There really is a lot more there, and 10 adds that much more.

But you've got to admit its pretty cool to have it bundled with the OS. Its way ahead of virtual PC; and works well with Microsoft Hyper V server. (with or without "Windows Server").

Making it an officially support part of the OS means that
- a lot more people will actually use them
- you can sit down at any computer and they'll be available
- applications developers will actually support them properly because when push comes to shove its fine for your program to not be compatible with some obscure 3rd party power-user shell extension that some random user is saying conflicts with your application - like dialog boxes showing up on the wrong one or some other annoyance. But not working with a core feature of the OS? You'll actually fix it.

As for what else 10 has... DirectX 12. Resizeable (horizontally) command windows; builtin antivirus that is adequate for me, better multi-monitor support, the aforementioend multile desktops, the netflix app... for some people (not me) the xbox app stuff might be pretty compelling too.

I'm not sure I'd pay to upgrade from 7 or 8.1 to 10, but a free upgrade from 7 or 8.1; it makes decent sense.

Or on a new system with a bundled OS, sure I'll take it.

I'm certainly not planning to dig my heels in to stay with 7. And I'm really not sure why you claim you will... at worst you've said there's nothing in you 'must have' .. and ok... I accept that. But you haven't said what it has that you 'must avoid' either. And given it'll be free, and it's at least a slight upgrade, why not?

And my axe. Get off it also.

Sure, that works for some companies. In the specific case that I was describing, the vast majority of employees live in the city (many within walking distance of the office) and I think they'd be unwilling to leave. I personally live in the suburbs and commute in, but I'm the exception. Looking at the companies around where I live, there are very few I'd be interested in working for.

And then your post stopped at 7. I take it you weren't in favor of 8 or 8.1 ?

Because honestly 8 was one step forward two steps back. There is some compelling in 8. Client Hyper-V, the new task manager, better multi-monitor support, etc. But it was hobbled with some truly unfortunate defaults.

8.1 is a step forward from 8. Or sideways from 7.

And 10 is step forward from 8.1 or 7. Some time in small ways (command prompt now supports Ctr-V hotkey) and in some large ways ... multiple desktop support (yes its something linux has had for a long time but its still new for windows).

And if nothing else windows 10 will receive support and security updates long after Windows 7 is completely EOL. So even if its "nothing more" than windows 7 its still worth getting... at least eventually.

Just so you know, the average malware jockey makes money that makes me wonder why I remain on this side of the fence. So much for "getting a good job that pays well".

Don't worry. He already has one.

In the case of that job interview, my previous employment had ended suddenly. We were the largest content provider and traffic producer for our company so (in hindsight, foolishly) believed we were untouchable. Then, our company announced that they were heading in another direction (republishing other people's content instead of producing their own) and that our jobs were gone effective immediately.

I had my wedding coming up in three months, so obviously there was enormous financial pressure to find another job. This does sort of explain my selling my salary requirements short. I was desperate to find a job - and one that didn't mind me almost immediately leaving on our already-booked honeymoon. This company didn't mind so I undercut my price rather than risk not getting the job.

Hindsight is 20/20 and I would have likely gotten much more had I asked for it. Even if I overstated my salary, they likely would have counter-offered a lower figure (but still higher than what I wound up asking for). Lesson learned for next time, though.

* That no matter how much you think you know, there is someone who knows more. That's called humility.

On the flip side, too much of this can result in Impostor Syndrome where you ignore all of your talents/achievements and feel that someone is going to discover you don't know anything after all. (Because compared to SOMEONE_YOU_FOLLOW_ONLINE, you are a newbie in one area despite having worked in this field your whole life.)

The best parable I've heard came from a rabbi years back explaining why the Torah says man was both created in god's image and was created from dirt. The rabbi said that a man should walk around with a pouch on either side of his belt. In one, it should say "The world was created for me." The other should say "I'm nothing but dirt." Keeping both pouches should keep you balanced.

Actually, no.

I've learned one thing: Never ever touch the hot topic everyone else seems to avoid. Not even with a ten foot pole. There are exactly three things that can happen. Either it resolves itself. This is the norm and gets you off the hook. Or someone else is stupid enough and tackles it, gets burned and loses his job. That's fine as well. Or it blows up and the blame is shared within the department. That's ok as well since nobody gets fired for it.

Since promotion happens today by tenure and not by merit, what you do is less important than what you don't do.

Take ownership of your education....learn new skills before you need them and make yourself invaluable to the company.

Related to this: Never be comfortable. Comfort tells you that you don't NEED to learn new technologies because the ones you know are good enough. And then comfort vanishes leaving you hopelessly behind the curve.

For the longest time, I was comfortable with my development procedures/languages/etc. Then we had some mergers and things changed. I'm lucky that I pick up new technologies quickly and was able to get back up to speed, but I could have easily been left behind.

I learned this lesson from my father. He would work from 7am to 5pm, come home with a stack of work, and work until 10pm. He would also do nearly a full day's work on Saturday and Sunday. There was no overtime pay involved at all. When I asked why he worked like this, his reply was that his boss expected this level of work from him. I pointed out that his boss only expected it because he was providing this level of work output.

When I started working, I made sure my bosses knew that my work ended when I left the office. I'm fine with "on call" and helping out if an emergency happens, but I'm not going to take a project home and code it during my nights/weekends just because they want me to give them 80 hours of work per week while paying me for 40 hours.

(I do tend to work late, but that's doing freelance work on the side which earns me extra money.)

I could have used this knowledge not just on my first job but when I was interviewing for my current job 14 years ago. The interviewer asked me what salary I was seeking which was, in hindsight, an obvious trap. If I gave too low a figure, they'd "grant" me that instead of the higher figure they were thinking of. I had a figure in mind but got nervous that I wouldn't get the job if I went too high. I wound up taking about five thousand off my "figure in my mind" - and was promptly awarded that. I'll never know if I would have gotten more money had I gone higher, but that moment of insecurity still bothers me to this day.

How? I thought it caps at 100%.

Create something original. Good luck tiptoeing through the mine field. I'm in that business (yes, guess what, someone dependent on copyright for income is against it in its current form) and I'm very glad that a very good friend of mine decided to become a lawyer for copyright. Which, btw, is also far more lucrative than actually trying to use copyright to earn something by creating something. But that's not the point.

You talk about an entitlement generation. I have to say that the only kind of entitlement I get to see in this field is from studios who think they're entitled to a cut from your works regardless of whether they did anything to contribute. Copyright on works has descended into something not unlike stock options at the stock exchange, where holding works is a tool to make money from doing nothing but, well, holding those works hostage. When you create something today, you better have the whole works ever conceived memorized, for if whatever you create only vaguely resembles something held by some studio, rest assured that in the off chance you actually manage to write a hit, you will be sued. On the off chance that you either cannot afford legal representation and cave in or that a judge will side with them. Yes, 8 out of 10 times he won't, but that doesn't matter. Studios can easily afford it and the ones that cave in because they can't afford the legal battle and would rather take the "deal" to have at least a little instead of nothing will easily pay for that.

And the area gets more narrow with every song in the stock option portfolio.

As for your last sentence: your quality of life is more and more dependent on pure luck. Not the amount of work oyu put behind it. If there ever was a time when working could make you rich, it's been over for a long, long time now.

The banks paid back all their TARP loans years ago, along with $30BN in interest.

The car companies did not.

We use JIRA & Confluence. I'd say they were pretty stable normally, but upgrades seem to have problems more often than I'd expect, particularly when you have a bunch of plugins installed.