Seriously, there is plenty of science that shows issues related to GMO crops. If not the crops themselves, the fact that a round up ready corn means several times more round up applied to the ground. This is scienfitically documented.
Can you cite your sources? Peer reviewed papers from respectable sources?
I don't ask to be dickish; I'm genuinely keen to read it. A cursory Google search found a French study that showed "Roundup ready corn to be toxic", which was then widely panned by the scientific establishment. Anything better?
There is no support for developers who might want to sell an application, because making a living by selling software is somehow inherently bad. I call this "closed."
A lot of what you said was nonsense, but I'll pick this bit out as particularly weird. Ubuntu's Software Centre has paid-purchase programmes right there in it. There are a large number of programmes (particularly games) which are proprietary, closed source, and for sale right there from the desktop. Alternatively, you can install straight from a.deb file, which is Linux's equivalent of a.exe installer in Windows; there's nothing stopping a developer selling you.deb files on a CD or behind a pay-walled e-commerce website. An example of the latter, I recently bought the game SpaceChem (proprietary, for money); you download the.deb from the website, and then on first run put in your product activation key which you must buy before you can play.
It is easy to port software to Linux, providing you can overcome any technical hurdles involved (which is exactly the same as porting to any system; no different than porting from Win7 to Mac OSX, or Win Phone 7 to Win Phone 8). Many developer don't bother, obviously, but that's hardly a sign of openness; otherwise your definition of "most open" is just synonymous with "most popular".
If someone wanted to start selling a new Linux phone paired with decent commodity hardware, I'd be game to buy one. And if they wanted to start it up with Kickstarter, I'd consider kicking in a couple of dollars for their efforts (if not go the whole "pre-order with a pledge" route).
Devil's in the detail, obviously, but sounds no worse than most of the Kickstarter hardware projects out there in principal.
Given the last two items, why would a nerd who is protesting Apple's closed system ever want to choose Ubuntu?
Nerds like to tinker. We pride ourselves on it. But we also pride ourselves on using the best tool for the job. That is no longer Ubuntu.
Ubuntu is completely misreading their market.
My switch: I have been using Win 7 for about 6 months now, and I love it.
In what way is Windows 7 more open than Ubuntu? Don't like Unity- you can install Gnome 3, or anything else. Don't like Ubuntu One? You can uninstall the programme easily enough.
Slashdotters don't like iOS because of the closed ecosystem; you can't install what you want, you can't change the settings you want to change, you can't access the low-level functionality of your device if you need/want to. Ubuntu has none of those problems. Not only is it still completely configurable, and you can install from any source you like, but it's also open source- which means you can fork and compile to your heart's content.
If "Ubuntu Phone" sticks tot he same principals as the desktop OS, then it will be a fully functional GNU/Linux computer in your pocket; and who wouldn't want that? If they go the Apple/MS route and lock it down, however (and they could well do- details are thin on the ground at the moment), then you'd very much have a point.
I can already buy sim-only contracts from every UK carrier, and sim-free unlocked handsets from all over the place (not least Google and their Nexus range). Clearly they don't care that much.
If Canonical could get the phones manufactured, they could just sell them sim-free and unlocked from their website, in the same way as Google do. The challenge is getting a manufacturer to sign up for it.
I would buy one, I think, depending on details. Since the death of MeeGo, there hasn't been a serious GNU/Linux based phone on the market. If Ubuntu can deliver a phone with something approaching the same feature set as they do in their full desktop distro, then it would be exactly what I've always wanted from a Smartphone.
I know you're being snide, but a reminder that Ubuntu is still the most popular Linux distro; although it is no-longer flavour of the month with the Slashdot crowd, it still has a large enough following to be a serious player.
And hey, Unity is always being criticised as looking like a phone/tablet OS shoehorned onto a desktop...
Seriously, that's how we're supposed to be pronouncing it? I've been pronouncing it with an "aye" sound, as in "Tizer" (the soft drink), or "Tiger" (the, er, tiger).
My answer to this one is the same as my response to the "who would buy RIM" question. There are lots of companies out there that currently manufacture PCs, laptops or commodity tablets but who don't manufacture phones (or not in any great quantity). I can see them as being the main target.
Lenovo is one possibility. Acer ans Asus are others. Dell has tried and failed at phones before, and could be game for another attempt (and they have a history of selling Ubuntu devices). And the dozens of others, big and small.
And that's before we get started on the phone manufacturers who have either not achieved success with Android, or not attempted a smartphone at all yet. Panasonic come to mind, as do Huawei and Alcatel.
Insulting how? I've worked in dead-end admin jobs before. Low wages, mostly staffed by 18 year olds and part time mothers. There were a lot of people there without a lot of IT skills, and they would most certainly not consider themselves to be "professional customer change of address people", etc. Profession implies a level of specialist knowledge and commitment that they would definitely not claim was required.
These are people who will require training if you change the tools you've given them to do their job. Being told "bugger off and learn how to use it in your own time somehow" is not going to cut it; and any IT department that thinks it will is full of idiots.
Oh there was a year of it, it just sucked. Xandros was an abomination; I lost a lot of faith in Asus that they were willing to ship products in such a shoddy state when such great alternatives were easily and freely available. I whipped Xandros off mine after a week and replaced it with an Ubuntu Netbook Remix variant, and it was fantastic.
I can only presume there was corporate dodgy dealings going on between Asus and Xandros to make that happen. And I'm certain corporate dodgy dealing was what led to Windows becoming standard and the form factor creeping.
Good for you, but they are 3-4x the price of a netbook. They're an entirely different beast.
I'm glad that you're happy to spend that much on your mini-laptop, but I'm not. Netbooks filled my niche for a real computer to take with me when I couldn't take my proper computer with me. For £800, I'd expect a proper computer in its own right; and for me that involves a bigger screen for one.
Speaking from my experience with an Eee PC: 1) Touchpads are fine on the move, and the three USB slots and built in Bluetooth leave plenty of room for a mouse. Unless you insist on 100% touchscreen you should be fine (and if so, how do you survive with 99% of computers out there?) 2) Put Linux on it. Ubuntu runs smooth as butter on this one. If you're on Slashdot, you really shouldn't need telling this. 3) Mine can play streamed video with no stutter; a dozen LibreOffice instances don't slow it down. 4) Battery life of 6.5 hours in power saving processor mode, which is only an hour or so shy of my Kindle Fire.
Frankly I find typing anything more than a search keyword on a touchscreen more or less unbearable. Typing a comment as long as this makes me wince; I'm typing this on my netbook and it will take me seconds; on a touchscreen I'd be looking at several error-prone, frustrating minutes. If I ever had to replace my netbook with a tablet, it would absolutely have to be one with a physical keyboard (like an Asus Transformer), or it would be a no sale.
My usual "coffee table computing" comprises of typing comments on Slashdot and other forums, typing emails (and if I were so inclined- Tweets, Facebook messages, IM conversations) and typing things into occasional documents, spreadsheets, note-taking software, etc. "Passively looking at the screen as things happen" is only a small part of my usage; if that's all I did, the TV would probably do fine.
I bought one because I have a business laptop (a big chunky Thinkpad) which I need to take with me on business, but which is locked down. I wanted a personal computer I could take with me too, but didn't want to haul around a second big laptop.
In other circumstances, it's my coffee table computer at home, and is the computer I take out with me to coffee shops etc. (small, portable, and cheap enough that I don't care if it gets lost or stolen).
I have a tablet and a smartphone (a Kindle Fire and an Xperia X10-MP) and they're both fine, but they're just no substitute for a proper laptop; even and underpowered one. A mouse, keyboard, a proper selection of full-sized connectors and the ability to run any and all Linux programmes just can't be beat by an e-reader with delusions of grandeur. I will be very sad if I can't replace my Eee PC when it dies; hopefully someone will cling on to the niche.
That seems like rather limited categorisation. They might not have the monopoly in "12" laptops with a pink case with a silver stripe, and where the touchpad has three buttons along the bottom rather than two", but the EU probably doesn't split things down into that level of detail.
From all standpoints that matter, there is no real difference between a tablet (running iOS, Android or Win 8 RT) and a laptop (running iOS related Mac OSX, Android related Linux, or Win 8 not-RT). Aside from a the fact that they have a different default input mechanism (touch screen rather than touch pad), they don't have a hinge and keyboard (except for the ones that do), and there are some manufacturer-set configurations which prevent the user from installing programmes in certain ways- otherwise they're identical.
I mean Christ, how much difference is there between the Surface RT and the Surface Pro, the Asus Transformer and the Asus VivoTab? They're almost identical hardware (except the chip), and in the former case almost identical software too.
There is a lot of evidence for the fact that penile sensitivity is reduced by circumcision. Some studies come out the opposite; at a quick glance of the sources, I tend to trust the "it does" camp more than the "it does not", but I don't think that can count as a proper meta-analysis...
If you were circumcised as a child, you will probably never know what the difference was. In which case, if the former is true- bad luck and all that; perhaps have sympathy on your own sons.
If you were circumcised as an adult, then your experiences would be intriguing to hear about. I've read articles from people who were circumcised as adults swearing that their sensations have been reduced; but again, hardly a proper study there...
Debatable. It might be the most popular of the 3 consoles (although I don't think it is- the Wii outsold it), or the most profitable, but Xbox 360 hasn't dominated in the way that the PS2 did in it's day, or the SNES in it's. It doesn't have vast numbers of exclusive games, and the other consoles haven't tried to emulate it. If anything, both MS and Sony have expended much effort to try to emulate the Wii, making Nintendo this generation's "trend setter"- although it'd be extremely generous to say the Wii "dominated", when it clearly didn't. There's also iOS, which was a game changer on the portable and semi-portable side of things hitherto occupied by Nintendo and Sony handhelds. And PC gaming has also experienced a renaissance compared to just a few years ago.
This generation has been far more even handed than most. That might explain why it has been such a long generation- none of the competitors have felt a burning need to pull something new out of the bag.
And being rude isn't a free ticket for violent assault.
It looks at first glance* like the developer didn't just make a mistake, but then proceeded to try to make excuses and shift blame. If I had a subordinate acting like that to me, instead of apologising and trying to fix things, then I would probably feel pretty cross too.
*The narrative to me looks like this: 1) Developer submitted a kernel patch. 2) Tester submitted a bug report that the patch breaks pulseaudio, and suggests a way of fixing the problem. 3) Developer says "not my fault if pulseaudio is a piece of crap- I'm going to ignore you". 4) Linus angrily points out that there's no way a patch which is going to break 99% of deployed systems is going to be allowed to go live, and he should instead focus on fixing his code.
"Software" and "Data used by software" is a bit of a false distinction to most users. If the data is crap, the whole software package becomes crap. If Google's search engine was the best piece of software in the world, but the data was so crap that it couldn't return any results you actually wanted, then you would not be praising Google's search engine.
The fact that Google's mapping software wasn't very good 10 years ago is hardly relevant. Nor is the WiFi scandal, unless you're suggesting that either Apple Inc. or iPhone users are feeling inclined to boycott Google on moral grounds. The fact is that Apple (seller of expensive, top of class premium devices) removed a polished and much loved piece of software from their phones and replaced it with something broken, unsatisfactory and not fit for prime time. And those phones cost £570 each.
Reliance on any one platform, or relying on some platform dependant tools is stupid in todays diverse market its why game engines like Unity work on both Gnu/Linux and Android
Cross-platform compatibility between PCs and Android devices isn't as useful as some might instinctively assume because the input devices are vastly different between platforms, and each input device works best for a particular genre.
Like I say, it depends on what we're talking about. Would of Goo benefits greatly from cross-platform; if the game had been developed on a Windows-only platform, it would suffer. War for the Overworld is currently up for funding on Kickstarter at the moment (basically a Dungeon Keeper clone/sequel) and they've chosen Unity and are promising cross-platform support; a smart move in a game where point-and-click is the order of the day. If they'd chosen a Windows-only engine, they'd be artificially limiting their market.
Why is "double taxation" a dirty word (phrase) when applied to corporations? I double, triple etc. pay taxes on my money.
1) I get paid a salary, and pay income tax and national insurance (I'm UK). 2) I buy something; let's say petrol. I pay VAT (or in this case, fuel duty). 2a) Incidentally, the petrol supplier will have already paid import duties for this petrol. 3) I put the petrol in a car and drive it away. To enable that I've paid Road Tax. 4) On the way home, I cross a toll bridge, and pay the toll.
So there you have it; in order to do a car journey, I've earned money and paid taxes out of it 4 times at least. It might seem complex, but that's just the way we divvy up the load. I pay the toll on the bridge, and people who don't use the bridge don't. As a vehicle owner I pay Road Tax; people who don't, don't. I pay VAT on the luxuries I buy, and people who stick to VAT-free essentials do not.
You could avoid "double taxing" me by abolishing all the secondary taxes, and upping my income tax to compensate. But that would mean that people would be paying for the thing that they're not using.
Employees pay income tax (and investors pay Capital Gains tax) to pay for the services they use. Corporations pay Corporation Tax on their profits to pay for the government services that they use. Whether it be protection for their enterprise by the police, diplomacy from the government in their favour, or or the infrastructure that their company needs to function; it needs paying for somehow, and it only muddies the waters to assume that the employees and investors should cover it out of their taxes.
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Seriously, there is plenty of science that shows issues related to GMO crops. If not the crops themselves, the fact that a round up ready corn means several times more round up applied to the ground. This is scienfitically documented.
Can you cite your sources? Peer reviewed papers from respectable sources?
I don't ask to be dickish; I'm genuinely keen to read it. A cursory Google search found a French study that showed "Roundup ready corn to be toxic", which was then widely panned by the scientific establishment. Anything better?
Toyota Corolla, actually. Never broken down yet.
22 US gallons is 18 Imperial gallons. I get 42 MPG in my 11 year old, not particularly fuel efficient family-sized hatchback.
So yeah, 22 is pretty poor.
There is no support for developers who might want to sell an application, because making a living by selling software is somehow inherently bad. I call this "closed."
A lot of what you said was nonsense, but I'll pick this bit out as particularly weird. Ubuntu's Software Centre has paid-purchase programmes right there in it. There are a large number of programmes (particularly games) which are proprietary, closed source, and for sale right there from the desktop. Alternatively, you can install straight from a .deb file, which is Linux's equivalent of a .exe installer in Windows; there's nothing stopping a developer selling you .deb files on a CD or behind a pay-walled e-commerce website. An example of the latter, I recently bought the game SpaceChem (proprietary, for money); you download the .deb from the website, and then on first run put in your product activation key which you must buy before you can play.
It is easy to port software to Linux, providing you can overcome any technical hurdles involved (which is exactly the same as porting to any system; no different than porting from Win7 to Mac OSX, or Win Phone 7 to Win Phone 8). Many developer don't bother, obviously, but that's hardly a sign of openness; otherwise your definition of "most open" is just synonymous with "most popular".
Oh you cynic.
If someone wanted to start selling a new Linux phone paired with decent commodity hardware, I'd be game to buy one. And if they wanted to start it up with Kickstarter, I'd consider kicking in a couple of dollars for their efforts (if not go the whole "pre-order with a pledge" route).
Devil's in the detail, obviously, but sounds no worse than most of the Kickstarter hardware projects out there in principal.
Given the last two items, why would a nerd who is protesting Apple's closed system ever want to choose Ubuntu?
Nerds like to tinker. We pride ourselves on it. But we also pride ourselves on using the best tool for the job. That is no longer Ubuntu.
Ubuntu is completely misreading their market.
My switch: I have been using Win 7 for about 6 months now, and I love it.
In what way is Windows 7 more open than Ubuntu? Don't like Unity- you can install Gnome 3, or anything else. Don't like Ubuntu One? You can uninstall the programme easily enough.
Slashdotters don't like iOS because of the closed ecosystem; you can't install what you want, you can't change the settings you want to change, you can't access the low-level functionality of your device if you need/want to. Ubuntu has none of those problems. Not only is it still completely configurable, and you can install from any source you like, but it's also open source- which means you can fork and compile to your heart's content.
If "Ubuntu Phone" sticks tot he same principals as the desktop OS, then it will be a fully functional GNU/Linux computer in your pocket; and who wouldn't want that? If they go the Apple/MS route and lock it down, however (and they could well do- details are thin on the ground at the moment), then you'd very much have a point.
I can already buy sim-only contracts from every UK carrier, and sim-free unlocked handsets from all over the place (not least Google and their Nexus range). Clearly they don't care that much.
If Canonical could get the phones manufactured, they could just sell them sim-free and unlocked from their website, in the same way as Google do. The challenge is getting a manufacturer to sign up for it.
I would buy one, I think, depending on details. Since the death of MeeGo, there hasn't been a serious GNU/Linux based phone on the market. If Ubuntu can deliver a phone with something approaching the same feature set as they do in their full desktop distro, then it would be exactly what I've always wanted from a Smartphone.
I know you're being snide, but a reminder that Ubuntu is still the most popular Linux distro; although it is no-longer flavour of the month with the Slashdot crowd, it still has a large enough following to be a serious player.
And hey, Unity is always being criticised as looking like a phone/tablet OS shoehorned onto a desktop...
Are you thinking of Bada?
Seriously, that's how we're supposed to be pronouncing it? I've been pronouncing it with an "aye" sound, as in "Tizer" (the soft drink), or "Tiger" (the, er, tiger).
My answer to this one is the same as my response to the "who would buy RIM" question. There are lots of companies out there that currently manufacture PCs, laptops or commodity tablets but who don't manufacture phones (or not in any great quantity). I can see them as being the main target.
Lenovo is one possibility. Acer ans Asus are others. Dell has tried and failed at phones before, and could be game for another attempt (and they have a history of selling Ubuntu devices). And the dozens of others, big and small.
And that's before we get started on the phone manufacturers who have either not achieved success with Android, or not attempted a smartphone at all yet. Panasonic come to mind, as do Huawei and Alcatel.
Insulting how? I've worked in dead-end admin jobs before. Low wages, mostly staffed by 18 year olds and part time mothers. There were a lot of people there without a lot of IT skills, and they would most certainly not consider themselves to be "professional customer change of address people", etc. Profession implies a level of specialist knowledge and commitment that they would definitely not claim was required.
These are people who will require training if you change the tools you've given them to do their job. Being told "bugger off and learn how to use it in your own time somehow" is not going to cut it; and any IT department that thinks it will is full of idiots.
Since when are minimum wage call centre or back-office admin staff "professionals"?
Oh there was a year of it, it just sucked. Xandros was an abomination; I lost a lot of faith in Asus that they were willing to ship products in such a shoddy state when such great alternatives were easily and freely available. I whipped Xandros off mine after a week and replaced it with an Ubuntu Netbook Remix variant, and it was fantastic.
I can only presume there was corporate dodgy dealings going on between Asus and Xandros to make that happen. And I'm certain corporate dodgy dealing was what led to Windows becoming standard and the form factor creeping.
Good for you, but they are 3-4x the price of a netbook. They're an entirely different beast.
I'm glad that you're happy to spend that much on your mini-laptop, but I'm not. Netbooks filled my niche for a real computer to take with me when I couldn't take my proper computer with me. For £800, I'd expect a proper computer in its own right; and for me that involves a bigger screen for one.
Speaking from my experience with an Eee PC:
1) Touchpads are fine on the move, and the three USB slots and built in Bluetooth leave plenty of room for a mouse. Unless you insist on 100% touchscreen you should be fine (and if so, how do you survive with 99% of computers out there?)
2) Put Linux on it. Ubuntu runs smooth as butter on this one. If you're on Slashdot, you really shouldn't need telling this.
3) Mine can play streamed video with no stutter; a dozen LibreOffice instances don't slow it down.
4) Battery life of 6.5 hours in power saving processor mode, which is only an hour or so shy of my Kindle Fire.
So yeah, you scared yourself off for no reason.
Frankly I find typing anything more than a search keyword on a touchscreen more or less unbearable. Typing a comment as long as this makes me wince; I'm typing this on my netbook and it will take me seconds; on a touchscreen I'd be looking at several error-prone, frustrating minutes. If I ever had to replace my netbook with a tablet, it would absolutely have to be one with a physical keyboard (like an Asus Transformer), or it would be a no sale.
My usual "coffee table computing" comprises of typing comments on Slashdot and other forums, typing emails (and if I were so inclined- Tweets, Facebook messages, IM conversations) and typing things into occasional documents, spreadsheets, note-taking software, etc. "Passively looking at the screen as things happen" is only a small part of my usage; if that's all I did, the TV would probably do fine.
I bought one because I have a business laptop (a big chunky Thinkpad) which I need to take with me on business, but which is locked down. I wanted a personal computer I could take with me too, but didn't want to haul around a second big laptop.
In other circumstances, it's my coffee table computer at home, and is the computer I take out with me to coffee shops etc. (small, portable, and cheap enough that I don't care if it gets lost or stolen).
I have a tablet and a smartphone (a Kindle Fire and an Xperia X10-MP) and they're both fine, but they're just no substitute for a proper laptop; even and underpowered one. A mouse, keyboard, a proper selection of full-sized connectors and the ability to run any and all Linux programmes just can't be beat by an e-reader with delusions of grandeur. I will be very sad if I can't replace my Eee PC when it dies; hopefully someone will cling on to the niche.
That seems like rather limited categorisation. They might not have the monopoly in "12" laptops with a pink case with a silver stripe, and where the touchpad has three buttons along the bottom rather than two", but the EU probably doesn't split things down into that level of detail.
From all standpoints that matter, there is no real difference between a tablet (running iOS, Android or Win 8 RT) and a laptop (running iOS related Mac OSX, Android related Linux, or Win 8 not-RT). Aside from a the fact that they have a different default input mechanism (touch screen rather than touch pad), they don't have a hinge and keyboard (except for the ones that do), and there are some manufacturer-set configurations which prevent the user from installing programmes in certain ways- otherwise they're identical.
I mean Christ, how much difference is there between the Surface RT and the Surface Pro, the Asus Transformer and the Asus VivoTab? They're almost identical hardware (except the chip), and in the former case almost identical software too.
There is a lot of evidence for the fact that penile sensitivity is reduced by circumcision. Some studies come out the opposite; at a quick glance of the sources, I tend to trust the "it does" camp more than the "it does not", but I don't think that can count as a proper meta-analysis...
If you were circumcised as a child, you will probably never know what the difference was. In which case, if the former is true- bad luck and all that; perhaps have sympathy on your own sons.
If you were circumcised as an adult, then your experiences would be intriguing to hear about. I've read articles from people who were circumcised as adults swearing that their sensations have been reduced; but again, hardly a proper study there...
Debatable. It might be the most popular of the 3 consoles (although I don't think it is- the Wii outsold it), or the most profitable, but Xbox 360 hasn't dominated in the way that the PS2 did in it's day, or the SNES in it's. It doesn't have vast numbers of exclusive games, and the other consoles haven't tried to emulate it. If anything, both MS and Sony have expended much effort to try to emulate the Wii, making Nintendo this generation's "trend setter"- although it'd be extremely generous to say the Wii "dominated", when it clearly didn't. There's also iOS, which was a game changer on the portable and semi-portable side of things hitherto occupied by Nintendo and Sony handhelds. And PC gaming has also experienced a renaissance compared to just a few years ago.
This generation has been far more even handed than most. That might explain why it has been such a long generation- none of the competitors have felt a burning need to pull something new out of the bag.
And being rude isn't a free ticket for violent assault.
It looks at first glance* like the developer didn't just make a mistake, but then proceeded to try to make excuses and shift blame. If I had a subordinate acting like that to me, instead of apologising and trying to fix things, then I would probably feel pretty cross too.
*The narrative to me looks like this:
1) Developer submitted a kernel patch.
2) Tester submitted a bug report that the patch breaks pulseaudio, and suggests a way of fixing the problem.
3) Developer says "not my fault if pulseaudio is a piece of crap- I'm going to ignore you".
4) Linus angrily points out that there's no way a patch which is going to break 99% of deployed systems is going to be allowed to go live, and he should instead focus on fixing his code.
"Software" and "Data used by software" is a bit of a false distinction to most users. If the data is crap, the whole software package becomes crap. If Google's search engine was the best piece of software in the world, but the data was so crap that it couldn't return any results you actually wanted, then you would not be praising Google's search engine.
The fact that Google's mapping software wasn't very good 10 years ago is hardly relevant. Nor is the WiFi scandal, unless you're suggesting that either Apple Inc. or iPhone users are feeling inclined to boycott Google on moral grounds. The fact is that Apple (seller of expensive, top of class premium devices) removed a polished and much loved piece of software from their phones and replaced it with something broken, unsatisfactory and not fit for prime time. And those phones cost £570 each.
Wholly agreed. My point was in response to:
Reliance on any one platform, or relying on some platform dependant tools is stupid in todays diverse market its why game engines like Unity work on both Gnu/Linux and Android
Cross-platform compatibility between PCs and Android devices isn't as useful as some might instinctively assume because the input devices are vastly different between platforms, and each input device works best for a particular genre.
Like I say, it depends on what we're talking about. Would of Goo benefits greatly from cross-platform; if the game had been developed on a Windows-only platform, it would suffer. War for the Overworld is currently up for funding on Kickstarter at the moment (basically a Dungeon Keeper clone/sequel) and they've chosen Unity and are promising cross-platform support; a smart move in a game where point-and-click is the order of the day. If they'd chosen a Windows-only engine, they'd be artificially limiting their market.
Why is "double taxation" a dirty word (phrase) when applied to corporations? I double, triple etc. pay taxes on my money.
1) I get paid a salary, and pay income tax and national insurance (I'm UK).
2) I buy something; let's say petrol. I pay VAT (or in this case, fuel duty).
2a) Incidentally, the petrol supplier will have already paid import duties for this petrol.
3) I put the petrol in a car and drive it away. To enable that I've paid Road Tax.
4) On the way home, I cross a toll bridge, and pay the toll.
So there you have it; in order to do a car journey, I've earned money and paid taxes out of it 4 times at least. It might seem complex, but that's just the way we divvy up the load. I pay the toll on the bridge, and people who don't use the bridge don't. As a vehicle owner I pay Road Tax; people who don't, don't. I pay VAT on the luxuries I buy, and people who stick to VAT-free essentials do not.
You could avoid "double taxing" me by abolishing all the secondary taxes, and upping my income tax to compensate. But that would mean that people would be paying for the thing that they're not using.
Employees pay income tax (and investors pay Capital Gains tax) to pay for the services they use. Corporations pay Corporation Tax on their profits to pay for the government services that they use. Whether it be protection for their enterprise by the police, diplomacy from the government in their favour, or or the infrastructure that their company needs to function; it needs paying for somehow, and it only muddies the waters to assume that the employees and investors should cover it out of their taxes.