Economy air travel in the United States is nothing more than a Greyhound bus with wings.

Becoming sick of being tech support for my in-laws, I reloaded their Dell desktop with Ubuntu 9.10 and threw an XP theme on it about a month ago. The tech support calls have reduced, and they are happy-go-lucky reading emails and surfing the internet.

1) If you have visibility to your customers, I can see why a uniform would be needed. 2) If your boss says that everyone needs to wear a uniform, then everyone wears a uniform. There are tons of unemployed people that would gladly wear a uniform if it helps in getting a paycheck. If you are the owner of your own company, then you can institute any dress code you want. "Individualism" was checked at the door as soon as you agreed to accept a paycheck from an employer.

I do not purchase electronics, books, or music from retail stores at all. Very often, I will be inside a retail store, see something I would like, fire up the Blackberry and then purchase it online (usually through Amazon). I do this because of 1) Free Shipping, 2) no sales tax, and 3) 3-5% commission I receive from going through my Amazon affiliate link. Now if I can just get my wife to get out of that "need it now" mentality for her books and movies.

Well said! Any shop that has mature dev/test/production rollout schedules and procedures tend to be able handle most anything thrown at it regardless of the operating system. There are still some folks that are upset that the U.S. Army is no longer utilizing PDP-11s.

And I, too, know what kind of person I am dealing with... all bark and no bite. I am awaiting patiently for that virus you are going to write that will cripple the Linux community.

I am reminded of a quote, too.

"I refuse to have a battle of wits with an unarmed man."

Actually, it is indeed a fact that most viruses out there are targeted to Windows. If you do decide to write some software tonight that targets Linux distribtions, the statement that "most viruses out that are targeted to Windows" is still factual.

Get cracking at that Linux virus though. When you get it finished, you will find that you need to provide instructions for an end-user to install it. If you like, I will be happy to provide the testing systems before you deploy that vicious Linux virus.

Apparently, you have trouble understanding 'humor' - 'satire' - emphasis... as well.
Perhaps if you didn't work in the computing environment 24/7, you would understand that people skills are necessary. Perhaps you should approach your boss and ask about a 40 hour work week instead. 24/7 is unnerving for anyone. No sleep makes Jack a very irritable boy.

Also, regarding taking "5 minutes," my wife is an adult, and I warned about "what can happen." Because she is an adult, I did not restrict her. It is the "you don't have to treat people like a child" dynamic and that they accept the consequences of their actions. She chose to install something malicious. She asked for help, I gave her the options, and yes, in this case Linux "came to the rescue."

I think it just pains you because someone was converted from a Microsoft OS.

It is possible that she can introduce all those bad pieces of malware on her Linux PC. In order for her to do so, it would be like Indiana Jones going after the Holy Grail. So it is possible, but it is not very likely.

Vista wasn't an option as I did not have a license. Given the reasons my wife uses a computer (browsing, email, and word processing), Ubuntu was a fit. It did not make sense to purchase Vista for those uses when Ubuntu met her needs. I'll leave the $100 that would have been spent for the Vista license in the bank. Also, going to Linux does not eliminate all threats. If you notice in my post, I stated that it reduces the exposure. My wife is what I consider a "typical" user. Typical users do not care if they are using Windows, OS X or Linux so long as it meets their needs. For most people, its browsing, email, and word processing. Do I think Linux is going to take over the desktop world? No. Did it take over the desktop in my house? Yes it did. While you may enjoy playing tech support at home, I prefer enjoying my time off. My "internal tech support calls" have gone way down since putting the wife on Linux. All your suggestions are useful, but mixing in hints of violence (wife should smack me) makes me think negatively of you. I am sure the users you support on your company's help desk agree. PS: I don't recall stating that Windows was horrible.

My wife's Windows XP laptop was infected with this virus. This was her last straw. She came to me and asked if there is anything that can be done. I told her she can reduce her exposure to these pieces of malware if we were to install Linux on her laptop. It's been 5 days since we installed Ubuntu 8.10, and while there are some slight differences, she is enjoying it. I had been running Ubuntu for some time now.