Excusing bad programming is a shooting offence, no matter what the circumstances.

A consumer doesn't take anything away: he doesn't actually consume anything. Giving the same thing to a thousand consumers is not really any more expensive than giving it to just one.

I'm a big non-believer in manual driver and kernel configuration, be it visual or not.

I have one very basic rule when it comes to "good ideas". A good idea is not an idea that solves a problem cleanly. A good idea is an idea that solves several things at the same time. The mark of good coding is not that the program does what you want, it's that it also does something that you didn't start out wanting.

I obviously think that freely available software can not only keep up with the evolution of commercial software, but often exceed what you can do commercially.

In short: just say NO TO DRUGS, and maybe you won't end up like the Hurd people.

I've been employed by the University of Helsinki, and they've been perfectly happy to keep me employed and doing Linux.