Heres my outdated list, still getting to grips with this list
Drivers or os layer : C, C++
Scripting : bash, python, perl
Applications : Visual Basic, Java, XML, tcltk, gtk
Web : HTML 4+5 Javascript, jsp PHP
Databases : mysql, mssql, sqlite
IDE : Eclipse, visual studio express
Others: haskell, matlab, opengl
Servers: tomcat, apache

Also forgot the most important thing, ask the CIO, why now?

Maybe he is interested in reducing costs and see this as a quick grab at low lying fruit. You could then discuss limtied implementations, part of the project rather than whole of the project

Think the original poster has managed to stir up a religious debate.

The job is to manage/execute/spec the project.

Like it or not linux is an OS, its not going to earn your company money. Its support.

So put in in terms of money:
1. What are the switching costs and reduced:
          a. what are the scripts you need to rewrite - in terms of man hours, anticipated outsourcing costs
          b. What standard tools used in the organization will break, great if it is none but any experienced migrator will tell you otherwise
          c. What is the cash saved in the life cycle of the project and what costs are saved in the extended life
          d. What additional sales expected?
2. What is the value of your stream of updates( you have data, quantify it in terms of $$$)
        a. In Engineering terms what is the cost of remedy and what is the cost of defect prevention (Past data where a patch is not present and how much activity the repair cost the organization, how much does it cost the organizaiton)
3. Disaster recovery
        a. What happens if the OS becomes a blocker (e.g. some obscure library file provided by the latest RHEL on the dev pc and not on CentOS)
        b. What happens if the applications behave differently(not likely but Ive seen it happen)
        c. No offense, but what if you as key frontman(assuming here) are not able to solve a CentOS issue and you need help
        d. You are proven right in the end you need a stream of updates, so how much will it cost to setup one
4. Suppliers
        a. Do your organizations or partners have the capability and experience to implement rapid/ acceptable deployment for OS (provided you need multiple farms)
        b. What will they charge and feed it back to 1
5. Customers
        a. Do you marketing people go around promoting quality and talk about your RHEL, imagine the liability if it your customer faces an issue and get pissy
        b. Will they accept CentOS, redhat has a lot of pull in the enterprise linux world. Like it or not, people will not like it when you switch away(like you!)
        c. Will your customers choose another supplier if you switch, customers can be fickle, if they can switch on color of a GUI they can swith on an OS
6. HR needs (not really your call from the sound of your post , but still its in your domain and you are holding the bucket, so better to voice out)
      a. Do your anticipated maintenance staff have the proper staff and certifcation needs(some organizations require a certain % of staff to be certified)
      b. Do you need to hire more staff(project/contract/temps) to enable this project

This is a very short summary of what you can do(ill write more if you pay me =) ).All feeds back to 1. And ultimately its the CIO's call as some posters have made the point.
Ive seen organizations dragged down by such issues, where one engineering group goes off pushing their own distro and another group pushes their own. Lots of wasted resources and time. If your CIO makes the call, he makes the call. If you as SME know the difference, present in a way so that he can make the call. Supporting redhat will not help your organization or you. Put it in neutral terms and show what RH has to offer and if you got time pull in other companies. If he is open to CentOS why not suggest the full spectrum and let him make the decisions. pad it with costs from trade magazines(alright bad source but still better than nothing) , studies and most importantly your company's history. His call, his decision , his responsibility. In any case, if it hits the fan, you are covered and your organization has a plan from day 1. Good luck

Google searching for porn
Facebook hoping to make contact with porn star
Microsoft for fixing windows when they click on free porn ads

That can be mitigated by programming with bias for children, its just a matter of how long it takes and whether governments are willing to enact legislation for it. I dont have the statistics for this but I would think the proportion of accidents attributed to driver error and driver being a dick is significantly higher than other causes. If we can get rid of this with a programmable system why not. Besides having a whole city run by centralized programming reduces gridlock I would think because the system can optimize the whole driving population at a given time and automatically reoute areas experiencing congestion. On a nonsensical note, I think its cool if they park my car in a "elevator thingy"hahha

Data is always needed from manufacturing, operations, sales, marketing, administration, outsourcing etc. Realistically speaking 10% usage is very high, im tending towards 5% usage. But of course depends on how in depth the researcher went, there are always unofficial sources of data that are used in corporations. Anyway whats so bad, big waste means more need, more staff, more employment and higher wages. You always appoint a new rep to oversee data, and monitor changes when new information is required. It shows management incompetency but hey i get better pay, why is anyone complaining. I

Sorry, have to disagree, the problem is to do with management not idea generators and visionaries. Their job is to come up with ideas, management is to make the cash flow happen. Enterprise side licensing, training and certifications, better APIS, consultancy, tweaking hardware to work better on sun machines(controlled jvm on sun?) Controlling standards is no easy thing and SUN definitely did that. Problem was they couldn't tap the huge market potential. Perhaps thats what oracle is doing now, making it more profitable, sure some people will get pissed, but jobs are at stake. Cash flow comes first. A nice company wont last forever, its just not scalable. As for Gosling, he will rise again in whatever company that he decides to join but I wish that he start his own. Too many app builders and so few raw tech companies these days. Just my 2 cents.

"Surprise Her !!!, Print an enlarged Pen**, 80% off" must be blocked

Read more if you want, MIT's open courseware is great, donate if you can, i do. they are good refreshers.
There are pretty standard student projects, (like game of life, notepad, msg servers,)
You might want to move into more advanced topics, like javax or concurrent stuff like RMI

Algorithms are great to learn but sadly Ive had little chance to use em in real work, would'nt put too much stock in them for returns.
In any case, any algos you need most likely you will learn on the job, if something slows too much.
They are however fundamental if you want to be a proper engineer.(In my opinion anyway)

If you want real world experience, go look at the freelance websites and just copy down the specs and attempt yourself.
Dont need to bid, but these provide a snapshot of EASY projects in real jobs.
I also have some 100% real world work projects assigned to me if you want to do for free........ just kidding

Its for authentication and tracking purposes. Its totally valid, if they want to install a fingerprint system to protect property which is obviously a valuable part of their organization. Its just a form of tracking and control no different from having you name and passwords. If privacy is what you want, get off the internet, and stop posting in forums, you have publicly given away your work, location and employee status. Besides you dont need to remeber passwords, clock in, clock out card(which everybody can see what time u clock in and clock out). And you obviously overeestimate the state of sophistication of current fingerprint recognition technology and their ability to record and transfer such informaiton One afternoon in a data center alone with the urge to pee and the machine denying you EXIT will teach you that. You want to oppose fingerprint , oppose on practical grounds, sweaty fingers, authentication failures, position errors....

I agree with xaxa on his course of action. Just flood it down. The attention span of average searcher is kinda short. Just fill the search pages with something else, something more recent. Besides, you were not convicted, there are worse things to have done in life than abuse of computers. Things will always follow you, but it makes who you are, you life is tougher but so will you.You just gotta frame your mind the right way

I agree 150 users can be very little or a lot. Ran a few NT machines till 2004 with over 250 users on hardware i dont even recognize(honewell ball-less mouse 2 magnetic thingys) they worked just fine. Just threw away a farm for 50 users, had 1 server in the beginning but was seriously overloaded because once everyone heard of new hardware everybody poured in to use it. Damnation to single login policy. Understanding user behavior is more valuable than flipping through brochures. Usually 24 hour per second systat for 1 week should give u more than enough data

for now.

Maybe im missing something here? Shouldn't all admins have signed an NDA specifically prohibiting him from releasing the passwords? He shouldn't even be talking about what servers they are. I had an NDA that ran on for 1 1/2 years after I left a certain Job. If he left the company/city tough luck its a management oversight.Its their job to go changing all the passwords even if its going rescue mode for each server. There are reasons why you dont have a top admin hold on to all the passwords. But the moment you fire him, your on your own.