The jobs I do take 2 or 3 months to complete. If I waited for 100 "scripts/programs", it would be 25 years before I'd review my work. Consequently I think more frequent review makes sense for some of us. I find that I can look back at my work a year or so after doing it and get a good sense of what I've done well and what I need to do better. Looking at the code closer to finishing it, I just don't have the objectivity to see my work clearly. Looking at my work after enough time has passed, I sometimes think "that was pretty good" or more often "I could have done things a bit better here". I'm not referring to things like memory leaks etc. (which I consider bugs that should be ironed out before the code is released) but rather the overall structure and logic of my approach to the problem my code is trying to solve.

Flash may have serious issues on some platforms like Android. But on some, it works just fine. For instance, on Windows 7 in Internet Explorer, its OK. Is it perfect? No, it like any other software framework has warts. I've used Flash as a skin to C# kiosk applications that are pretty complicated and there really haven't been too many issues. Would I like to see Flash get better (a better IDE would be wonderful) or a replacement for Flash come along that blows it away? Of course. Today I saw a music video for Arcade Fire that was done in HTML5. It integrated Google Street View images and satellite imagery into the video. It was a very nice demonstration of HTML5 and Chrome that has me believe that maybe Flash does have some competition. But it is not a done deal yet. Comments like the one you made just make you look ignorant and discredit real concerns about Flash.

As a favour to a friend, I spent several hours last night making a Winmodem work in Hardy Heron installation on a 2 or 3 year old HP computer. If this was a Windows computer, the modem would have recognized immediately by the OS and the computer would have been ready to connect to Internet via PPP without any sweat (that's what it was doing up to a couple of weeks ago when his hard drive died and I persuaded my buddy to go the Ubuntu route). Working with Ubuntu , I was forced to wade through all sorts of technical issues regarding getting a driver for the modem (scanModem works well but I just don't think such a tool should be necessary). Fortunately for my friend, I'm persistent, have a Ph.D. in computer science and used to run a lab based on Solaris (which gave me some insight into Linux). All I wanted is a driver for the damn modem. I didn't care and don't care where it came from. Even better, there'd be plug and play. The frustration was huge. I was cursing penguins, Linus Torvalds, OSS and geekdom in general. There's a heck of a lot that impressed me about Ubuntu but it was a real pain in the ass to work through this driver issue. My experience last night was certainly going to make no one in Microsoft worry about losing a customer (I work primarily on Windows servers and workstations).

My friend whose computer it is, is a non-techical person (almost a Luddite) who just wants to use his computer to do his job (he creates newsletters for an organic produce co-op). He would have never figured out how to set up his computer in a million years. I almost gave up and told him that he'd have to shell out the money for a Windows (he had lost his original XP installation CD). Fortunately for him I'm very stubborn.

I'm now very sceptical that Linux will see the mainstream unless the community can make things easier for users.

For all the valid criticisms of Apple and Microsoft, I think it can't be denied that they work towards usability for the average guy who doesn't know anything computers and doesn't care. That doesn't seem to be important to the world of Linux. My friend shouldn't have needed me to make his modem work.

Open source or not Linux needs drivers for devices in commodity-type computers that are easy for novices to install and use.