While you are correct about required applications being supported, once that hurdle is cleared 18% is REALLY important if your time is valuable. If you compile or render all day this could near 2 hours a day in saved time.

Ok, so the Mint developers want to force updates. Uninstall Mint and use another flavor - Problem solved (who should I invoice?). I like Debian for stable servers, Raspian on my pies, Ubuntu for feature advanced servers, Manjaro on my workstations/laptops and Lubuntu on my home theater or anything too old to otherwise be useful. Each has pros and cons and I choose based on my requirements. I am not beholden to any of them so I pick the best one for the job at hand and move forward. This is not like Apple or Microsoft forcing something on their users. This is a non-story about nobody cares being shot with a nothing burger in the nether regions. Nothing to see here, move along.

Users of proprietary OS's are the product not the client. If you want to have ACTUAL control of your computer then you need an open source OS. There are no other options if you want control. I run Mandriva but any *nix will give you control back. Complaining about a for profit company leveraging their product to make even more money is a bit ridiculous since you have other choices. If you don't like a product, quit using it - and as my Dad would say, "Quit yer whining!".

On what basis did you make this statement? In my testing, many Windows games perform better on my Manjaro system than on Windows 10. In fact, the only games that didn't perform better were ones that won't run on Linux due to DRM. You aren't going to try to convince me that MariaDB, LibreOffice or the Gimp run faster on Windows than on Linux are you? Windows may be more convenient for YOU but faster I think not.

I agree with you. It is a cheap attempt at attempting to do something to get votes. However, if you throw enough darts you will hit the bullseye once in a while. While I am not a fan of the current CiC, this is a badly needed reform. I've learned not to question a politicians motives as I have concluded that they always lie anyway. Instead, I look at results and in this case, the CiC is right on the money. He is now 9 for 6645 on my scorecard. I just pray he doesn't end the world before November.

I could sign up to the five streaming services that host my fav TV shows for $100CAD OR go to pirate bay. Their greed is disgusting. I am voting with my wallet.

I totally agree with the op. I have 30 years xp as a sysadmin, webdev, tech support, etc. I have not used Windows on my own equipment for many, many years. My Father did not want to learn a new os and stubbornly held on to Windows - until his business account was looted twice in 6 months. I installed Ubuntu and gave him a tour, setting up shortcuts printers, network drives and such. He loves it because it is easy, stable and secure. I don't know many people that would describe Linux as easier than Windows. This needs to change.

I think it is bordering on narcissism to think humans could have any significant effect on the climate. Who caused the last ice age? Neanderthals maybe? This planet has never stayed the still since it was formed. We should concern ourselves with ensuring we can survive whatever the planet does. Pollution is bad for everyone but CO2 is not pollution. CO2 is a very critical plant food and more of it makes plants grow faster and has been unscientifically demonized by eNGO lobbyists. I am not saying we should go out of our way to increase CO2 production but I am saying that we can not prevent the Earth from doing what it is going to do so we better prepare for everything, expect the worst and pray for the best.

There are several fundamental problems with the whole global warming issue (I am Canadian but the issues are the same for the USA). 1) We are considering CO2 a greenhouse gas when the scientific evidence does not support this conclusion. https://friendsofscience.org/i... 2) CO2 is required by plants - 40% of dried plant material is carbon by (dry) weight. No CO2 = NO FOOD. 3) China INCREASED it's CO2 emissions last year more than Canada's total output. If we were to go carbon free next year it would not make one bit of difference globally to CO2 levels. 4) Cap and trade or carbon taxes will cause serious harm to many sectors of our economies . Canada emits a large amount of CO2 for the size of it's population. At -40C and pitch black for months during winter there are literally no other options than oil/gas/coal for many of us. 5) Solar at this Northern latitude is useless and the panels take more CO2 to make than they will ever save during their lifetime. 6) Renewable energy sources are unreliable and require a base load generation which is either gas or coal in areas that cannot implement hydro-electric or nuclear. The only way that a country like Canada (and the USA) could possibly hit it's CO2 targets would be nuclear. The eco-terrorists have done such damage to nuclear that we can't get permission to start new ones. I am not walking to work at -40 full stop. Electric cars don't work worth a crap at these temperatures and charging them with coal, diesel or gas is expensive and does not reduce any emissions. I am tired of being a punching bag for uneducated eco-terrorists. Taxing carbon will simply transfer our wealth to our fascist overlords and then we will starve and freeze. This is madness!

Dear Caterpillar, Cats and Caterpillars are different creatures and D10s don't meow - they crawl. Don't be trolls - the Internet will throw you under the bus.

So I pay Netflix et al for premium content with no commercials and the "smart" TV then injects it's own? When my kids ask me to get a new movie I wait until it is released on B-Ray and then bittorrent it into my networked kodi install. I know 100% what is on my system and that it is safe for my kids to watch. I will quit pirating when my children quit being the product. Until then I feel no guilt or shame in preventing the brainwashing and exploitation of my family. Greedy bastards be damned! I love my older LG television BECAUSE it is dumb as brick.

Doing this automatically is exactly how Microsoft could remove it's competitors products. I foresee a time when "buggy patches" changes to "shit we don't like".

I have no problem with updates. sudo apt update && apt upgrade -y If I want to have a closer look at everything then I remove the -y and if I am lazy and don't run the command, my computer will do it for me - because I told it to that if I am lazy. In many years that command has not worked for me twice and both were shitty nvidia driver issues. Windows makes a cute vm if you like to poke a stick at monkeys in a cage but I don't want Candy Crush Soda installed against my will every time my computer "updates". FFS people, there are alternatives. How can you expect a greedy and ruthless company to act in any other interest than it's own. 2019 - Year of the Linux desktop!

You can be sure that Allstate has a crapton of lawyers on salary and they almost certainly have a plan for getting the Right to Repair through or they wouldn't have made this play. I see this as the biggest win yet for RTR!