British Health System Looks at Linux [Slashdot]
This will never happen. It is a little known fact that, these days, most diagnoses are actually made by Clippy, who appears as the doctor types your symptoms into her PC.
I happen to have Word 2002 (Medical Edition) installed on my computer. If I type the following:
Symptoms: Severe, fleeting, sharp, pain in chest, on one side only, when breathing deeply, coughing, moving, or sneezing.
Up comes Clippy:
Good, huh?
On second thoughts, maybe Linux would be fine. I would imagine that more and more physicians will be Googling for their diagnoses. I know I do.
The only real problem with diagoogling (as it is known) this is that some companies engage in the rather shady practice of pharmabombing - the publication of web pages by pharmaceutical companies which contain symptom lists and the names of their own drugs in an attempt to raise the Google ranking of their products and thus increase sales.
A little common sense will usually allow a physician to see through these dishonest practices, and make the correct prescription, which in this case, of course, would be mustard plasters, cupping and flaxseed poultices.
The web is great, isn't it?
11:31:49 AM 
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