markhuge

> Is there anything on OS X-only that you think you'd miss?

I've paid for a lot of software that can't run on Linux, but I feel like I've gotten the value out of most of them. In theory everything I do either works in Linux natively or has a Linux equivalent. I just haven't tried any of it on modern hardware to know if it'll actually work.

> Have you considered a Hackintosh? And what's keeping you off of Windows?

Most of the reasons for switching to Linux are related to OS/security/privacy/automation tweaks that I haven't been able to make work (or work reliably) in Windows/OSX. I have all that stuff working in Linux today, but my hardware is too out of date to do the bulk of my work on.

Honestly, I could probably spend some time in mastering powershell, and educating myself on the current state of Windows and maybe do everything I want, it's just not something I'm interested in doing.

> Consuming media through the laptop is another sticking point. I had tons of bizarre issues with Chrome/Firefox and streaming video sites. It was just a mess.

This has been my experience as well, but I'm also on 7 year old hardware.

No idea. My personal experience with a Dell merger was with a company that had no subsidiaries.

To any EMC employees reading this: Dell is probably going to pay out your vacation balance as cash in a lump sum prior to the merge. Around that time your EMC title will be mapped to something at Dell. There's a pay range associated with the new title that probably won't match your current title.

If you're planning on sticking around (and your manager likes you), see if you can work with them to tweak your title before the deal goes through.