all major UNIX operating systems have sh, while not all come with perl granted, lately more vendors are including open source products like perl, apache, ssh, etc. I'm talking about years ago, when you wanted a sysadmin script (something simple like cat + awk + sed) to run on solaris 2.5.1, AIX 4.3L, Linux 1.2.3, and HP-UX

mozilla crash reports are just like microsoft crash reports, both send crash information, so open source is a moot point. how do you install an older kernel in parallel? do you mean reboot into an older kernel? you can dual boot a windows box and do the same. thats not even taking into account using VMware with snapshots, which would work on linux, windows, solaris, etc

you're not on topic.. the idea behind my reply was to show that users giving feedback to any application's developers (open source or not) is simply that, feedback, and you should set your expectations accordingly and understand you do not know all the ramifications your suggestion could involve, the ratio of time spent vs how important it is, preventing feature creep, and more.

if you've ever written an application, you'll know that one user will commend a feature as being invaluble, while another tries to rip you apart and tell you how it should change.

this has nothing to do with open source

"Kernel 2.8.1 beta testers are disputing whether or not the linux community is taking notice of their feedback. The dispute follows a blog post by Linus Torvalds, the man in charge of engineering Kernel 2.8.1. He notes that in one week in January the linux community received data through Kernel 2.8.1's automatic feedback system every 15 seconds. According to Linus, it's impossible to keep everyone happy. That's partly because there are only so many changes the linux community can make to the system and still finish it, and partly because in many cases testers often have opposing views about a feature."

So its going to be like hulu.com

Fortune 500 companies typically standardize hardware, so people who say they can buy this from here, that from there, one more thing from eBay are rediculous.

Also, to those who say small businesses can't afford this, its really an option. Some places like open source hodgepodges of hardware and some do not because their small business generates enough money that investing in enterprise class hardware with gold 4 hour response from a solid company with a history of UNIX experience and integration with Solaris.

Also, said Fortune 500 companies get massive discounts, as what you're seeing is retail price.

you get what you pay for?

1) ungzip and untar on GNU and non-GNU systems
tar xf filename.tar | gzip -dc -

2) how to do a command for MANY files at once
/bin/sh cd /directory/with/files for i in *gz do gzip -d $i done

Charging for email is an inevitability. The corporate marketing machines will spin full speed, the media will eat it up and spoonfeed it to the masses as a "good thing" and "such a small price to pay to fight the evil spammers". People will buy into it using comparisons of paying for other forms of communication (fax, phone, snailmail) as their acceptance that this is "just the way things are".

Of course, the ongoing costs to fight the spammers will require this postage to go up and up and up....
...and it will utlimately be as futile as the war against snailmail spammers.