So you would not hire her because she will sue you if you violate her civil rights? To be honest it sounds like you are violating civil rights.
There is no law against not hiring someone because they are sue happy. However, it is illegal to fire someone for whistleblowing and suing under that and that is about it. So unless a law is broken I can fire someone. Also the whistleblower does not give me a right to hire someone either.
I am no lawyer but most HR departments do this first thing when doing a background check after making sure you are not a criminal. Only last are work references checked.
Civil rights are just that. You have a right not to be discriminated against something you are born with. That is pretty much it and you are on your own.
Moral of the story is watch your reputation, credit history, and your life really well. Some shit will haunt you for a very long time and business is just that. Risk management.
The world I live in most traditional senior level employees are not done with jr level wages and benefits and require that degree and years of experience because with a +10 unemployement/underemployment rate they can. Supply and demand.
They can still hire H1B1 visa as high paid consultants too if you have +15 years experience and they do get paid a ton of money. I think Infosys would overlook a foreignor with that kind of experience as he would leave the job in a heartbeat.
Infosys customers use them because they are cheap. You do not need a chief either at a McDonalds. Just a line cook right? Same principle when cost and output is important. The data architect where she would be better qualified would the equivalent of a high end restaurant if you decide to use that analogy.
Age discrimination is bad too in this world and many slashotters feel this is more of a racism card. I think being over 40 is bad if you are not senior level or management material by then.
Many on this site feel entitled not to be filtered out but that is a fact of life. Hiring is highly risky.
What is illegal is not hiring someone based on sex, gender, religion, disability, race, being gay (1/3 of the states have this), or any other reason based on a civil rights violation. Dressing and looking unprofessional does not go under any of these critera.
What is and is not unprofessional is subjective. You're trying to rationalize your illogical discrimination; in reality, you're just a shallow person.
Why? I am not racist at all.
I feel employers are sued too often and makes them less likely to hire people and encourages more outsourcing. Unprofessional is subjective. Being legal is not.
Where I am in Florida I see employers do this because they know with a +10% unemployment rate they can find someone who used to make $60,000 a year and is about to be divorced, repo man is taking the car tomorrow, and the bank let him know he has 2 weeks to pay up or be homeless, be thrilled to work for $14/hr with no benefits!!
It is a job!
I am hoping this will change but I was unfortunately in such a position (ok not with the bank), but I took a job at this pace and they wanted senior level output from 2 - 3 peoples worth and it sucked royally but I had to take it.
Now if everyone becomes that desperate then they can simply underpay and overwork whether American or not. FYI 50% of the employees were Indian. They are replacing them left and right to cut costs and I was an American willing to take an Indian job but I had to offer less money with no benefits. I just quit.
So with +100 resumes many employers simply do this as Americans now are willing to do this after your unemployment benefits are out.
There is nothing illegal about not hiring someone with long hair.
Many on this site feel entitled not to be filtered out but that is a fact of life. Hiring is highly risky.
What is illegal is not hiring someone based on sex, gender, religion, disability, race, being gay (1/3 of the states have this), or any other reason based on a civil rights violation. Dressing and looking unprofessional does not go under any of these critera.
Being a woman or American is not why she was not hired. From the looks of it she is over qualified and therefore expensive and would be a risk of her leaving if they made her an offer but I could be mistaken. Impossible to prove and sorry folks but being expensive is not protected and a valid reason to filter someone.
What one dictates and what one is perceived as worth are 2 different things.
They could have offered her a lower wage but would be afraid she would be disgruntled and quit because the budget is $55,000 a year set by the beancounter. Yes H1B1 visa holders you do have to charge a competitive wage but that is never enforced.
I left one client who was replacing Americans with H1B1's left and right. How they did it was only hire jr positions but give them sr positional work for them.
I still think over-qualification is a very real problem for a lot of people and I have no qualm with the contractor doing this. FYI infosys looks for cheap employees for clients who do not value I.T. and want to pay rock bottom wages with no benefits.
Someone with 17+ years experience would obviously not be comfortable in that environment and the price is more important than the value since the MBA's feel IT is only an expense anyway. So it is better to simply not even bother her with an offer and instead find someone cheaper. A jr. level employee is much cheaper and often half the price of a sr. whether they are h1b1 visas or a kid fresh out of college who was just at the call center last week who is gaining his VMWare certs.
With this court record she is now unemployable for any HR department that does a background check. Would you hire her?
It depends: Is she good at the job that she applied for?
One thing I wouldn't do, is post on Slashdot about how I'd discriminate against her in hiring due to a court records search. In my state, that'd be illegal, at least according to the court search web site.
There is nothing illegal about not hiring anyone who has filed a workmans comp or has sued. It is illegal to not hire or fire someone based on discriminatory actions on sex, faith, disability, or color. The issue is a civil rights one.
In no way is a background check a violation of ones civil rights.
But, that is not why I would not hire her. I would not because of risk based on her actions and this is not a civil rights issue at all. Now if I were an asshole and said I would not hire her because she is Irish and a woman then I would be in hot water!
Courts understand that hiring anyone is a risky and very expensive task for any individual or business. While I do think it sucks as someone rightfully being taken advantage of is marked for life, you can't change the facts that everyone does it and their insurance company forces them too. Their insurance dictates to hire the less risky employees or we wont cover your ass!
Sometimes you do not need to eat Fillet Magnion every night. Sometimes McDonalds works fine if you are hungry.
Same is true with a lot of I.T. jobs. With this court record she is now unemployable for any HR department that does a background check. Would you hire her?
I wouldn't and if I just need someone to answer phone calls asking why Sam can't log in and to do a password reset then gosh dolly I do not need someone with 17 years experience and a masters degree to check a file permission or reset a password.
With a masters and 17 years experience the first thing I think of is $$$$!
How much is she going to cost me? If I hire her for $50,000 a year how do I know she wont quit on me for a better job? $50,000 a year is what the average salary of a LAN admin is where I live. I asked HR and they only hire on that number with no budget for anything greater as I.T. is an expense that adds no value.
So I think you have it the other way around as she is obviously overqualified except for consulting and I.T director and CIO kind of work.
I think if you owned a company your opinion would change very rapidly. Especially if you spent your hard earned savings and shareholders money making this new cool product only to have an employee use the IP to start his or her own company based off your money.
It takes years to patent and it is difficult to prove in court until after your product is released.
Yes, some try to be assholes and say you may not longer work in the I.T field again! But, these are almost always stroke down by a judge as unenforcable if you study business law.
What they state is if I work at Microsoft on search engine technology. I can't work at Google next week. It doesn't mean I can't work at Amazon or CreditSwiss FirstBoston or any other I.T. job. After 2 years the technology should be used or if not then fuck it then it has no bearings.
The fact that California made this non enforcible means the state is dead last if I wanted to start a.com. How do I know employees wont steal my ideas?
USB 3 drives that are not generic junk can easily copy at speeds up to 30 megs a second! Not the junk you see on sale at Walgreens that has hurt the reputation of them.
If you use Firefox and the javascript will alert the FBI with your IP address where it can find out who you and your location with the American Patriot Act from your ISP.
One of my moral ethical rules for myself (others should adopt) is not to do business with bad people.
How many of you know better than to deal with a crocked used car salesmen who sales he is a bad guy to the seller so he can give you an even better deal! You know he will screw you too.
Many who work in the financial industry know this and feel they can screw others back and still get ahead. Many programmers feel they can win and get paid $180,000 a year by being a shark themselves as big money can be made for their bigger sharks above.
But in the end it is a gamble where it is set against you. You didn't think the big sharks with vacation homes in the Caymen Islsands got there from being nice guys and rewarding those who got them rich did you? No, they get it from taking their money.
Mob owned businesses, payday loan places, cigarette companies, and places like this I avoid and so should every slashdotter whether they want to work for them or do business.
Programmers can earn as high as $60,000 a year! FYI that is how much an CPA accountant earns iwth a masters degree.
If you think that is oddball go talk to the HR ladies or teachers and policeman or your neighborhood grocery store manager and ask how much they make? I guarantee you it is lower and many work 60 - 70 hours a week just to keep their $36,000 a year jobs!
That is the new norm for wages right now in the US. Executives and directors get paid more but they are a minority. I.T. pays good and goes who just answer phones all day can make up to at least $36,000 a year which is excellent for help desk departments too which is the lowest of all I.T. jobs.
Unions are for people with no bargaining power. Either do X for Y pay or I will find someone else who will !!...etc
As a programmer if some asshole boss tells you that you have the power to say OK and walk out the door. There is a shortage of I.T. workers across North America if you read the news outside of slashdot. There is demand and employers reluctantly paying as high as $55k a year plus health benefits! If your jaw dropped reading this because that sounded waaay too low and laughable... go be a teacher instead?
See how much a teacher earns? Or a policeman? Or any white color job outside a few MBAs or Lawyers? You all have the bargaining power and if you choose to work hard and specialize you can charge $150,000 as a consultant too after 10 years of experience and an advanced degree.
You do not need a union. If you were foolish enough to dare try it and demand every JR programmer get 5 weeks off a year plus $80,000 starting off you would find Indians coming to your office the following week on H1B1 visas and you and your buddies being handed pink slips out the door while they sit in your cubicles. Don't be silly. True you can argue your work is higher quality but no one is willing to pay more than $100,000 a year for it (That is how much a $60,000 a year employee costs + taxes + obamacre + other fixed cost expenses).
This programmer got greedy and wanted to earn $180,000 a year and go into some shady things. Yes HFT is shady and the risks are great and you have a ton of liability on your head if you fuck up! That is why they pay a lot and why many such as myself would not do it.
According to other Slashdot it can't be hacked because it is based on Linux even if you install it! I can't believe they all only function on Windows Phone. Wow
Increases in complexity are usually increases in security vulnerabilities. Also, boot times and installation are now longer and more complex...and just like the NSA, we are still no better in our security.
What a horrible joke.
Have any evidence?
I am in favor of it because it reduces complexity by throwing out XT, 286, and, extended vs expanded ram code, and other legacies of old. Slashdot favored EFI too before Windows 8. If it were not for just having MS as the C.A. for the signing bootkey I think it would be great.
UEFI is just firmware and is fairly simple. Nothing else without the legacy junk and poor ACPI chunks that Linux does not support correctly due to motherboard makers not following the spec (Dells not having sound after hibernate in Linux), or having everything only go to IRQ 11 and cause conflicts and BSOD on gaming cards (Also dells made 11 years ago), which are all thanks to the bios.
Do we really need the bios anymore? I hate them as they cause bugs in Windows too and just Linux as they are soo bloated with 30 years worth of ancient stuff with many patches.
Useless? It is actively harmful. UEFI is far more likely to corrupt the operating system than the usual SMBIOS (system management mode BIOS), _and_ the sheer incompetence of the people implementing UEFI is... daunting. Just take a look on the absurd bugs Linux and FreeBSD have to work around (Windows does as well, but you won't find a changelog telling you the gore details).
The proper amount of running firmware after the platform manages to run the bootloader is *zero*.
Holy crap.
Don't you remember Dells not working hibernating properly, Linux not even fucking boot up on some boards, IRQ conflicts, BSOD, all related to fucking ACPI bios!
The bios is unstable, full of hacks, 30 years old, has esteroic things like limit ram to 1 meg, then more esoteric things like no_really_use_more_than_1meg_of_ram_but_use_this_hack_for_compality_with_dos_2.1, and years and years of garbage.
ACPI is the main reason Linux does not work to do thanks to the bois. It is time to switch to EFI so Linux can boot properly and not have a half dozen implementations like the bios has. EFI is at least a documented standards. The bios is not and ACPI is really a guideline than a practice.
Windows8 still has lots of problems even without METRO.
As we saw with people still preferring XP today in 2013 that people like me wont ever upgrade from Windows 7 even with classic shell. Too many apps and the hassle is not worth it.
Windows 8 got rid of aero, Windows key + tab browsing, dvd movie playback, rounded corners, and all sane colors. Office 2013 is a horrible horrible GUI that gives me migraines! It is like a fucking time warp back to 1985 CGA/EGA time.
For the extremist design change for MS on Windows 8/Office 2013 look here. I can understand skeumorphism might not always be ideal, but it dam looks nice and not extreme like blinding white voids of color that MS is taking with METRO.
Until this is fixed I am staying with Windows 7 regardless of whether Metro is in it or not.
Except that there really isn't anything wrong with Windows8, except the damned awful UI. If they'd included a classic shell, there wouldn't even be half as much whining over it.
Even if MS decided not to do METRO and had the exact same identical gui we all love in Windows 7 that would not be acceptable as corporations only upgrade every 10 years now. A secure boot is a major hindrance.
Shoot what once took 25 people for 3,000 users 12 years ago, now had 3 or 4 people! WHen you have 3,000 computers there is no time to upgrade without bringing in consultants that charge several hundred an hour for 2 months at a time. It is expensive even if the upgrade is free.
Also what about those with apps that run on Linux or Unix or even Windows 7 only? XP apps for example run under virtualPC for Windows 7 pro/enterprise. Not to mention Windows 8 can not even play DVD movies?! It really is a terrible operating system and what they did with aero is a travesty... regardless of the practical problems of upgrading.
But doesn't only Microsoft have the private keys used for secureboot?
Also how do you add keys? A nightmare scenario would be where malware signs its bootkit in it making it impossible to remove!
Sun had pins with its firmware updates where by default it is set read-only and can move them to flash an update. Maybe something like this or a secure USB flash could be used and the EFI could refuse to load the keys any other way?
Slashdot Mirror
So you would not hire her because she will sue you if you violate her civil rights? To be honest it sounds like you are violating civil rights.
There is no law against not hiring someone because they are sue happy. However, it is illegal to fire someone for whistleblowing and suing under that and that is about it. So unless a law is broken I can fire someone. Also the whistleblower does not give me a right to hire someone either.
I am no lawyer but most HR departments do this first thing when doing a background check after making sure you are not a criminal. Only last are work references checked.
Civil rights are just that. You have a right not to be discriminated against something you are born with. That is pretty much it and you are on your own.
Moral of the story is watch your reputation, credit history, and your life really well. Some shit will haunt you for a very long time and business is just that. Risk management.
The world I live in most traditional senior level employees are not done with jr level wages and benefits and require that degree and years of experience because with a +10 unemployement/underemployment rate they can. Supply and demand.
They can still hire H1B1 visa as high paid consultants too if you have +15 years experience and they do get paid a ton of money. I think Infosys would overlook a foreignor with that kind of experience as he would leave the job in a heartbeat.
Infosys customers use them because they are cheap. You do not need a chief either at a McDonalds. Just a line cook right? Same principle when cost and output is important. The data architect where she would be better qualified would the equivalent of a high end restaurant if you decide to use that analogy.
Age discrimination is bad too in this world and many slashotters feel this is more of a racism card. I think being over 40 is bad if you are not senior level or management material by then.
Many on this site feel entitled not to be filtered out but that is a fact of life. Hiring is highly risky.
What is illegal is not hiring someone based on sex, gender, religion, disability, race, being gay (1/3 of the states have this), or any other reason based on a civil rights violation. Dressing and looking unprofessional does not go under any of these critera.
What is and is not unprofessional is subjective. You're trying to rationalize your illogical discrimination; in reality, you're just a shallow person.
Why? I am not racist at all.
I feel employers are sued too often and makes them less likely to hire people and encourages more outsourcing. Unprofessional is subjective. Being legal is not.
Where I am in Florida I see employers do this because they know with a +10% unemployment rate they can find someone who used to make $60,000 a year and is about to be divorced, repo man is taking the car tomorrow, and the bank let him know he has 2 weeks to pay up or be homeless, be thrilled to work for $14/hr with no benefits!!
It is a job!
I am hoping this will change but I was unfortunately in such a position (ok not with the bank), but I took a job at this pace and they wanted senior level output from 2 - 3 peoples worth and it sucked royally but I had to take it.
Now if everyone becomes that desperate then they can simply underpay and overwork whether American or not. FYI 50% of the employees were Indian. They are replacing them left and right to cut costs and I was an American willing to take an Indian job but I had to offer less money with no benefits. I just quit.
So with +100 resumes many employers simply do this as Americans now are willing to do this after your unemployment benefits are out.
There is nothing illegal about not hiring someone with long hair.
Many on this site feel entitled not to be filtered out but that is a fact of life. Hiring is highly risky.
What is illegal is not hiring someone based on sex, gender, religion, disability, race, being gay (1/3 of the states have this), or any other reason based on a civil rights violation. Dressing and looking unprofessional does not go under any of these critera.
Being a woman or American is not why she was not hired. From the looks of it she is over qualified and therefore expensive and would be a risk of her leaving if they made her an offer but I could be mistaken. Impossible to prove and sorry folks but being expensive is not protected and a valid reason to filter someone.
Obviously, you get what you pay for
Yeah, but the one making that decision is insulating from the results of that. AFAIK the bean counters.
Then the bean counters give a bad performance review from the I.T. manager after they have crap employees and wonder why they keep losing money.
Notice finance and accounting is never outsourced. After all they all unlike I.T. they are important ... bla bla.
What one dictates and what one is perceived as worth are 2 different things.
They could have offered her a lower wage but would be afraid she would be disgruntled and quit because the budget is $55,000 a year set by the beancounter. Yes H1B1 visa holders you do have to charge a competitive wage but that is never enforced.
I left one client who was replacing Americans with H1B1's left and right. How they did it was only hire jr positions but give them sr positional work for them.
I still think over-qualification is a very real problem for a lot of people and I have no qualm with the contractor doing this. FYI infosys looks for cheap employees for clients who do not value I.T. and want to pay rock bottom wages with no benefits.
Someone with 17+ years experience would obviously not be comfortable in that environment and the price is more important than the value since the MBA's feel IT is only an expense anyway. So it is better to simply not even bother her with an offer and instead find someone cheaper. A jr. level employee is much cheaper and often half the price of a sr. whether they are h1b1 visas or a kid fresh out of college who was just at the call center last week who is gaining his VMWare certs.
With this court record she is now unemployable for any HR department that does a background check. Would you hire her?
It depends: Is she good at the job that she applied for?
One thing I wouldn't do, is post on Slashdot about how I'd discriminate against her in hiring due to a court records search.
In my state, that'd be illegal, at least according to the court search web site.
There is nothing illegal about not hiring anyone who has filed a workmans comp or has sued. It is illegal to not hire or fire someone based on discriminatory actions on sex, faith, disability, or color. The issue is a civil rights one.
In no way is a background check a violation of ones civil rights.
But, that is not why I would not hire her. I would not because of risk based on her actions and this is not a civil rights issue at all. Now if I were an asshole and said I would not hire her because she is Irish and a woman then I would be in hot water!
Courts understand that hiring anyone is a risky and very expensive task for any individual or business. While I do think it sucks as someone rightfully being taken advantage of is marked for life, you can't change the facts that everyone does it and their insurance company forces them too. Their insurance dictates to hire the less risky employees or we wont cover your ass!
Sometimes you do not need to eat Fillet Magnion every night. Sometimes McDonalds works fine if you are hungry.
Same is true with a lot of I.T. jobs. With this court record she is now unemployable for any HR department that does a background check. Would you hire her?
I wouldn't and if I just need someone to answer phone calls asking why Sam can't log in and to do a password reset then gosh dolly I do not need someone with 17 years experience and a masters degree to check a file permission or reset a password.
A Bangladeshi can do that work just fine.
With a masters and 17 years experience the first thing I think of is $$$$!
How much is she going to cost me? If I hire her for $50,000 a year how do I know she wont quit on me for a better job? $50,000 a year is what the average salary of a LAN admin is where I live. I asked HR and they only hire on that number with no budget for anything greater as I.T. is an expense that adds no value.
So I think you have it the other way around as she is obviously overqualified except for consulting and I.T director and CIO kind of work.
I think if you owned a company your opinion would change very rapidly. Especially if you spent your hard earned savings and shareholders money making this new cool product only to have an employee use the IP to start his or her own company based off your money.
It takes years to patent and it is difficult to prove in court until after your product is released.
Yes, some try to be assholes and say you may not longer work in the I.T field again! But, these are almost always stroke down by a judge as unenforcable if you study business law.
What they state is if I work at Microsoft on search engine technology. I can't work at Google next week. It doesn't mean I can't work at Amazon or CreditSwiss FirstBoston or any other I.T. job. After 2 years the technology should be used or if not then fuck it then it has no bearings.
The fact that California made this non enforcible means the state is dead last if I wanted to start a .com. How do I know employees wont steal my ideas?
USB 3 drives that are not generic junk can easily copy at speeds up to 30 megs a second! Not the junk you see on sale at Walgreens that has hurt the reputation of them.
I am both left handed and ambidextrous. Does that mean I want to harm and physically abuse an innocent child!
No it is not normal.
It is caused by traumatic abuse as a child. Not genetic in nature at all
Wont work.
If you use Firefox and the javascript will alert the FBI with your IP address where it can find out who you and your location with the American Patriot Act from your ISP.
I can finally run Fred and Mike's apps with me and the other guy who own them.
NOT
One of my moral ethical rules for myself (others should adopt) is not to do business with bad people.
How many of you know better than to deal with a crocked used car salesmen who sales he is a bad guy to the seller so he can give you an even better deal! You know he will screw you too.
Many who work in the financial industry know this and feel they can screw others back and still get ahead. Many programmers feel they can win and get paid $180,000 a year by being a shark themselves as big money can be made for their bigger sharks above.
But in the end it is a gamble where it is set against you. You didn't think the big sharks with vacation homes in the Caymen Islsands got there from being nice guys and rewarding those who got them rich did you? No, they get it from taking their money.
Mob owned businesses, payday loan places, cigarette companies, and places like this I avoid and so should every slashdotter whether they want to work for them or do business.
IT highly paid? What drugs are you taking?
Programmers can earn as high as $60,000 a year! FYI that is how much an CPA accountant earns iwth a masters degree.
If you think that is oddball go talk to the HR ladies or teachers and policeman or your neighborhood grocery store manager and ask how much they make? I guarantee you it is lower and many work 60 - 70 hours a week just to keep their $36,000 a year jobs!
That is the new norm for wages right now in the US. Executives and directors get paid more but they are a minority. I.T. pays good and goes who just answer phones all day can make up to at least $36,000 a year which is excellent for help desk departments too which is the lowest of all I.T. jobs.
Unions are for people with no bargaining power. Either do X for Y pay or I will find someone else who will !! ...etc
As a programmer if some asshole boss tells you that you have the power to say OK and walk out the door. There is a shortage of I.T. workers across North America if you read the news outside of slashdot. There is demand and employers reluctantly paying as high as $55k a year plus health benefits! If your jaw dropped reading this because that sounded waaay too low and laughable ... go be a teacher instead?
See how much a teacher earns? Or a policeman? Or any white color job outside a few MBAs or Lawyers? You all have the bargaining power and if you choose to work hard and specialize you can charge $150,000 as a consultant too after 10 years of experience and an advanced degree.
You do not need a union. If you were foolish enough to dare try it and demand every JR programmer get 5 weeks off a year plus $80,000 starting off you would find Indians coming to your office the following week on H1B1 visas and you and your buddies being handed pink slips out the door while they sit in your cubicles. Don't be silly. True you can argue your work is higher quality but no one is willing to pay more than $100,000 a year for it (That is how much a $60,000 a year employee costs + taxes + obamacre + other fixed cost expenses).
This programmer got greedy and wanted to earn $180,000 a year and go into some shady things. Yes HFT is shady and the risks are great and you have a ton of liability on your head if you fuck up! That is why they pay a lot and why many such as myself would not do it.
According to other Slashdot it can't be hacked because it is based on Linux even if you install it! I can't believe they all only function on Windows Phone. Wow
Increases in complexity are usually increases in security vulnerabilities.
Also, boot times and installation are now longer and more complex...and just like the NSA, we are still no better in our security.
What a horrible joke.
Have any evidence?
I am in favor of it because it reduces complexity by throwing out XT, 286, and, extended vs expanded ram code, and other legacies of old. Slashdot favored EFI too before Windows 8. If it were not for just having MS as the C.A. for the signing bootkey I think it would be great.
UEFI is just firmware and is fairly simple. Nothing else without the legacy junk and poor ACPI chunks that Linux does not support correctly due to motherboard makers not following the spec (Dells not having sound after hibernate in Linux), or having everything only go to IRQ 11 and cause conflicts and BSOD on gaming cards (Also dells made 11 years ago), which are all thanks to the bios.
Do we really need the bios anymore? I hate them as they cause bugs in Windows too and just Linux as they are soo bloated with 30 years worth of ancient stuff with many patches.
Useless? It is actively harmful. UEFI is far more likely to corrupt the operating system than the usual SMBIOS (system management mode BIOS), _and_ the sheer incompetence of the people implementing UEFI is... daunting. Just take a look on the absurd bugs Linux and FreeBSD have to work around (Windows does as well, but you won't find a changelog telling you the gore details).
The proper amount of running firmware after the platform manages to run the bootloader is *zero*.
Holy crap.
Don't you remember Dells not working hibernating properly, Linux not even fucking boot up on some boards, IRQ conflicts, BSOD, all related to fucking ACPI bios!
The bios is unstable, full of hacks, 30 years old, has esteroic things like limit ram to 1 meg, then more esoteric things like no_really_use_more_than_1meg_of_ram_but_use_this_hack_for_compality_with_dos_2.1, and years and years of garbage.
ACPI is the main reason Linux does not work to do thanks to the bois. It is time to switch to EFI so Linux can boot properly and not have a half dozen implementations like the bios has. EFI is at least a documented standards. The bios is not and ACPI is really a guideline than a practice.
Windows8 still has lots of problems even without METRO.
As we saw with people still preferring XP today in 2013 that people like me wont ever upgrade from Windows 7 even with classic shell. Too many apps and the hassle is not worth it.
Windows 8 got rid of aero, Windows key + tab browsing, dvd movie playback, rounded corners, and all sane colors. Office 2013 is a horrible horrible GUI that gives me migraines! It is like a fucking time warp back to 1985 CGA/EGA time.
For the extremist design change for MS on Windows 8/Office 2013 look here. I can understand skeumorphism might not always be ideal, but it dam looks nice and not extreme like blinding white voids of color that MS is taking with METRO.
Until this is fixed I am staying with Windows 7 regardless of whether Metro is in it or not.
Eventually. But Windows 8 is quite toxic enough
Except that there really isn't anything wrong with Windows8, except the damned awful UI. If they'd included a classic shell, there wouldn't even be half as much whining over it.
Even if MS decided not to do METRO and had the exact same identical gui we all love in Windows 7 that would not be acceptable as corporations only upgrade every 10 years now. A secure boot is a major hindrance.
Shoot what once took 25 people for 3,000 users 12 years ago, now had 3 or 4 people! WHen you have 3,000 computers there is no time to upgrade without bringing in consultants that charge several hundred an hour for 2 months at a time. It is expensive even if the upgrade is free.
Also what about those with apps that run on Linux or Unix or even Windows 7 only? XP apps for example run under virtualPC for Windows 7 pro/enterprise. Not to mention Windows 8 can not even play DVD movies?! It really is a terrible operating system and what they did with aero is a travesty ... regardless of the practical problems of upgrading.
But doesn't only Microsoft have the private keys used for secureboot?
Also how do you add keys? A nightmare scenario would be where malware signs its bootkit in it making it impossible to remove!
Sun had pins with its firmware updates where by default it is set read-only and can move them to flash an update. Maybe something like this or a secure USB flash could be used and the EFI could refuse to load the keys any other way?