I ran Arch on my laptop for a couple years until switching to Ubuntu Server 14.04 a couple months ago. It more closely matches my dev servers taht run 12.04, and using i3 I hardly notice a difference day to day.
Given your situation, you should not go for short term for sure as you don't have much time to follow it. For long term you should try things like fixed deposit which have sure returns.
If software patents are illegal then how the hell they can grant ten thousands software patents? I hope they modify the copyright approach a little better and remove software patents to help save open source softwares.
I think this was the time when OnLive could have gone for "debt restructure" and save the company for a few years. Either it would have been successful in business or could get more payout.