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Comment by eloff | Hacker News Reader

That settles it, I was tossing around whether to get the Xbox One or the PS4. I'm voting with my wallet and getting the PS4. Fuck Microsoft.

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Ever since Microsoft started extorting money from open source vendors/OEM's with bogus patents, I've started dropping Microsoft's products as soon as I could.

The only one left is Windows 7, which I can't wait to get rid of in 2-3 years, once either Ubuntu or Android come into their own as more mature mainstream operating systems.

> which I can't wait to get rid of in 2-3 years, once either Ubuntu or Android come into their own as more mature mainstream operating systems.

This comment was brought to you by the year 2006 and the letter Q.

I jumped ship from Microsoft when Vista came out, switching to Ubuntu in 2008. It was good enough for mainstream production use then, albeit with some warts - but it was already a hell of a lot more polished, functional and user-respecting than Vista.

Ubuntu has continues to improve in polish, stability and usability since then. There's no reason for you not to start making the jump now.

My recommendation is to start by replacing the applications on your Windows machine with cross-platform FOSS equivalents, if you haven't already. That way, the OS transition will be a lot easier because you will already be familiar with the software.

Guess the 14.04 LTS release (a few weeks after release) would be a good point to switch.

edit: p.s. I'm using Linux since about 97 and as primary system since sometime from mid-2000's.

I am assuming you're changing your vote next time for the Green/Constitution/Libertarian party as well? Since I assume you'll treat the congressmen and their political parties who take the lobbying money the same way you treat the corporation that is giving the bribe.

I don't live in the US. I turned down a job at Google not because of anything to do with Google, but because it means living and paying taxes in the US. I work remotely from a tax haven, have no debt, and I'm on track to retire with a million in savings by my mid thirties. You'd have to make a quarter million a year to pull that off in the US. In Panama I can do it on a lower salary than what Google pays. I have freedom and you have big brother and big banker. You can't pay me to accept a green card to the land of "freedom and opportunity."

Some people maximize their lives for money, other people for their surroundings.

Sounds like a classic cop out. I'd wager that my surroundings aren't terribly much worse than yours, but the difference is you'll have to work for 30 years more than me (if you're average), while I will be free to change my surroundings as often as I feel like. If you optimize for money and focus on long-term goals you can end up with a much higher quality of life overall.

>while I will be free to change my surroundings as often as I feel like.

Except you can't afford to live in high-cost cities if your savings is only 1 mil and you want to retire on that in your thirties.

Yes, I'd have to work longer if I wanted to do that. I don't see any reason to though, I don't much care for large, expensive cities.

How's Panama, by the way?

It's nice. There's a number of rough edges but not hugely more than in the developed world. Learning Spanish was the biggest problem for me, because I've never committed the time to it. I met a great girl (model) here that I intend to marry (I think I would have had great difficulty meeting a loyal old-fashioned girl in my home country, nevermind that girls as pretty as her never used to give me the time of day.) I can't complain.

You speak of this person like she's an ornament to be hoarded.

That's to be expected from a person that moved to panama solely to maximize his salary/col ratio.

You can share your girlfriends if you like, but I prefer to hoard mine ;) Don't read things into my text that aren't there.

Cool. I'll have to visit Panama some day.

Ha, I don't live in the US, I live in a some times worse nation - India. We don't pay as many taxes though. I made my comment as an assertion of the fact that people blaming corporations must also blame the participating government as well. Good to know you're a dollar vigilante! I always wanted that lifestyle; can't get it, not yet anyway.

Sony did put rootkits on music cds tho. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_BMG_copy_protection_rootki...

... 8 years ago.

If you want something more recent, along with Apple, Microsoft, BlackBerry, and Ericsson, they are one of the backers of Rockstar, which is currently suing Google using old Nortel software patents that claim the concept of matching internet search terms to advertising.

Good for you. I threw my win phone out of my car in anger the other day and broke it. I will not be buying another.

I've already decided not to renew my MAPS and MSDN subs again in December thanks to the epic crack smoking going on.

Or buy neither, as Sony isn't any better. PC game on Linux or OS X.

Apple is bordering on patent troll, too. They may not have bothered to oppose this legislation, but they recently exerted some of their patents via the Rockstar thing.

Yeah, but at least at Microsoft, no one is eating whales.

My point, is you can find something to hate about every company or group of people.

Why so much hate?

Patent trolls make me see red. I hate them with every fiber of my being. They're the bully that used to beat you up and take your lunch money. Except here it's worse, because you can't go the principal for help (here the principal is called the law and it is on their side.) You're left to fume powerlessly against the injustice being done.

What if Sony was also in that bunch? Genuinely curious: I had to make a similar decision a year ago, and since Sony had been on my shitlist because of DRM-related prosecutions, I went for the Xbox.

Yeah Sony is evil too, but less so in my mind. Patent abuses are something that hits close to home for me.

Do you think Sony is any better?

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