Miguels affection towards his iPhone is a bit unconsidered and superficial.
But anyway, a more interesting question could be: What does it take to bring an ex-linux user and now happy OSX user back to linux?
I used Windows for 3 years, then linux for 2 years. During that time I did a lot of installations (mostly ubuntu and debian) on a lot of different devices. During this time, while fighting with drivers, minor display problems, and spoiled windows users I lost my faith in linux as a desktop os and switched to OSX.
I can just speak for myself, but this few points would bring me back to linux in no time.
Presenting Distribution "Utopia"
1. No X11 based display stack, it is replaced with something conceptually simpler (like cocoa).
2. (Multiple) monitor recognition 100% accurate. (Probably connected to Pt. 1)
3. The audio setup is not much worse then the one of OSX.
4. Throwing Gnome and everything that is based on Glib out. It's 2012 there alternatives to faking oo with C. Qt isn't allowed either.
5. Throwing APT out. No more dependency management for a desktop OS please. Then kill Perl as requirement for running an os.
Ahhhhh, I feel better now :-).
This is the opposite of what Miguel demanded, he cares for backward compatibility.
When I think about it. "Utopia" would be similar to Android. No fear to throw old stuff out.
Why so strict with the definition of the term 'aquihire'?
What I see in tech startups:
Little companies acting as labs for the big companies. In big companies, it's often difficult to develop something breaking new. There is so much infrastructure, culture and history around, that it gets increasingly difficult to think outside the box and to keep up with the latest trends. This were startups step in. With the startup, they often acquire a very specialized piece of technology and know-how. Then comes step two: Looking for ways to integrate the new toys into the productline.
I could use a lightweigt and fast perl version of SED. There are incompatibilities between sed versions, especially between linux and mac. Therefor a small sed utility that you can ship with every release would be useful.
"We've been analyzing customer usage of Joyent’s systems and noticed that you are one of the few customers that are still on our early products and have not migrated to our new platform, the Joyent Cloud."
So sorry about not appreciating enough your new platform because " Everyone that’s moved to our new cloud infrastructure has been pleased with the results".
About the whole "lifetime" ("As long as we exist.") thing ... Stupid me. I never get that. I mean that was meant metaphorically, right, like in marriages?
Ok then, you divorced me. Thanks that I can still sleep under your roof for one and a half month.
And yes: You keep the house. And the money. I keep my files.
I think, we can call this a true a win-win situation. Sorry, I mean "win-win".
Seriously though, I would replace 'the porn generation' with 'the porned generation'.
"Corporations are not looking out for your best interests; they’re looking to make as much money as possible."
That's the obvious part. But the interesting part is how all this big corporations managed it to finally break into our lives. Not only the sell us all kinds off stuff we don't need. They also very actively comment our consume behavior. Something is always wrong with our lives. We are too fat, too boring, our relationships are not thrilling enough, we don't manage to get what we deserve.
Corporations are not longer selling stuff to us in the traditional way, from producer to consumer. For them, we are gigantic consumption mass, trained to buy and to be evaluated from day one.
We are not consumers, we are here to be consumed. We get porned.
- Can he really make a (qualitative) difference, or ships he just faster and a little more elegant?
- If yes, hire him and let him work wherever he wants but in your office (at home, an external office, ...). Communicate via email.
- if no I would'nt hire him simply because it takes energy to digest annoying behavior. So it will have a slight negative effect on my personal performance. It will be a zero sum game.
If I understand you right, the do not own the company (anymore)? So that would make them employees - no? I think it's pretty normal that employees explain what they are doing. Especially if they work in a specialized field that is hard for the management to understand fully. So it doesn't have to be mistrust or a form of repression against the engineers.
Yes I admit - I've always wanted time sheets. And they ARE a mixed blessing. They can have a strong negative influence on the "relationship" to your employees. I also have to learn my lesson(s). But I hold onto them for one reason: Timesheets were my revision history. When times are busy and the work is growing over your head, and you are sitting alone in your office, they can help you to understand what was done when.
They can become a very valuable historic document and planning instrument. Often the only way you can plan the future is understand the actions and errors you and your team made in the past,
But anyway, a more interesting question could be: What does it take to bring an ex-linux user and now happy OSX user back to linux?
I used Windows for 3 years, then linux for 2 years. During that time I did a lot of installations (mostly ubuntu and debian) on a lot of different devices. During this time, while fighting with drivers, minor display problems, and spoiled windows users I lost my faith in linux as a desktop os and switched to OSX.
I can just speak for myself, but this few points would bring me back to linux in no time.
Presenting Distribution "Utopia"
1. No X11 based display stack, it is replaced with something conceptually simpler (like cocoa).
2. (Multiple) monitor recognition 100% accurate. (Probably connected to Pt. 1)
3. The audio setup is not much worse then the one of OSX.
4. Throwing Gnome and everything that is based on Glib out. It's 2012 there alternatives to faking oo with C. Qt isn't allowed either.
5. Throwing APT out. No more dependency management for a desktop OS please. Then kill Perl as requirement for running an os.
Ahhhhh, I feel better now :-). This is the opposite of what Miguel demanded, he cares for backward compatibility.
When I think about it. "Utopia" would be similar to Android. No fear to throw old stuff out.
Android as a foundation for a new desktop linux?