etc).

It's fun to read statistics of the number of people who "discover" Linux every year, and start using it conjunctionally or in place of their pre-installed Windows. If we do start seeing locked-down UEFI systems being sold that will curb this trend quickly. The question then is: does a company exist that would have a desire to do said curbing, and would it be willing to coerce manufacturers and vendors to achieve it?

Uh no, he's comparing apples to penguins. Can't believe you missed that one.

I feel like a broken record because I always have to remind people of this: many of your arguments also go for Mac OS X to some degree. You have to make sure your hardware and software work for it before buying. Carbon apps vs Cocoa? PPC, Intel, or Universal, which do I download? Yet somehow Mac converts are on the rise. Maybe it's because I only need to be told once that universal is what I need to download. So if an Ubuntu user is told "use the software center, if it's not there, download a .deb" I don't think that's too hard.

I do agree the app descriptions like "for X11" are arbitrary, and this is being addressed as a papercut. However, all of the apps in the software center will work regardless of the toolkit (or lack thereof) in their description.

Where were you from 1995 to 2003? I couldn't go anywhere on the web without seeing the "best in MS IE" or even "IE Only" badges at the bottom of pages, whether for legitimate reasons like a bank site using ActiveX or out of sheer ignorance like cousin Larry's awesome family site loaded with IE-only tags ('cause he learned them on htmlgoodies.com!) "So just don't use those sites" was the solution, but not everyone had the luxury. Now we see the same thing with niche or industry-specific apps. The .NET indoctrination has lead to many [medical | architectural | graphical design | <YourCompany>'s homegrown] applications that won't become portable anytime soon despite mono's best efforts.

So you want to do away with Ask Slashdot? It's a moral dilemma, he's got the potential to do great good but it just as easily might enable those who would use it for evil. Asking peers for opinions or insight doesn't mean he wants to blame others. There might be things he hasn't though of, or a better way to accomplish things. It's just a smart thing to do.

"Dr. is this the correct incision point, or will cutting here kill the patient?"
"If you have to ask, your ethical compass is b0rked. Dumb@ss n00b!"

Can we mod parent up?