But can you imagine a web built solely by programmers? [...] I have to wonder if the web would be as big and diverse as it is now if it hadn't been able to pull in the casual author back in 1995. [...] 10 years ago the idea of visiting a website was inordinately dorky, and being online meant you were a social outcast. But what is wrong with that? Yes, I know... Amazon and Ebay and such depend on the casual surfer, but would it really be so bad if the internet comprised primarily academics and programmers and serious hobbyists instead of primarily preteens (and older folks with the maturity of preteens) with too much time on their hands?
Call me an elitist, but I don't feel like it would be much of a loss.
The taxpayers should demand that Windows be kicked out of schools Unfortunately, there are still valid reasons why some schools/departments are simply unable to switch to Linux. The digital media program I'm studying is very focused on Adobe/Macromedia software, and there aren't open source alternatives to everything that includes. Even if there were, the department has already invested in licenses for current versions of those suites and others, and would be reluctant to abandon them after only a year or two of use.
I do hope they'll switch to OSX rather than Vista, rationalized by the fact that either way they'll have to buy new hardware. But Linux won't be a real alternative until Adobe starts supporting it, or someone develops, among other things, a FLOSS Flash alternative that reads and outputs.fla and.swf files for those of us who depend on being able to work with them.
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On the contrary, I'm pretty sure Shuttleworth/Canonical can afford better advertising copywriters than that :)
I do hope they'll switch to OSX rather than Vista, rationalized by the fact that either way they'll have to buy new hardware. But Linux won't be a real alternative until Adobe starts supporting it, or someone develops, among other things, a FLOSS Flash alternative that reads and outputs