My father is a retired teacher, and my wife is a teacher, so I'm very pro-teacher. That said, saying she'd rather see companies pay more in taxes ...I read it as, "we'd rather you give us more money so we don't have to learn how to use different software. I certainly don't think is fair to ask a company like Google to pay higher taxes so the school district can continue to spend money on Microsoft licenses, especially when they have a completing product that they're willing to offer for free. ...sounds like pure laziness.

Have you even seen a modern distro's desktop? Practicallty every one I've used for the past 5 years has some sort of "Software Center" app for software installation that functions very much like iTunes or Google Play on iOS & Android. Open the "Software Center" app -> search for the application you want to install -> select it and enter your password to complete the installation. It's so easy, even a Windows user could do it.

Bing users...living in the U.S....who speak Chinese and no English. This has got to affecting a massive amount of users.

I haven't had any issues with Linux and NTFS support for years. I share files with Windows computers across a network all the time. Set up the share on the Windows computer, and mount the folder from Linux. Then you can save files to it as you would any other folder on your local computer.

I relocate a while back, and since that time most of my recordings have been basement home studio stuff. Along the way, I picked up a Phonic Helix Firewire 18 board to use as my audio interface. For what I've been recording, it does the job. I've had it recording 14 tracks at once, and neither it, nor the computer flinched. There are many inexpensive Firewire or USB audio interfaces that can handle most home recordings.

I only use the Intel AD198x sound card for playback when I'm not recording.

One other thing. I bought the Firewire board because I was using it with a Mac. Firewire on Linux can be a pain in the ass to get working. I spent a few frustrating evenings trying find the right combination of driver and JACK versions to get my working smoothly. You might consider USB as your first option.

My Ubuntu Studio machine is set up similar to this FYI...It originally came with Win 7 installed, but instead of using a VM, I just set it up as a dual boot system. I was afraid of what latency issues I might cause myself with a VM.

I've been writing and recording since the early 80s. I own several computers and tonnes midi/audio recording software, (e.g. Protools, Cubase, Garage Band, Sonar, Sibelius...). I've also been using Linux on my desktop since Mandrake 7. Recently, I set up a computer with Ubuntu Studio, and I love it. I've barely touched any of the other systems since....mostly just to export tracks. There was a bit of a learning curve, but I'm finding that once I got the hang of using Jack, there was no turning back.

Primarily, I'm using Ardour (http://ardour.org/features.html) for multi-track audio recordings (LV2, VST and LADSPA plugins are all supported), MuseScore (http://musescore.org/) for scoring, Timidity/Qsyth (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TiMidity%2B%2B) for MIDI tone generation.

Also, I've never had any issues sharing tracks with users of other programs, nor have I had any issues exporting from other programs/platforms into those in Ubuntu Studio.

Right, guns don't kill people, people kill people...faster, more efficiently, and in greater numbers USING guns.

> Hello, tech support...my Windows bra is not working.

| Are you sure your bra is on?

> Yes

| Have you tried re-dressing?

> Yes

| Okay, let's try starting in safe mode...re-clasp the bra while tapping your left nipple

These products are designed to sell to gun owners. Any product with "Smart" in the name is going to scare them off.

Right, everyone should own a killer robot. It's the only way to keep law abiding citizens safe.
If we outlaw killer robots, only crimals will have them.

Yep, using the term "censorship" is "loaded and inflammatory"...unlike the term "pirate."

/s I don't game on my computer, so I can't speak to that, but all of the software that I use runs on *nix platforms. I switched years ago and never looked back. The only time I ever use a Windows machine is when I don't have access to a Mac or Linux box.

Ha Ha! Yeah, you got me...except, I never claimed to be trying to disprove anything. I was simply asking a question.

If it really has been the warmest decade on record, why would anyone need to study and publish research on why the Earth hasn't warmed since 1998?

July 30, 2011
"A new study demonstrates why global surface temperatures defied a decades-long trend and didn’t continue to rise between 1998 and 2008"
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/332152/title/Sulfur_stalls_surface_temperature_rise_