Severance Pay: $40M Not having to live through the consequences of accidently buying a behind the curve smartphone manufacturer, and having your CEO buddies think you were booted for sexy stuff: Priceless.

Seriously, what I'd like Ellison to do, is really support openoffice. Improvements, cleanups, Java exorcism, and fonts...

Larry, everybody thinks Bill has more money than you! Bill is a household name, and nobody (outside of the techies) knows who you are. You can compensate with big yachts and planes and adventures, but you'll never be as big as Billy until you destroy the MS lockin... Office!

Started really using Linux around 1997... I started with Caldera. Back then it took me a week to get a mouse to work. Since then, I've used Redhat, Suse, and Ubuntu.

I haven't had to compile a kernel or mess with any xconfig files for about 6 years now. Basically, you just stick in an Ubuntu CD and turn the computer on.. it's easier than installing windows, becuase you don't have to enter a 16 character random value correctly.

Popped in an Ubuntu 10.04 the other day, and wow.. they paid someone to come up with pretty colors and readable fonts. It's there, in terms of useablility and ease of install.

Linux distros have come a LONG LONG way since 1996.

I would agree with you that Windows has come a long way since the days of plugging a machine into the network and getting instantly owned thru default open ports.... but I still won't network a windows box. Why take the risk?

A stop at the gas station requires you to drive to the gas station, sit around useless, handle cash or credit card or debit card transaction, and expose yourself to the risk of giant sugary caffienated fountain soda.

You Insensitive Clod!!

I've got a machine at work, and two machines at home.. most active projects I work on are under CVS, so slinging them around puter-to-puter is easy.

I do have a lap I use for business travel. But it drives me nuts!

This country started going to hell in a handbasket when we replaced a trained nuclear engineer/sub driver with an actor that made people feel good.

I'm getting sick of people saying that modern life is dependent on petroleum. Sure.. things won't be as easy, but we can make all sorts of things, and won't be giving up all the technological developments of the last century just by switching feedstocks!

This will not drive us back to the middle ages, in the middle ages, we didn't have electricity!

Reducing petrol use in transport, even by only 50% will increase the amount of "easy oil" available for use as chemical precursors for the stuff that can't easily be made from coal or fresh biomass.

Agriculture scares me the most because modern ag pretty much involves turning diesel into meat. But we can make changes here, too.. there's no reason we cant farm electrically, we're already using electricity for irrigation. What scares me the most is a ill-considered switch to biofuels as we could quickly starve ourselves trying to grow massive quantities of fuel from food crops.

This stuff isn't rocket science and I'm getting more and more angry about the lack of political will to start adapting rather than burying our heads in the sand.