... the Microsoft of the skies.

... one extra tap (for third party apps) is needed to consent to T&C that were already consented to when using the Apple platform.

That some people don't realize this is probaby due to their seeing T&C pop-ups as nothing more than a window full of gibberish with an "Accept" button on the bottom.

NIST have always been the world leader in creating ever more accurate clocks, the current masers work in picoseconds and below, so allowing the reference to drift by 4.8 microseconds means that precision dropped by at least 6 orders of magnitude.

If allowed to propagate to the GPS control clocks, this would have been enough to totally destroy the navigation system since a clock that is off by 4.8 us corresponds to a position error of 1500 kilometers. (OTOH, USNO has its own large ensemble of atomic clocks, so they don't depend short term on NIST updates.)

Full disclosure: I worked with the NTP Hackers (network time protocol) team for 20+ years, so I'm probably a bit more interested in precise timekeeping than most. I have personally soldered together 4 or 5 GPS-based reference clocks that would deliver 25-35 ns RMS precision.

Let me stop you right there.

You presuppose that we know what a good desktop is. I don't think we do. I think trying many different variations to find out is exactly how we some day will.

In which parallel universe? Windows has shown what a barely passable desktop needs, one that is just about good enough to stop people from escaping from the lock-in.

We agree.

But it is not a problem the Linux crowd can solve. Because it's not a technical question.

I'm sure the Gambino family made much the same argument when the Genovese family got out ahead of them.

On the other hand, Microsoft trying to write an OS in Rust will reveal absolutely every defect present in the language.

Unless they write their own, which is quite likely as they'd rather have defects they can ignore.

That can be negotiated. It's not unheard of to demand certain business units to be spun off as conditions for a merger.

Much as I dislike Ellison, keeping studio stuff in studios is probably a better idea than merging a distribution network (think theaters) with producers. Too many people ended up with horses heads in their beds before the old system was disassembled.

Yes. But what about the corporate licensing violations?

Let's try to keep our priorities straight</sarcasm>

Great! I'll stop by the dealership and pick up my Aventador. Just send the bill to Visa/AI.

Network capable displays.

We had this discussion in 2023. And in 2021. 2020, 2019, 2017, 2015, 2013, 2011, 2009, 2008, 2007 and I think 2005. Or so.

Oh dear, poor users don't know where to start. I'm sure that is the one and only thing that stops the entire world from switching to Linux. Certainly not the lack of games, business applications or compelling reasons to switch from the shit that they currently run and know is shit but at least they know that shit.

Linux has won the server OS wars. When's the last time anyone had a serious discussion of using whatever the last windows server OS version is for anything critical? When's the last time you logged into a Solaris machine?

The desktop is a different game, always has been, always will be. It's a game run not by technical excellent. I mean, exhibit A: DOS and Windows, who were never, ever, the best OS - just the most popular one. But on the desktop, what matters is if the users can use it (it's right there in the word) and that hinges on two things: a) familiarity and b) availability of applications.

a) is a lot more serious than most of us nerds realize. Think about any random corporation. Let's say 5000 office employees currently using Windows. Re-training them to use Linux instead might take just a few hours for the tech-savvy ones, and let's say a day for the less so. Add twice that as a period where productivity is at least somewhat hampered by them having to look up again or ask a colleague how to do X. Suddenly you're looking at something like 30-50 thousand hours of lost productivity. And these are not minimum-wage people. So your bill is what, half a million?

b) this is the applications the business actually uses, not some Open Source alternative. If the graphics designers use Photoshop, they need that, not Gimp. Tons and tons of enterprise software is windows-only. And there we are with the chicken-and-egg problem.

Seriously, "the Linux desktop is too fragmented" is bullshit. All things considered, that's the least worry of anyone. And one of the greatest strengths. I know that I would've given up completely on Linux a lot sooner than I actually did if there had only been KDE and Gnome, and not Enlightenment and other interesting options pushing the boundary of the possible. Heck, E would still run circles around almost all UIs today.

Gotta keep the masses entertained and uneducated about politics.

... or so children can stay idiots. Instead of learning some reponsibility.

"Drop the chips and put your hands up! This school has an exclusive contract with Cheetos."