It's not cobbling stuff together, it's a different thought process for tackling a problem. Rather than having one big mess provided by Microsoft, you have lots of individual parts that do one thing well and are configured to work together--see the LAMP stack for an excellent example.

A new employee doesn't have to figure out the "homebrew" mess, they just have to know how to manage the application(s) they are responsible for--A skill that is vastly lacking with most Windows Server admins I have met--no, rebooting a server does not "fix" the fact that every 5 days the server is at 5% load with 95% memory utilization.

Most of Microsoft's problems in the server space is that the products ship with 10x more "features" enabled than are actually needed. This makes for loads of time disabling things or having vulnerable servers. A properly managed unix-based solution usually has 100% of the needed requirement--no more, no less. This limits exposure to security issues and limits the effects of bugs or bad code on the overall health of the system.

[quote]dd if=/dev/random of=/dev/sda[/quote]

I would suggest using /dev/urandom as the random number generator used by /dev/random will likely run out of entropy long before the first pass completes.

I hear this after every windows release and it's completely false. Naturally, Windows 8 includes drivers for more hardware that any other release. It includes drivers for hardware made between the release of Windows 7 and now plus what was in Windows 7. It's no better at finding drivers, it just includes drivers that were not included with Windows 7 or Vista or XP or whatever because the hardware was made after the release of the OS. In 3 years, Windows 8 will be in the same state as Windows 7 is now... go out to the vendor's website, find the hardware, download the driver, click next a bunch of times, and reboot.

Other OS's bundle most drivers with the kernel and provide regular updates through the regular channels for both bundled and third-party drivers. This way you don't have to screw around with the vendor's website trying to remember if your motherboard is a DK-790FX-MR2 or a DK-790FX-MR2SW 2 years after you bought it.

I'll have to disagree here too. I tried the consumer preview with 3 monitors and... well... I can't say I was impressed. The regular desktop was just like Windows 7 (fine) but Metro didn't seem to know what to do.

woosh

Indeed I do. Nowhere in the constitution is the federal government given the power to mandate or provide health care. That falls in to the jurisdiction of the state according to the Constitution, making the healthcare debate in this Presidential election cycle legally moot. Of course, regardless of what the constitution said, the Supreme court ruled Obamacare is legal so all bets are off...

You do realize that Obamacare was modeled on Romneycare, right?

What politicians say they will do and what they do are completely different things.

Vote 3rd party. Maybe there will be a choice that people are actually happy with next time (or maybe 2 elections from now.)

NO damage was done to the Linux desktop. Both camps have different ideas on how things should be done. Both camps tailor their project to a specific set of users. One combined project would likely alienate even more users since neither camp would be happy with the end result.

Competition is also helpful for spurring innovation. Without competition, stagnation occurs because there is nothing driving progress forward. Look at how long IE6 stuck around until Firefox provided enough market pressure to force Microsoft to innovate again. Other OS's would provide some competition but from the looks of Metro I'm not entirely sure that will be the case.

There are lots of free and open source monitoring tools that can help determine if something is out of alignment. SmokePing would probably be incredibly helpful you your situation. Nagios is another popular monitoring tool. Netdisco could help with inventory and topology mapping. It's worth spending a little time getting a good monitoring solution set up so you can be fixing the problem before the phone starts ringing.

Comfortable first and foremost. The three peripherals I use the most are my keyboard, mouse and monitor. If they are not comfortable to use, the entire machine is uncomfortable to use.

I use mechanically switched keyboards. Cherry Blue at home, Cherry Brown at work (I don't want my co-workers testing the multi-functional aspect of the keyboard by subjecting my skull to violent impacts.) and an IBM model M on the KVM for my servers. They not only are the most comfortable keyboards to use but they can also withstand violent impacts while being much more precise than spongy membrane keyboards. My keyboard at home also has programmable macro keys so it falls in to the customizable category as well.

I tend to use comfortable, wireless laser mice because they don't drift because of tension on the cord and they can be moved anywhere on my desk easily. Both my work and home desktops have internal li-on batteries with a battery meter that gives plenty of warning when they need to be charged. I have had one of the mice since ~2004 and the battery still lasts about a month using it 40 hours a week. I am constantly using the extra forward/back buttons on the side of the mice and feel kind of lost without them. At $75 when new, I consider the first one I bought a good investment since it has served me for 8 years without any issues.

You are almost right. Sadly, some of us need flash and java to do our jobs. F*** You Cisco!

If your browser/flash player/some other legit app has a zero day that allows the execution or arbitrary code you are just as screwed as if you install a malicious app.

Awesome that this will lead to easier root access on Android devices.
On the flip side I'm sure Android vendors won't get around to patching this for a while and our devices will be vulnerable.

Now, off to patch my Linux boxen.

One of the reasons I prefer Dropbox for storing my non-essential files to some of the other cloud file storage services is the syncing feature. I keep the files on my local drive (all of my computers local drives, actually.) If Dropbox were to go down for any reason, I a copy of that file on every machine.

You are confusing the concept of owning and renting. When you watch a movie on Netflix, you don't get to keep it. Before netflix, movie rentals were a couple bucks tops, so the difference isn't nearly what you are making it out to be.
 
With Movie tickets right around $12 before popcorn or soda, I'd say the worth of watching a movie 1 time is still $12. I doubt the major movie studios would be pulling in record profits if a movie had a $0 value.
 

Do you know what pirates did before the invention of ebooks? They went to their local library, checked out the book they wanted to read, walked outside, and shouted "ARRRR!"
 
Using your logic, the value of a book is zero because anyone with a library card can check them out for free.