Except, as many other posters have pointed out, the other OS feature was never a feature that was marketed by Sony. Read through the TFA, it makes many valid points.

I was recently at a VMware luncheon with a VMware "clould" expert. He was probably the first person from a big could-services type provider that openly admitted the cloud isn't for everyone, and in many cases, it just doesn't make sense. He went on to explain that it's VMware position that you deploy your own "private cloud" at your own pace, and whether or not you move to public cloud is entirely up to you. Their whole sell was that their products make the transition from private to public cloud easy, hence you can stay private or move public at your own pace.

This contrasts to some recent Microsoft events I've attended, where they were pushing Azure so freakin hard that one of the Microsoft guys was almost literally said, quote for quote, 'if your next SQL project isn't on Azure, you're making a BIG mistake'. Microsoft seems to be of the mindset that between Azure and Office365, it's a hole-in-one business case for every company on the planet, which it's not. They went on to sell their Intune service the same way - 'If you're not a big company that has your own SCOM/SCCM solution, then you're making a mistake if you don't use Intune'.

Bottom line, much more cloud snobbery from the Microsoft guys.

This can be dangerous, politically speaking.

Very, VERY often in small companies, a 'friend of a friend' did the IT work before they decided to hire a full time person. Put your feelers out about the previous IT guy FIRST. The last thing you want to do is sit down and explain to the owner how the previous IT guy was a retard, and then he says 'that retard is my brother in law'. Get a sense as to what they thought of him previously. If he/she was a well loved person around the office, and you come in guns-blazing bad mouthing them, your credibility will be shredded instantly.

And maybe it's not the past person's fault? Maybe management was stingy, and more or less told him to do things as cheaply as humanly possible? Many startups (and charities) are like this. Maybe that previous guy was actually doing a half-assed decent job, given the conditions. There's been times where I've looked at things and wondered why on earth it is the way it is, and then after a couple weeks/months, I realized the factors behind the decision. Maybe the past IT guy was a saint (at least in the eyes of the business).

Bottom line: Unless something is about to literally explode, get a sense of things first. Be careful, get a lay of the land, not only technologically, but POLITICALLY as well. It's usually not so simple as going in a bad-mouthing the previous decisions. Maybe the founder/owner/ceo is a bit technical himself, so you don't want to spend an hour poo-poo'ing his own work. Approach with tact.

I've worked for fairly small companies like this a while ago. To me, this means one of 2 things:

1. It's a very small company. You can be small and still thriving. Maybe it's a startup that signed it's first 100 clients. If the company only needs 1 IT person (programmer AND do it all), then it would very likely have to be a very small shop ( 2. It's a very cheap company. They hire the absolute bare bones, as they have a bare bones product (or an immature product). They need somebody to update code and content every now and again, as well as keep things "running", and thats pretty much it.

In either case, the infrastructure should be small enough to be able to overhaul it fairly easily. But as others have said, don't make change for the sake of change. Take a look back, use your experience to determine what needs overhaul, and develop a game plan.

I've read through the vast majority of the comments here, and this whole half-life burnout thing seems to be heavily weighted with coders. A friendly reminder that "IT" is more than coding. While coding is a big part of IT, it's only a a part.

I work in systems admin (about 11 years), and I have yet to feel that I'm anywhere near the end (or even halfway point). I know many sys admins in the mid-30's who'd generally feel the same way. I DO however, notice this feeling IS a lot more prevalent with coders. After about 10-15 years, they seem to feel really burnt out. I'm also in Canada, a country whos economy hasn't been shit-kicked over the past 3-4 years. Unemployment in my City (Calgary) is at 5%, which factoring in systematic unemployment (usually 3-4%) means the real unemployment is virtually nil.

It mostly goes province-by-province, but in my province (Alberta), IT technically does not qualify for overtime pay.

However, the reality is quite different. Our job market never really suffered the ill-affects of the recession, so things have remained pretty red-hot here. Unemployment is at 5.4%, and factoring in systematic unemployment, it's practically nill - help wanted signs everywhere. Employers would never actually get away with this here. If you pulled that crap on someone, they would simply leave, and make a bit more elsewhere. The job market here is incredibly competitive (given a labor shortage), you'd have no problems getting a job elsewhere.

While a company might not actually pay overtime, they'll still acknowledge it and let you take time off in lieu. I don't technically make overtime pay, but any time I spend over and above the normal 40 hrs/wk, I can take off elsewhere.

If you have an old PC sitting around, why not use one of the excellent software-based routers out there? pfsense is one of the most popular (given it's BSD based), there's also IPCop, ClarkCounty, etc. There's even some free commercial options like Astaro, who's home-license only limits you to 50 internal IPs (plenty for most people, even by today's standards).

I use Astaro, and used to use pfsense. You get all of the features of a high end enterprise router, basically for free. The only obvious limitation is no built-in wireless, so you just hang an AP off an interface. Astaro offers their software as a VM appliance as well, so then you virtualize it if you so chose (as I do on ESXi 5).

I've used DD-WRT quite a bit, and I'd still personally prefer Astaro or pfsense.

In the rest of the world, where you can get a repuatable degree/diploma, for $20K or under, it's often worth it. But in the US, it's about 5x more expensive than the rest of the world, so you really have to determine whether or not it's worth it. This is particularly the case in many IT fields, where there simply isn't much of a relevant degree or diploma to speak of. If you're going to spend $50-$100K on a degree, you're going to have to make the personal decision as to whether or not it's going to pay for itself. Maybe it will, but at what cost? Are you going to have to live ultra-frugal for 15 years to make it happen?

IMO, University degrees in the states simply aren't worth it, especially when it sounds like it really doesn't get you anywhere (in 95% of cases).

Not quite sure what the vailidity of that 40 year claim is. Everything I read is at least 100 years of oil left, factoring in growth.

With new refining methods, the Alberta Oil sands is now known to be able to provde vastly more oil than previously thought. I've heard (from multiple sources) that the Oil Sands alone could provide the world with enough Oil for 10-20 years.

Windows 95 came out what - 15/16 years ago??? WTF?

Either way, unless there is some sort of tengible evidence beyond heresay proving that Microsoft had serious intentions to bundle WP, I don't think Novell will get anywhere here. Even then, Microsoft can tell any number of wendors or 3rd parties it intends to bundle a certain app or piece of functionality in, that doesn't make it true. This is generally why you sign contracts and letters of intention. I can remember lots of features in Windows OS's that were purported to make it in, and never did. Vista was originally supposed to have WinFS.

Speaking on not agreeing:

You can't stick a DVD or BR into most netbooks, because most netbooks don't have a disc drive (let alone blu-ray drive).

For a couple quick google searches, I don't think there's a fundamental difference between a physical keyboard and touchscreen keyboard. Most people are reasonably sufficient on both. Unless you're using the tablet as a primary device (which most wont), you're not usually typing tons and tons on it. Many netbook keyboards are also gimped. I'm probably faster on a tablet than I am most netbooks.

Netbooks are more functional, yes, depending on the usage. But isn't the whole point of a tablet or netbook a quick and dirty convenience device? To be more "functional" depends on the intended function. Tablets are more functional than netbooks at a great many things (media consumption). Media creation isn't going to fundamentally take place on a netbook OR tablet.

I'm not trying to poo-poo on netbooks, but really they're just small laptops. There's clearly a line in the sand when it comes to the functionality and convenience of a tablet vs. a netbook/laptop. I'd buy a tablet over a netbook in a heartbeat.

I work in IT (sys admin), having spent a bit of time in the military. Military experience is certainly no stone-cold guarantee that you've got a quality person on your hands, but it does increase the probability significantly. Technical skills aside, the military tends to instill a fairly healthy amount of discipline, teamwork, and the ability to think/act under pressure. As my Dad puts it (formerly in the military for 12 years) - the ability to think and chew bubble gum at the same time.

You can have shitty people in the military, too, but the military is generally not an environment that lends itself to extreme incompitence, advancement out of nepotism, etc.

If I'm looking at a pile of resumes or interviewing candidates, I generally assume that if someone has military experience, they won't have too many issues coming in late, being poorly dressed, being disrespectful to team mates, etc.

Although VMware made no new friends with their v5 licensing debacle, they're still the undisputed technological king-of-the-hill. Microsoft, Citrix, and KVM are slowly catching up, but they're still a ways off on many fronts (DRS, storage DRS, HA, etc). Hyper V (R2 SP1) is just now adding overcommit - a technology that's been in vSphere for years..

Most big entireprise clients are leaving VMware for licensing and cost reasons, not technological. Microsoft is not a small player, so when you can save hundreds of thousands a year of licensing costs for a product that does more or less the same thing (minus the higher end features), there's a compelling arguement to be had. Not to mention, with the v5 licensing debacle, many customers are having to shell out big $$ just to upgrade. VMware softened the blow by re-tooling the licensing after community outrage, but they're still very expensive.

Keep in mind that with the advent of the interweb and social media, people can be a lot more vocal a lot easier. Suppose Apple sells a million iPhones in the first couple weeks worldwide, and half a percent of people are having an issue with something. That's 5000 angry people, whom a good proportion of which are going to jump on internet forums and such. The end result is that you get a couple of very busy forums and tech sites with angry customers, but the reality is it might not be a very big issue, or an issue at all.

I do think Apple is pretty responsive, though. Yes, they're a big corporate giant, but yes, I do sincerely believe someone at Apple gives a shit. That's partly what makes Apple... Apple. Look at Antennagate - they admitted to this issue fairly promptly (within a month), and ultimately ponied up to make a reasonble resolution. Short of a class action lawsuit, they're not really obligated to do much at all. Caveat emptor. There's no law that says you can't sell a shitty product.

From what I could see, the Good management suite does it by sandboxing everything into a separate app. So you then have a separate app for mail/calendar/contacts, etc. Although I suppose there's arguments on both sides of the fence for doing it this way, I think this is kind-of a step backwards. Everything is going towards a convergence model, where you have a unified inbox/contacts/calendar app for all your accounts, personal, work, and otherwise. Palm was the first big innovator with this with WebOS, followed by Windows Phone (mostly 7.5) and iOS 4 and 5. When I book an appointment, I don't want to check 2 or 3 or 4 calendars.

All you really need is a way of purging the device of corporate data, which may or may not mean wiping the whole device. Many companies already manage this (including my own) - if you want to hook in your (personal) phone into the corporate systems, you have to acknowledge it will get wiped when you leave. Simple as that. If it's a corporate device, it gets wiped regardless. The whole point is being able to securly wipe the corporate data at will.