Most of the AE population lives in sovs with pretty conservative laws. It just happens that the more colorful sovs get more press. That's why you hear very little about the Believers Fellowship (pop: 2 million), and quite a lot about Jack Old Ron (pop:1), the Radical Lesbian Collective (pop: 0, although it got up to about 400 before the collapse), the People's Democratic Socialist Republic of Marxgrad (pop: 200), etc. The exception is Forward Power, which has conservative laws but produces antimatter; you mostly hear about them, of course, when there's an Unfortunate Incident.
GeekSoft is known to programmers as the producer of GeOS, and to shipping
lines for the SkyNet traffic management system, but most consumers know
them as the producers of the Max Hyrax games, which were originally intended as a
children's game. The ridiculous antics of Max and his bumbling gecko
sidekick caught on among adult gamers; even twelve years after the game's
debut, Max's trademark observation ("Crud!") often reduces Hyrax addicts
to helpless laughter.
GeekSoft headquarters is located on an Alarishi asteroid referred to as The Planet of the Geeks. The social structure is based on the writings of Otaku-do (The Way of the Geek), and residents operate in a complex hierarchy which includes SysOps, SuperUsers, Tolkies, Hackers, Crackers, Phreaks, Cat Wranglers, Gurus, Code Warriors, Boss Geeks, UberGeeken, Secret Masters of Geekdom, and the King Geek. The primary export is software and the services of software engineers ("Geek Squads"). The programming language Molniya is the official language.
Jack Old Ron is the renowned author of the classic children's series Silly Sheep. It used to be that children at bedtime would go to sleep by counting sheep jumping over a fence; Silly Sheep, however, never quite manage to make it over the fence. They waterski, they tie themselves to kites, they pole vault (more difficult than you'd think, with hooves), they fire themselves from circus cannons, one even disguised himself as an artichoke (and when last seen, was inching down the hill in an attempt to take the fence by surprise)--but all to no avail. The Silly Sheep series has been translated into 38 languages and over three billion copies have been downloaded. Jack Old Ron is also known for his visually stunning trideo epics (such as To Ride a Painted Dragon, Lance of Light, The Colour of Her Name), and for the fact that he is the sole population of an Alarishi sovereignity. Prospective visitors are cautioned that Jack Old Ron's asteroid habitat has automated anti-ship weapons and is listed as a Category 2 navigation hazard to 40,000km radius.