But first, say no and mean it.

Check out the book Clean Coder. (There's a review of it on here somewhere). The author compares the IT department to the legal department at a company.

The result - people feel like they can ask the IT department to work weekends and "do whatever it takes."

But, on the same task, people feel uncomfortable asking the legal department to work through the weekend.

Why are we allowing them to do this to us?

Because we all know lawyers can get up and leave? These guys just did leave. So why do we think it's acceptable to allow them to ask us to work weekends, to go above and beyond the call of duty?

The only answer is that we must feel we're not working as hard as we could be.

Think about it.

(BTW: Unity sucks and you can go backward, I did.)

Anyway, ...back to your argument:

"absolutely no goddamn fucking clue what a normal desktop user wants, needs, or what will appeal to same.'

I love linux, but I never^H^H^H^H^Hrarely recommend it.

If you like Windows...USE it. Why would you go to Linux? I tell people Linux is harder to use, flat out.

And then people either shutup about it...or they ask me WHY I use it. Oh, then it gets interesting. I explain, that, for a programmer, Linux represents probably the best choice as a platform. Endless programming language, databases, web servers, browsers, etc. More tools I can shake a stick at. All free!

But most people aren't interested in that. Like you pointed out, they want to run Microsoft Office, play games, etc. That's fine, run Windows.

So, we'll never have a Linux desktop? Cough. Most people have USED linux at one point or another. How many appliances use linux? How many tablets, smart phones, routers, etc are using it? People use it all the time....but it's not a Linux "Desktop"

The reason for that is simple. A Desktop for people is "Running Microsoft Office, playing games, etc."

Linux is bigger than that.

Hilarous

http://www.circleid.com/posts/20110318_on_mandated_content_blocking_in_the_domain_name_system/

a bit in recent years.

But, originally at least, contractors made a significant amount more than employees....yes, benefits weren't paid and that accounted for it, but the theory was that contractors were specialists brought in and expected to be let go. Ideally, employees would keep through thick and thin.

This has been lost recently, mostly with companies treating employees like...well, anyway. But the practice still continues. As a contractor, if you want to pay me $$$ for getting signatures on a sheet of paper (believe it or not, I have actually done that...spent 8 hours talking to people trying to explain why a change was okay to go to production) - and I had no problems with that.

Make me an employee though and that's the first thing to change. Then I'm supposed to have a tie into whether or not the company does well (and makes it's next quarter or not).

(Also...contractors...at least myself...expect to change jobs at the drop of a hat. I don't expect that as much if I'm an employee)

--Working as a contractor, especially for a startup, is always a risk Um...balderdash. Working for a contractor is NOT a risk. I've worked as an employee and contractor and as a contractor, I know I'm always the first to go. I also know I get paid contractors rates. There is a premium paid for no having to pay for education, medical, insurance, overtime, etc. If you want a piece of success...be willing to take on some of the risks. Waiting UNTIL the revenue stream comes in....not exactly fair.

--Every year or so I wipe the drive with a fresh XP-CD install, and need to reinstall my favorite programs, but that would be true of any OS, whether it's Mac, Lubuntu, or Chrome. Actually, I've had a Fedora Core Server I need to switch over to Ubuntu. Still haven't gotten around to it. It's been running flawlessly for years. Why would you need to wipe and reload the OS?

But at an exchange rate of $2800 for one ounce of gold, that's the fastest way to devalue the dollar.

Don't believe me?

1. Buy gold at $800 an oz.
2. Sell gold at $2800 an oz to the US Gov.
3. Profit!