There are many good ideas in the posts and I couldn't agree more in most cases. I would like to add one more point: - What is different in a 2008 edition of a distro from a 2012 edition? Besides some eyecandy, practically nothing. The basic linux desktop experience is good enough. (At least it was in 2008, I'm not sure it still is since gnome3...). People who develop the distros should work on other projects like many of you mentioned above like: MS Office compatibilty, Game/steam compatibilty, Skype/sound issues, bluetooth, fonts, and many more functions, which is considered solved, but not really works reliably OUT-OF-THE-BOX. Those are not core functions of an OS, but without those the OS is useless. And the sad thing: None of these are even in the OS roadmaps, because "with extensive hacking, those can work with some compromise". Really, that's the best linux can offer? Looking back for 10 years of developmnet the answer is sadly YES.

Let's have one more: 5) Skype - out of the box operation. Including voice and video. Video works better, but sound quality never matches what I have on windows. And I don't mean noise, but lagging, or complete blackout, not working mic, etc. Probably it comes down to pulse/alsa, but who cares the reason. It's 2012 and it's not even in the roadmap of major distros to fix this. Because it works for some guys.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/facebook-ipo-because-time-its-different

rwa2 is so right in each of his points. Especially about the citizen only job market. If what pitzG wrote all true and still can't get a job, than man, I have to say something is wrong with you. Maybe you have too high salary expectations, and this is why I took your job. :)

So how they count/calculate the productivity of a professor? phd students included? Don't you think that the productivity depends more on the size of your group (aka the number of slaves) rather than on the personal skills?

I use linux in the office with crossover for MS Office. But at home Skype stops me from changing. I've tried several times. But both the performance and the reliability of Skype is just not at all better than ~6 years ago. And there's no other option. It is that simple.

1st: This story is not new. They have paper out there about this techniques. (2010 Aug) http://www.nature.com/nnano/journal/v5/n10/full/nnano.2010.192.html 2nd: sub-10 nm ribbons have a bandgap due to quantum confinement. Their 4K measurement doesn't really proves it, so something is not kosher. Or at least this is why they say "metallic" nanoribbons. That techinque is not that useful for digital electronics. 3rd: There are other ways for doing sub-10 nm GNRs, which are actually semiconductors. This is what I do for living. I think it is still promising for future electronics. It is just my opinion, while there's no proof, neither con, nor pro. Others (IBM) might have different opinions about it, but this question is not decided yet.

I just contacted comcast about some other issues. I asked about this as well:

Comcast (Ramon) > Is there anything else I can assist you with today?
Me > One more thing: I just learned that you removed the ability to schedule VCR-compatible channel flipping any time more than a few hours in advance for people who don't buy the $20/month DVR service.
Me > Is it affects both digital and analog subscriptions?
Me > Is it affect my DVR capabilities if I'm using a computeR?
Comcast (Ramon) > No, Me. That is a different not true.
Comcast (Ramon) > We did not remove the ability to remove the ability to schedule VCR.
Comcast (Ramon) > If so, you will be receiving a notification about this.
Me > http://news.slashdot.org/story/10/04/11/2256251/Comcast-Disables-VCR-Scheduling-In-New-Guide
Me > than you might want to answer this news officially
Me > will I have the option to save this chat after we end the session?
Comcast (Ramon) > Let me double check our tools here as I don't see a notification about disabling of the VCR functions.
Me > I think it refers to channel changing capabilities of 3rd party VCRs, it is not about comcast VCR service
Comcast (Ramon) > Thank you for that information.
Comcast (Ramon) > I don't see a notification about the disabling of the third party VCR service in our bulletin board.
Me > ok
Me > I will try after I fixed my service...
Me > thanks, no more questions
Comcast (Ramon) > I believe that will not happen now as we are offering cable cards for TiVo and this device is a third party equipment.

So they don't know about such limitations. This news might not be true

Same in Engineering. I have an old professor friend, who is a journal editor. They send the same crap to hundreds of journal, and even though it has no scientific value it will pass the filter by chance. It's much easier to accept than deny, because you don't have to reason. You just don't have the energy and the manpower to politely deny all. And even if you deny, he sends it again next week with very little modification.
But that's not their fault. Science is benchmarked by publications, no matter what is behind them. They just specializing to reach maximum in impact factor and not in real research. It's the same with the TOEFL and GRE. They achieve the maximum score without problems, but it doesn't mean they can speak English at all.

My B-52 (strategic bomber) still works and was built in the 50s. :-) But generally military stuff is not planned for 5 years, even if it uses high tech electrical components, which became quite obsolate in 10-20 years.