I strongly recommend Lord Toede.

At least I won't have to pay the Microsoft extortion tax on devices capable of running Linux. Well, not the hardware tax anyways - the IP tax still applies.

TB can be vaccinated against.

I develop software for a small company, and it sounds like you administer a large one... but when you say: "Dislike of portables has nothing to do with controlling you", I think you are lying. You would like to force me to install AV software (you can't, I develop in Linux), clean up my machine (whatever that means), wipe it without my permission, stop me from taking it with me, and generally have control over everything I do on the system.

I can imagine this making a certain amount of sense if computers connected to the work network had special privileges over external machines (they don't), or if we prevented remote login to our servers (we don't). Other than protecting me from my perceived incompetence, they only reason I could see for taking away control of my own machine is that you don't trust me not to run off with IP or company secrets. But I doubt you'd be able to accomplish that no matter what you do.

In short, it seems to be more about control than security. I'm not sure that up-time is an issue here either, since I can always put my laptop away and switch to the IT-administered PC on my desk if it should die.

Oops, that should have been the cost of the battery, not the vehicle.

Well, I guess you could alter the charger to stop charging the battery once it reaches 60% capacity... I believe the Prius stops drawing from the battery before it is completely drained as well. But in that situation, you'd be looking at making very short trips only.

I would just use up your battery as you see fit. I suspect the price of lithium ion batteries will continue to drop within the next 5-10 years.Tthe US government expects the cost of an electric vehicle to fall to $3,333 by 2030: http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/gas_graphic_fullsize.jpg

Electric vehicles are normally charged to 100% capacity to extend the range. I don't know of any that deliberately charge to less than 100%.

The wikipedia has this to say about the Prius battery: "They are normally charged to 40–60% of maximum capacity to prolong battery life". As such, they don't reflect the lifespan of a battery that will be fully recharged after each use.

There are places where the placement of the lines seems to be a result of the terrain, and places where it ignores the terrain. Seems unlikely to be a visible pattern - I'd expect the lines to always ignore the terrain in that case.

I've never had a problem with the stability or performance of a Linux system. I've had significant problems with BSD systems with poor hardware support. Why should I "actually put some time in to making the system just the way you want, and RTFM" for a negligible gain?