Personally? No. Will it happen? Perhaps, but not anytime in the near future. Will it matter to me? Again, no, it probably won't. Why? Because, so many people will have a problem with it that an alternative method will have to be allowed.

Having said that, if there were a valid reason for a tracking device being implanted, then I probably would do so.

For example, I were a colonist on a tera-forming project that had been ordered to check out an "anomaly" and had subsequently brought back something that then killed the colony and the Marines needed to locate my dead body... I mean they could just nuke it from orbit, just to be sure... However, if they needed to find MY body, then yeah, I'd get the RFID implanted.

That's what I'm saying - I live in the good ol' US of A and have resided in several states.

I think you should think that bit through a little more.

Driver's licenses are state mandated to operate a vehicle legally in the United States. I haven't had a driver's license since about 1994, I still drive almost daily, I have insurance on my cars and they function just fine. I do have an ID card that has my picture on it, (I do still sometimes get carded at some pubs or when buying smokes) however that card has very old data on it. I have been pulled over, but presenting my ID card and insurance has been more than sufficient for the officer.

My point is that you may just be overstating things slightly. Sure, it could become a law that you need to have XYZ to access things, or for identification purposes, but people will object over religious beliefs or other concerns and an alternative will be available - such as an ID card with RFID, rather than a glow-in-the-dark tattoo or a RFID capsule over your right scapula.

I am sure that all sorts of abuses of the system will happen, it always does, but it won't happen like the mark of the beast scenario you're suggesting.

This implant stuff... meh, neat-o tech, but not really something to worry about - I mean hell, if you're worried about Big Brother, we're already fucked, just look around for a minute.

I'm not sure about guns, but it seems that at least 1 died from an ice pick rampage, and 40 died from car bombs...

People will kill each other, that is the nature of humanity. Violent crime was a huge problem before guns, it is a problem now and will be a problem in the future.

For quite some time I just resigned myself to the fact that I'd have to boot into windows or use some other poor method to get my netflix on... then Erich Hoover arrived with a heroic flast to his eye, chin thrust forward and proclaimed, "Do not go gentle into that sudo shutdown -r now! Rage, rage against the needlessness of these cursed reboots!

Here is how to install the Netflix Desktop App on Ubuntu. Open a terminal and run these commands:
sudo apt-add-repository ppa:ehoover/compholio
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install netflix-desktop More info here: http://www.iheartubuntu.com/2012/11/ppa-for-netflix-desktop-app.html

Yet.

But it would be nice for the pay check if they did...

Link to a reputable source.

That is the issue, isn't it? In my environment, all the users have been migrated to linux distros and libre office. Then again, my environment is just that, mine. Any issues of compatibility are minor and usually not worth the hassle of worrying about. IE is a great example, requiring that I do special coding for it, so I've stopped using it. I tell my users that they are using a browser that isn't compliant to the standards and that they should either change to one that is or live with the issue.

This just doesn't work for large companies or institutions that have become dependent upon Microsoft products, users in Windows with stock IE installations want to buy thier products or browse the company's website which basically perpetuates the issue.

I have resolved the problem by removing IE as a supported browser, however, it just isn't feasible for IBM, Dell or even Newegg to do the same. To me, requiring HTML5 compliance has lowered my costs and improved my users' experience (once they experienced the better environment).

I see what you did there...

I started using Ubuntu 10.10 - I now run 12.04, so I've gone through several upgrades. Aside from a few hours of having to get used to unity, which I like, my upgrades have been painless.

I recently built a new system, with an OCZ SSD drive, 2x4TB SATAs, 32gig of RAM, Intel i7 proc and Asus maximus v extreme MB and Asus 570GTX video card. When I built this new system, my 12.04 install was fast and worked right out of the box, I installed the x-swat nvidia drivers and aside from installing a few apps and a tweak or 2 I have come to enjoy, I was done. The entire install took less than an hour.

As I also play video games, I installed Windows 7 Ultimate x64. It took an hour for the automated portion of the install to complete, it didn't recognize my USB3.0, kept dropping my mouse and keyboard, didn't find my WiFi NIC, locked up and crashed regularly even after I finally got SP1 installed. It took me the better part of a morning to get my machine stable, nearly 4 hours of continuous work, DL's, reboots, etc. Even after all that I still had nothing but the OS installed, no productivity software or email - I spent a further hour installing the basic stuff needed to be able to use the system for anything productive (like reading my email).

I am sorry if this seems like some sort of anti-Windows rant, that isn't my intent. I would classify myself as a long-time computer user. I do photography, webdev and some other computer intensive activities. This is just my experience, others people's may be quite different.

I began using Microsoft operating systems in the late 1980's. I used them every single day that I used a computer until about a year ago when I decided to give Ubuntu a try.

I now use Ubuntu every single day I use a computer, I do reboot occasionally to use Windows for games, aside from that I do not use Windows at all.

The only shortcomings I have come across is my dependence upon Photoshop (yes, I now run PS in wine) and that of my games. Aside from that, every other thing for which my computer is used, Ubuntu just works, and does works with more stability that Windows has ever shown in more than 2 decades of use.

So when you say "runs circles around those same offerings on Linux" I will have to disagree, in fact, that statement is only partially true under some circumstances for specific applications, the exception rather than the rule. As a Linux n00b, I have more stability, better response, less overhead and an all around better experience than Windows.