During my business day I ask myself the same question. When I get in I check emails from my secretary reading "okjojhdai nasodihdaue, sndod, pkjsidhasoij?" One day I must standardise on qwerty keyboards rather than Dvorak. After that I go down to the coffee shop and barter for a cup of brew. Usually he settles for a shoe shine but sometimes prices go up and I owe him a pair of socks. After work I travel home by train, unfortunately I have to change trains every 3 miles as the tracks are all different gauges. I can finally settle down but my TV won't work. I must buy one that runs on 240v and 50hz, even though my Mongolian sheep dip powered model was very cheap. Ah, modern life is easy without standards.
The problem with that is that you use the word local. A VOIP phone is global. If I am responsible I will need to carry round a book with every local emergency number for every place in the world with broadband connectivity.
How do you prove that your penis is the same size after treatment? Well, you have to have a before and after shot. To paraphrase "Red Dwarf" Is it normal? What? Taking photos of it and showing them to your friends? No, it's not.
Or you could have a material witness. Considering he is using the stuff I think it highly unlikely that there are many of those around.
A very large and well known "newspaper" proprietor in the UK made his money initially by offering a product for sale via mail order. He had limited stock but kept selling it even when he ran out. He then explained that they had run out and refunded the money via cheque. The cheque was drawn by the "I take it up the arse club" or similar. How many people do you think took that to their bank? Similar thing with these guys.
It is funny that Google has a near monopoly based on a superior product and the ppl who are complaining typically use MS which is a company that has aquire a monopoly through illegal means.
It is funny that Google has a near monopoly based on a superior product and the ppl who are not complaining typically use MS which is a company that has illegally abused its monopoly.
Microsoft legally acquired a monopoly. What they have done with it since then is the subject of the anti-trust action. Remember that most people thought Microsoft had a superior product when Windows was first released.
I was going to say that you were offtopic, but reading it again you could not be more on topic. Google has legally acquired a monopoly position due to user demand. Many businesses have evolved to rely on the service that Google provides. Changes to the way in which they operate their business can have drastic effects on a business's success. Obviously this is of concern to many businesses and they are making known their concerns.
A good point, and well made. Is this your first time on slashdot?
Actually, Lemelson has used the tactic of extor.. ahem charging licensing fees that are lower than the cost of mounting a legal defence to encourage settlement rather than litigation, it keeps his costs lower. There needs to be a kind of 3 strikes on patents, if you have 3 patents successfully challenged in court you are barred from applying for any more patents. This would put a stop to this kind of shit. I can see the downside of course, but it would mean that large entities (corporations etc) would need to be damn sure that any patent they apply for must hold up in court, or be willing to withdraw it when someone comes along with a good challenge.
Reply to this guy. Go to the bottom of the article and Send Your Comments. When this shmuck sees how stupid he has been he may actually wake up to how ridiculous his argument is.
It is my opinion that tools and the tool manufacturers should not be blaimed for illegal use of their tools.
Part of the issue is the legality of selling games like GTA to kids. Many posters say that GTA is not a game for kids, yet clearly there are many kids out there playing GTA. Your 2 examples fit well. Neither are for kids and there are laws aimed at preventing kids from accessing both guns and cars, or at least making sure that if they do access them they do it in a responsible manner. Games are different as the laws are much less strict and seldom applied. A better parallel would be movies. Movies have a rating system that is easy to understand and is generally enforced by movie houses and parents. I agree with an earlier poster who said that a unified rating system for games and movies would be the best solution. Movies and games are commonly sold at the same outlets and at the moment many shops require ID (or at least make sure you look old enough) to buy certain movies. If we could just make it the same for video games then the argument that GTA is for adults will hold water. Until then, all games should be considered general market as we cannot control (to an degree) who has access to them.
Yes, I am fully aware that kids get access to porn and violent movies well before they are legally old enough to, but it appeases those who would blame violent movies, and the industry is seen to be taking the matter seriuosly. Part of the problem with perception of the gaming industry is that they just don't care. Did we see a public backlash about the amount of volence in "Kill Bill"? No, because it was rated for adults and we trust the rating and enforcement system that movies have. The Gaming Industry is seen to market adult games to kids and then wash their hands when kids get hold of the game.
In the end, what am I saying? Adult games are fine, but only if they can be restricted to adults to a reasonable degree. If this does not stop kids from accessing the games (and it probably won't) it will at the very least let parents and pressure groups see that the gaming industry is acting responsibly and taking an interest in maturing their industry.
Bloody hell, I can't believe I'm replying to an OT AC. "They had no right to do this" Oh yes they did. If Afghanistan invades the US will you sit back and watch because you have no right to do so since you "were part of a terrorist aggressive army that had attacked other countries" including Vietnam, Grenada, Sudan, Cuba and Afghanistan? If the US govt felt that these "detainees" were in fact legal prisoners of war they wouldn't be keeping them off US soil. It is clear that they have no intention giving them a fair trial. They want to put them away "without lawyers getting in the way" (to quote a Defense Department Official.
ARIA have issued several Mark "Chopper" Reid orders (similar to threats). In a prepared statement they said that "full cooperation is expected. I mean, it's very hard to host a website with no fingers." Electronic Frontiers Australia said "strewth, blimey, look at that little beauty!" before calming themselves down with a Fosters and throwing several prawns on the barby.
A gay friend of mine saw this in action a couple of years ago at a a Mardi Gras party. Each guest filled in a questionnaire with their likes/dislikes etc and when they passed someone with the same or similar they beeped/buzzed etc. The logic (AND/OR) could cause problems. I mean, what if you liked big guys, cross dressing and a little light flagellation all separately, and 20 minutes later found Jesse Ventura roundly whippin' your ass with a bullwhip.
What you are talking about is negligence. This is the argument as to when and if someone is deemed negligent for allowing their computer to be used without their consent.
Take for example the knife analogy. If you have a knife and you leave it on your kitchen table because you are preparing lunch, then no jury in the world (with the possible exception of the US) will find you guilty. Knives are kept in the kitchen. No-one expects you to keep your kitchen utensils under lock and key. Even though some of them can do some nasty things.
If you leave your keys in the car and it is stolen it is highly unlikely you will be sued because they used it to run people down. You will not, however, get a payout from your insurance company because you were negligent in securing the car. The difference here is that you can reasonable expect that if you leave your car unlocked with the keys inside that it will get stolen. You cannot expect that if someone steals your car that they will then use it to run someone over.
The gun analogy is different. If you keep guns in your house, I believe they should be kept in a locked cabinet and that the ammunition must be kept separate with different keys which themselves must be kept separate. There is a reasonable expectation that if someone gets hold of one of your guns that someone will get shot. It's what guns do.
In each of these cases you must take reasonable steps to prevent a likely outcome. One of the issues here is whether having your computer used to perpetrate a crime is a likely outcome and what reasonable steps to prevent it are. Another side of the coin is, who is negligent, you, the software vendor etc This is a complex issue because of the great range of users and software vendors out there.
Somebody mod this up as funny. I can see why you posted this as Anonymous.
I live in the real world where the government should get off our backs. Hilarious. The USA Patriot Act (might as well be the Committee of UnAmerican conduct) has been the single biggest act of American state oppression since 1776. Except maybe the Guantanamo Bay thing, oh, or the illegal invasion of a sovreign state, oh, or the illegal steel tariffs that have caused more problems than they have solved. Ah, but none of these things affect you do they?
let us solve our own problems I would have thought that your biggest problem would be working out how to address you sister, is it Cindy-Lou or is it Momma?
Some problems the government should handle, like foreing monsters attacking us Well, let me see. The last "foreing monsters" to attack America were Saudis. And the considered response was, invade the poorest country in the world. Ah yes, and then when you take prisoners you throw the Geneva convention out the window and don't see the irony when you try to take the moral high ground as you use faked, old and misleading evidence to invade yet another country. Yes, I see the structure and integrity of your argument. Someone call the Oxford debating society, this guy is a shoe in.
During my time at University, we had a lecture given by Professor Conan Fischer, a leading researcher on the Nazi party. This was given by the History Society and not part of any course. It was entitled "Hitler, the Nazis and the politics of New Labour". It was just after Tony Blair had become leader and was not yet Prime Minister. Anyway, just before the lecture began we had about 30 university Labour group members march in and sit at the back of the lecture theatre. They then sat with folded arms and could not have made the point more clearly if they had brown shirts on. The argument that was presented was that the mix of left and right wing rhetoric, family values, tough compassion, was very similar to the rhetoric that the Nazis used in pre war Germany. It would not be hard to draw parallels to Bush's compassionate conservative rhetoric. The cult of the leader was a strong theme as well. Now I'm not suggesting that either Tony Blair or Dubya are Nazis, but it becomes clear that the same ideals and rhetoric can hide a multitude of different meanings.
I work in the IT training industry in Australia. From experience I can tell you that most trainers who teach in South Asia (singapore, HK, KL, etc) tell me that their students are interested in learning only what they need to pass the exams.
The vast majority of European countries have voted in socialist governments.
I remember a few years ago there was a comedy show in the UK that did a parody of a kids news show describing the US elections. "The USA has two main parties, the Republicans party, who are very much like our Conservative party, and the Democratic party, who are very much like our Conservative party". Face it, Americans live in a society with only a facade of change. Whether you get Bush or Gore, the real power lies with the people who pay them, corporations.
But then - if people doing something for no cost ruins your industry... you have to wonder about the viability of that industry.
Absolute bullshit. I work in the training industry. If someone starts offering to train people for free, using the same methods and to the same degree then it ruins my industry. I used to work in the retail industry. If people start giving away similar quality clothes for free then it ruins my industry. Every industry relies on people doing something for a cost. If someone comes in and does it for free it will ruin any industry (think of the browser industry). MS and Open Source are not offering the same thing. MS has a broad market appeal. It does a variety of things well and is suitable for most users. Open Source does not have that appeal. Until OS appeals to the broadest market ie end users, then it will remain on the fringes.
A few years ago, a team of Swedish scientists took a sample of soil from a coastal region (about 1 kilo from memory) and analysed the living materials (plants, insects, bacteria etc) and discovere between 4 and 5 thousand new species or sub-species. They then took the same size of sample from an inland region and discovered between 4 and 5 thousand different new life forms. We have absolutely no idea how many undiscovered species are on the planet, and cataloging them all will take generations.
Reminds me of the guy who successfully sued Winnebago and had them change their user manuals because he put his vehicle in cruise control on the highway and then went out back to make himself a cup of coffee. He was surprised when the vehicle left the road and turned over. How about that! A car that doesn't drive itself, what will they think of next?
I know what you mean. I was a die-hard Star Wars fan as a kid. I bought the figures, the light sabers, everything. I bought the books (well, the first few, until they became a breeding ground for third rate plotlines by third rate writers). When I saw The Phantom Menace I was extremely disappointed. Jar-Jar, Darth Maul (when is a bad-guy not a bad guy?), continuity errors. In fact, the best thing about the whole movie for me was that the guy that did Sebulba (the voice) was an old friend of mine. Attack of the Clowns was a disaster. There was no continuity with the 'cannon', Yoda stopped being a master of knowledge and power and became a squirrel on speed. Lucas has killed his own creation with a mish mash of porr ideas and the desire to make as much cas as possible. I no longer care about the movies. I know I will not go and see the next one. I don't care about these cartoons as they can not make up for the shoddy work of Ep 1 & 2.
You are also exempt if: the message relates to goods or services; and
(c) the body is the supplier, or prospective supplier, of the goods or services concerned.
Holy Shit. That means that I have the right to send you email if I have something that I want to sell you, or think I might want to sell you. I think I might want to sell a penis enlarger. I will now email these 2 million people to see if they would be interested. Hey, the law lets me do it as long as I let you unsubscribe and say who I am.
It's interesting to note that selling address harvesting software will become illegal, and that selling email lists harvested by software will also become illegal. It will also be illegal to use the list even if you bought it overseas. The problem lies in proving that the list was obtained in this way.
If Linux is going to be anything other than a geek toy then it has to be useable by the average user. To say that you want the best OS for your use is fine. I want a flight that takes me to my folks door, but I don't expect that anyone is going to do that commercially. The best I can expect is that I can get a flight to the nearest airport and then get a cab. Am I selling out by lowering my expectations? Obviously not. I am simply acknowledging that as a commercial venture, having flights that only suit one person is not viable. Having an OS that only suits one person is not commercially viable. If you want it to be used, it MUST have broad appeal.
Microsoft targets the lowest common factor of computing No, Microsoft caters to the people who most use their software, average joe, home user and business user. They know their market and they work at things that the average user wants. Linux on the other hand doesn't know what its target market is. There lies the crux of the matter. If Linux is for Linux geeks then that's fine, but don't then expect anyone else to actually use your product, and worse than that, don't bitch when they don't.
It has been announced that after signalling for the 4th drink it will also notify your partner to go into "sulk mode" and make up the bed in the spare room.
Slashdot Mirror
During my business day I ask myself the same question. When I get in I check emails from my secretary reading "okjojhdai nasodihdaue, sndod, pkjsidhasoij?" One day I must standardise on qwerty keyboards rather than Dvorak.
After that I go down to the coffee shop and barter for a cup of brew. Usually he settles for a shoe shine but sometimes prices go up and I owe him a pair of socks.
After work I travel home by train, unfortunately I have to change trains every 3 miles as the tracks are all different gauges. I can finally settle down but my TV won't work. I must buy one that runs on 240v and 50hz, even though my Mongolian sheep dip powered model was very cheap. Ah, modern life is easy without standards.
The problem with that is that you use the word local. A VOIP phone is global. If I am responsible I will need to carry round a book with every local emergency number for every place in the world with broadband connectivity.
How do you prove that your penis is the same size after treatment? Well, you have to have a before and after shot. To paraphrase "Red Dwarf"
Is it normal?
What? Taking photos of it and showing them to your friends? No, it's not.
Or you could have a material witness. Considering he is using the stuff I think it highly unlikely that there are many of those around.
A very large and well known "newspaper" proprietor in the UK made his money initially by offering a product for sale via mail order. He had limited stock but kept selling it even when he ran out. He then explained that they had run out and refunded the money via cheque. The cheque was drawn by the "I take it up the arse club" or similar. How many people do you think took that to their bank? Similar thing with these guys.
It is funny that Google has a near monopoly based on a superior product and the ppl who are complaining typically use MS which is a company that has aquire a monopoly through illegal means.
It is funny that Google has a near monopoly based on a superior product and the ppl who are not complaining typically use MS which is a company that has illegally abused its monopoly.
Microsoft legally acquired a monopoly. What they have done with it since then is the subject of the anti-trust action. Remember that most people thought Microsoft had a superior product when Windows was first released.
I was going to say that you were offtopic, but reading it again you could not be more on topic.
Google has legally acquired a monopoly position due to user demand. Many businesses have evolved to rely on the service that Google provides. Changes to the way in which they operate their business can have drastic effects on a business's success. Obviously this is of concern to many businesses and they are making known their concerns.
A good point, and well made. Is this your first time on slashdot?
Actually, Lemelson has used the tactic of extor.. ahem charging licensing fees that are lower than the cost of mounting a legal defence to encourage settlement rather than litigation, it keeps his costs lower. There needs to be a kind of 3 strikes on patents, if you have 3 patents successfully challenged in court you are barred from applying for any more patents. This would put a stop to this kind of shit. I can see the downside of course, but it would mean that large entities (corporations etc) would need to be damn sure that any patent they apply for must hold up in court, or be willing to withdraw it when someone comes along with a good challenge.
Reply to this guy. Go to the bottom of the article and Send Your Comments. When this shmuck sees how stupid he has been he may actually wake up to how ridiculous his argument is.
It is my opinion that tools and the tool manufacturers should not be blaimed for illegal use of their tools.
Part of the issue is the legality of selling games like GTA to kids. Many posters say that GTA is not a game for kids, yet clearly there are many kids out there playing GTA. Your 2 examples fit well. Neither are for kids and there are laws aimed at preventing kids from accessing both guns and cars, or at least making sure that if they do access them they do it in a responsible manner.
Games are different as the laws are much less strict and seldom applied. A better parallel would be movies. Movies have a rating system that is easy to understand and is generally enforced by movie houses and parents. I agree with an earlier poster who said that a unified rating system for games and movies would be the best solution. Movies and games are commonly sold at the same outlets and at the moment many shops require ID (or at least make sure you look old enough) to buy certain movies. If we could just make it the same for video games then the argument that GTA is for adults will hold water. Until then, all games should be considered general market as we cannot control (to an degree) who has access to them.
Yes, I am fully aware that kids get access to porn and violent movies well before they are legally old enough to, but it appeases those who would blame violent movies, and the industry is seen to be taking the matter seriuosly. Part of the problem with perception of the gaming industry is that they just don't care. Did we see a public backlash about the amount of volence in "Kill Bill"? No, because it was rated for adults and we trust the rating and enforcement system that movies have. The Gaming Industry is seen to market adult games to kids and then wash their hands when kids get hold of the game.
In the end, what am I saying? Adult games are fine, but only if they can be restricted to adults to a reasonable degree. If this does not stop kids from accessing the games (and it probably won't) it will at the very least let parents and pressure groups see that the gaming industry is acting responsibly and taking an interest in maturing their industry.
Bloody hell, I can't believe I'm replying to an OT AC.
"They had no right to do this"
Oh yes they did. If Afghanistan invades the US will you sit back and watch because you have no right to do so since you "were part of a terrorist aggressive army that had attacked other countries" including Vietnam, Grenada, Sudan, Cuba and Afghanistan? If the US govt felt that these "detainees" were in fact legal prisoners of war they wouldn't be keeping them off US soil. It is clear that they have no intention giving them a fair trial. They want to put them away "without lawyers getting in the way" (to quote a Defense Department Official.
ARIA have issued several Mark "Chopper" Reid orders (similar to threats). In a prepared statement they said that "full cooperation is expected. I mean, it's very hard to host a website with no fingers."
Electronic Frontiers Australia said "strewth, blimey, look at that little beauty!" before calming themselves down with a Fosters and throwing several prawns on the barby.
A gay friend of mine saw this in action a couple of years ago at a a Mardi Gras party. Each guest filled in a questionnaire with their likes/dislikes etc and when they passed someone with the same or similar they beeped/buzzed etc.
The logic (AND/OR) could cause problems. I mean, what if you liked big guys, cross dressing and a little light flagellation all separately, and 20 minutes later found Jesse Ventura roundly whippin' your ass with a bullwhip.
What you are talking about is negligence. This is the argument as to when and if someone is deemed negligent for allowing their computer to be used without their consent.
Take for example the knife analogy. If you have a knife and you leave it on your kitchen table because you are preparing lunch, then no jury in the world (with the possible exception of the US) will find you guilty. Knives are kept in the kitchen. No-one expects you to keep your kitchen utensils under lock and key. Even though some of them can do some nasty things.
If you leave your keys in the car and it is stolen it is highly unlikely you will be sued because they used it to run people down. You will not, however, get a payout from your insurance company because you were negligent in securing the car. The difference here is that you can reasonable expect that if you leave your car unlocked with the keys inside that it will get stolen. You cannot expect that if someone steals your car that they will then use it to run someone over.
The gun analogy is different. If you keep guns in your house, I believe they should be kept in a locked cabinet and that the ammunition must be kept separate with different keys which themselves must be kept separate. There is a reasonable expectation that if someone gets hold of one of your guns that someone will get shot. It's what guns do.
In each of these cases you must take reasonable steps to prevent a likely outcome. One of the issues here is whether having your computer used to perpetrate a crime is a likely outcome and what reasonable steps to prevent it are. Another side of the coin is, who is negligent, you, the software vendor etc This is a complex issue because of the great range of users and software vendors out there.
Somebody mod this up as funny. I can see why you posted this as Anonymous.
.
I live in the real world where the government should get off our backs
Hilarious. The USA Patriot Act (might as well be the Committee of UnAmerican conduct) has been the single biggest act of American state oppression since 1776. Except maybe the Guantanamo Bay thing, oh, or the illegal invasion of a sovreign state, oh, or the illegal steel tariffs that have caused more problems than they have solved. Ah, but none of these things affect you do they?
let us solve our own problems
I would have thought that your biggest problem would be working out how to address you sister, is it Cindy-Lou or is it Momma?
Some problems the government should handle, like foreing monsters attacking us
Well, let me see. The last "foreing monsters" to attack America were Saudis. And the considered response was, invade the poorest country in the world. Ah yes, and then when you take prisoners you throw the Geneva convention out the window and don't see the irony when you try to take the moral high ground as you use faked, old and misleading evidence to invade yet another country. Yes, I see the structure and integrity of your argument. Someone call the Oxford debating society, this guy is a shoe in.
During my time at University, we had a lecture given by Professor Conan Fischer, a leading researcher on the Nazi party. This was given by the History Society and not part of any course. It was entitled "Hitler, the Nazis and the politics of New Labour". It was just after Tony Blair had become leader and was not yet Prime Minister.
Anyway, just before the lecture began we had about 30 university Labour group members march in and sit at the back of the lecture theatre. They then sat with folded arms and could not have made the point more clearly if they had brown shirts on.
The argument that was presented was that the mix of left and right wing rhetoric, family values, tough compassion, was very similar to the rhetoric that the Nazis used in pre war Germany. It would not be hard to draw parallels to Bush's compassionate conservative rhetoric. The cult of the leader was a strong theme as well.
Now I'm not suggesting that either Tony Blair or Dubya are Nazis, but it becomes clear that the same ideals and rhetoric can hide a multitude of different meanings.
I work in the IT training industry in Australia. From experience I can tell you that most trainers who teach in South Asia (singapore, HK, KL, etc) tell me that their students are interested in learning only what they need to pass the exams.
The vast majority of European countries have voted in socialist governments.
I remember a few years ago there was a comedy show in the UK that did a parody of a kids news show describing the US elections. "The USA has two main parties, the Republicans party, who are very much like our Conservative party, and the Democratic party, who are very much like our Conservative party". Face it, Americans live in a society with only a facade of change. Whether you get Bush or Gore, the real power lies with the people who pay them, corporations.
But then - if people doing something for no cost ruins your industry... you have to wonder about the viability of that industry.
Absolute bullshit. I work in the training industry. If someone starts offering to train people for free, using the same methods and to the same degree then it ruins my industry. I used to work in the retail industry. If people start giving away similar quality clothes for free then it ruins my industry.
Every industry relies on people doing something for a cost. If someone comes in and does it for free it will ruin any industry (think of the browser industry). MS and Open Source are not offering the same thing. MS has a broad market appeal. It does a variety of things well and is suitable for most users. Open Source does not have that appeal. Until OS appeals to the broadest market ie end users, then it will remain on the fringes.
A few years ago, a team of Swedish scientists took a sample of soil from a coastal region (about 1 kilo from memory) and analysed the living materials (plants, insects, bacteria etc) and discovere between 4 and 5 thousand new species or sub-species. They then took the same size of sample from an inland region and discovered between 4 and 5 thousand different new life forms. We have absolutely no idea how many undiscovered species are on the planet, and cataloging them all will take generations.
Reminds me of the guy who successfully sued Winnebago and had them change their user manuals because he put his vehicle in cruise control on the highway and then went out back to make himself a cup of coffee. He was surprised when the vehicle left the road and turned over. How about that! A car that doesn't drive itself, what will they think of next?
I know what you mean. I was a die-hard Star Wars fan as a kid. I bought the figures, the light sabers, everything. I bought the books (well, the first few, until they became a breeding ground for third rate plotlines by third rate writers). When I saw The Phantom Menace I was extremely disappointed. Jar-Jar, Darth Maul (when is a bad-guy not a bad guy?), continuity errors. In fact, the best thing about the whole movie for me was that the guy that did Sebulba (the voice) was an old friend of mine.
Attack of the Clowns was a disaster. There was no continuity with the 'cannon', Yoda stopped being a master of knowledge and power and became a squirrel on speed. Lucas has killed his own creation with a mish mash of porr ideas and the desire to make as much cas as possible. I no longer care about the movies. I know I will not go and see the next one. I don't care about these cartoons as they can not make up for the shoddy work of Ep 1 & 2.
I have an old laptop that has NumLk as a separate key, but no numeric pad. Can anyone tell me why it is there?
You are also exempt if:
the message relates to goods or services; and
(c) the body is the supplier, or prospective
supplier, of the goods or services concerned.
Holy Shit. That means that I have the right to send you email if I have something that I want to sell you, or think I might want to sell you. I think I might want to sell a penis enlarger. I will now email these 2 million people to see if they would be interested. Hey, the law lets me do it as long as I let you unsubscribe and say who I am.
It's interesting to note that selling address harvesting software will become illegal, and that selling email lists harvested by software will also become illegal. It will also be illegal to use the list even if you bought it overseas. The problem lies in proving that the list was obtained in this way.
If Linux is going to be anything other than a geek toy then it has to be useable by the average user. To say that you want the best OS for your use is fine. I want a flight that takes me to my folks door, but I don't expect that anyone is going to do that commercially. The best I can expect is that I can get a flight to the nearest airport and then get a cab. Am I selling out by lowering my expectations? Obviously not. I am simply acknowledging that as a commercial venture, having flights that only suit one person is not viable. Having an OS that only suits one person is not commercially viable. If you want it to be used, it MUST have broad appeal.
Microsoft targets the lowest common factor of computing
No, Microsoft caters to the people who most use their software, average joe, home user and business user. They know their market and they work at things that the average user wants. Linux on the other hand doesn't know what its target market is. There lies the crux of the matter. If Linux is for Linux geeks then that's fine, but don't then expect anyone else to actually use your product, and worse than that, don't bitch when they don't.
It has been announced that after signalling for the 4th drink it will also notify your partner to go into "sulk mode" and make up the bed in the spare room.