There most certainly is not. The pledge is common in schools but the Supreme Court has ruled no one is required to participate and cannot be punished for non-participation. Is it still weird? Sure. But it’s not required.

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46964586

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Do you run any exotic hardware? Do you run MS Office regularly? Do you run any highly specialized software?

If the answer is no to all those then Linux is worth a shot.

But when you approach 99% of the population who, to the extent they’ve even thought about it, will only judge an OS on B, Linux is just one of 3 main choices (sorry BSD folks. Don’t yell at me). Is it the best choice purely on functionality and app ecosystem? Maybe, but also maybe not.

Since the majority of Linux does not come on hardware by default what you’re essentially asking people to do is to buy a car and swap out the motor. We have to convince them why that new motor is better and is worth the effort of doing so. If it’s marginally better or worse, it just won’t be worth the headache to most people.

To be clear Linux (and MacOS) are my preferred OS. I haven’t owned a Windows box in at least 5 years.

I do see in the site meta that it's purpose may be to just fill in so you can see who would have what population and area if an alliance was formed or area was conquered, but even that doesn't seem to work as selecting the US registers 0 population and 0 area.

That being said I also produce software for a living as well and there’s nothing wrong with that either. It’s not either or. It’s yes and.

Figuring all this stuff has a cost, both real (now you have to hire people to screen and enforce the means testing) and emotional/political (news story about a single mother who was rejected for making $1 too much).

So when advocating for means testing please keep in mind it’s a lot easier to not have it. Yes some who don’t need it will get it, but that can be better than a ballooned cost and some who do need it being blocked or dissuaded from getting it.

    There are literally millions of aliens within the jurisdiction of the United States. The Fifth Amendment, as well as the Fourteenth Amendment, protects every one of these persons from deprivation of life, liberty, or property without due process of law… Even one whose presence in this country is unlawful, involuntary, or transitory is entitled to that constitutional protection.