Think of it this way - your command is using "rpm -hiv /path/to/package.rpm"

Microsoft is adding "yum install package" to the options list.

I would imagine build on it.

Except, I don't know, SMF actually works? And doesn't have any false appearances about what it does, or what the developers intentions are?

Very possible.

Considering that we have plenty of choices other then Linux (and a few years to decide), I fail to see the problem. The staff has an inclination towards FreeBSD (because the guys above me love it). UNIX isn't out of the question, AIX, Solaris, or HP-UX could fit the bill just as well.

Or we have learned that you can't argue with Red Hat. As a company we have decided against upgrading to RHEL 7 because of systemd, and likely will be migrating to FreeBSD when it is no longer supported.

I'm waiting for our research team to get bored and start finding holes in systemd

I think Microcenter may have stopped carrying it as well. I didn't see it the last couple times I was in there.

On the flip side, I've loved every Mac that I've owned. I had a PPC 603 for a while (running OS 8.6), a G3 Powerbook (Clamshell), then a G4 (running 10.1 and later 10.4), which would later be replaced by a 2006 MBP (that I bought at a Hamfest in 2011 for $200, not bad). They did most of what I wanted them to do, and I usually had a Windows desktop that the gaming took place on (with the exception of the 603 that was my only computer at that time....oh the hours of Starcraft, Diablo II, and MechWarrior....), and a Windows/Linux laptop that was my *normal* system (I usually by a Windows laptop on a 4-5 year cycle).

Where was I? Oh yes, I loved all of the Macs. They had the stability that I wish Windows had, and the polish I wish Linux had. Plus commercial software support - outside of gaming (which is certainly changing) I never had an issue with the software I needed not being availible for Mac OS or OS X.

Sadly, I'm hearing that the hardware reliability has died with the newer laptop lineup. My 2006 MBP and 2007 MB are still kicking, but are showing their age at this point with more recent software (Firefox....Flash...)

I wouldn't expect the Acer to last two years....

Also, I've never seen an entry level laptop with an SSD....the MBA is comparable to an Ultrabook (which cost just as much last time I checked) and the MBP is competitive in price to the Dell Precision line.

Pulseaudio bugs should be reported to a certain Lennart Poettering (you may have heard about him before) and became standard thanks to Red Hat. ALSA was fine, and OSS wasn't bad either (it was the licensing they didn't like IIRC).

It's very much in the users hands. Generally, a release (Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, RHEL) sticks to the version for the OS. In Ubuntu and Debian, if you have backports enabled, it will grab newer versions of the software if it has been vetted stable by the OS team. Or you can add a developer PPA and grab the newest releases as they come. In Fedora you have the option to either add a seperate repo to yum (I've got a couple of repos on Fedora to get upstream stable rather then just the OS version) OR you can allow rawhide for certain packages/groups if you want to stay bleeding edge

We've tried having standards in Linux before, and they were utterly ignored (Linux Standard Base). Basically, there is no reason for certain groups or developers (Red Hat (and to a lesser extent, Canonical) and developer-who-shall-not-be-named) to listen to everyone when they can do whatever they want and everyone else has to deal with it.

I'm not concerned over 2GB of space unless I'm running an embedded system, in which case I'm probably not installing X or XFCE. (I'd bet XFCE is where your space is being gobbled up).

I am entertaining FreeBSD and Slackware as viable options. The only thing in Slackware's favor is the games I play will run on it vs FreeBSD.

In which case I'd have to point to Chromebooks and Android devices.

I'd like to make a nice long rant next against GNOME and Red Hat, but to keep it short GNOME shot everyone in the foot with GNOME 3.