Your TV would have to be a monitor with no ability to tune in to a signal before you could argue exemption for TV licenses, at least in the UK, and Ireland sounds like it has a similar system. Owning a TV and claiming it's not connected to an aerial/cable/satellite/etc is not sufficient. It has been this way for decades.
This is incorrect:
http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/information/index.jsp#link1
Presently in the UK, you do not need a TV license unless you "watch or record television programmes as they're being shown on TV". It doesn't matter what equipment you own - it matters what you do with it.
It is admittedly, a completely absurd and almost unenforceable situation.
Microsoft are smart enough to realise that mindshare is the key factor which will determine their chances of survival in future OS markets.
The only thing which can possibly come from this is another generation who learn to use computers in the context of the obfuscated Microsoft approach: Removed from the real technology, and inadvertantly locked into Windows' GUI conventions and file formats.
What a gutless capitulation by the OLPC project.
I see a lot of people who have this or that frustration with Gentoo, but in each case it's pretty easy to see what tool or approach they overlooked which could easily have solved their 'problem'. Gentoo requites some effort and knowledge to use it properly, but it's hard to imagine how the distro could avoid this while still offering the same immense flexibility.
Of course somebody is going to prefer Ubuntu if they have fairly mainstream needs, and dislike spending any time configuring their system. But tell me what other distro could simultaneously drive an arcade machine with 15Khz monitor, a tweaked real time kernel for pro audio and a full suite of bleeding edge (and I mean *bleeding*) source-compiled soft synths and sequencers, all running flawlessly on a Pentium 3?
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Your TV would have to be a monitor with no ability to tune in to a signal before you could argue exemption for TV licenses, at least in the UK, and Ireland sounds like it has a similar system. Owning a TV and claiming it's not connected to an aerial/cable/satellite/etc is not sufficient. It has been this way for decades.
This is incorrect: http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/information/index.jsp#link1 Presently in the UK, you do not need a TV license unless you "watch or record television programmes as they're being shown on TV". It doesn't matter what equipment you own - it matters what you do with it. It is admittedly, a completely absurd and almost unenforceable situation.
Microsoft are smart enough to realise that mindshare is the key factor which will determine their chances of survival in future OS markets. The only thing which can possibly come from this is another generation who learn to use computers in the context of the obfuscated Microsoft approach: Removed from the real technology, and inadvertantly locked into Windows' GUI conventions and file formats. What a gutless capitulation by the OLPC project.
I see a lot of people who have this or that frustration with Gentoo, but in each case it's pretty easy to see what tool or approach they overlooked which could easily have solved their 'problem'. Gentoo requites some effort and knowledge to use it properly, but it's hard to imagine how the distro could avoid this while still offering the same immense flexibility.
Of course somebody is going to prefer Ubuntu if they have fairly mainstream needs, and dislike spending any time configuring their system. But tell me what other distro could simultaneously drive an arcade machine with 15Khz monitor, a tweaked real time kernel for pro audio and a full suite of bleeding edge (and I mean *bleeding*) source-compiled soft synths and sequencers, all running flawlessly on a Pentium 3?
Foobar2000 is the best media player on any platform and the one reason I keep WINE installed. Check it out.