As it stands M$FT has a combination of deep pockets and compelling apps for the ordinary consumer than Linux has. It's not enough to say, Linux can also read your MSFT word documents. Just look at how far that got the Mac.

However we recommend, particularly in cooler climates, sowing tomato seeds into a seed tray or punnet and allowing the seedlings to grow before they are transplanted into the garden.

This is the same Randian bullshit that we've been hearing from people like Brooks for ages and its entire premise is really revolting and insulting—this idea that the way society works is that the productive rich feed the needy poor, and that any attempt by the latter to punish the former for excesses might inspire Atlas to Shrug his way out of town and leave the helpless poor on their own to starve. That's basically Brooks's entire argument here. Yes, the rich and powerful do rig the game in their own favor, and yes, they are guilty of excesses—but fucking deal with it, if you want to eat.

He gives our preferrings the bad name of the machinery of motives, but they are just what we feel in ourselves when we decide.