Are the gov't discounts really that great? Last time I compared(summer of 2008) the gov't(state level) & education discounts available to me they were higher priced than what was currently available on Dell's website.

This situation arise because the prices & configurations are negotiated only every few years.

I'd suggest comparing the pricing of the same machine with & without the "gov't discounts". It would also be useful to know what kind of specs you are looking.

The Dell Vostro series for your basic office worker will you run about $500. As others have mentioned don't bother getting your windows license from Dell. At the volume you are dealing with it, you can a simple enterprise/site wide license from Microsoft.

I believe this scheme runs afoul of Due Process and Equal Protection clauses of the Constitution. Laws apply equally to all. One can't pay a fee and then be exempted from some.

But hey it's America.. anything for a buck, right?
 

"stuff to look forward to" isn't right. Then plenty of experiences across the ages spectrum. The speed with which time appears to pass is relative. To a ten year old, one year is 1/10 of their life... that can seem like forever. To a sixty year old, one year is 1/60 of their lifetime... a year can pass in the blink of an eye.

Trust me as you age there is no shortage of things to -do-, fresh & new or otherwise. But you are right that TV plots are pretty much the same... same for movies.

I think physical location is also a factor. Where I live we have four distinct seasons. This makes one acutely aware of where in the year(cycle) we are; amount of daylight & temps.
   

Unless there are gaming or itunes needs I would move your home machines to a free(as in speech & beer) OS. Fedora/Ubuntu have all matured enough for general home use. Go try a LiveCD.

You can re-skin them to look like Windows. See this comment for links.

Otherwise look at BizSpark for your Microsoft software needs.

Fee: A USD $100 Program Offering Fee is due when the Startup exits the Program. As part
of Microsoft's commitment to Startup success, there are no initial costs for Startups to join
BizSpark.

Technology offering: The BizSpark technology offering to Startups currently includes:
      For design, development, testing and demonstration of your software application:
        - Software included in a Visual Studio Team System Team Suite (VSTS) with MSDN
              Premium subscription is included in this Program. Additionally, VSTS Team
              Foundation Server (Standard Edition) is available for use by the entire development
              team

Could you share some links to honest-to-gawd news?

Try changing your threshold to zero or higher. Then you won't see the trolls.

ATI's linux drivers are still craptastic... not likely to change in the next few months. You're still better off with Nvidia for linux.

But the feature advantages do for me.

Could you elaborate on that? Give a couple of examples?