THE MINT CAFE

[scorp123]

I had to drink half of your 15-year-old stuff.

Yes, I noticed. The bottle is almost empty now Oh well ... I have three more

[antiquexray]

I had to drink half of your 15-year-old stuff.

Yes, I noticed. The bottle is almost empty now Oh well ... I have three more

How 'bout sharing a virtual drink and toast? I toast Clem, Scorp123, npap, Fragadelic, the other contributors, and so many more who's names I can't remember right now because of too many sips from reality (please don't be pissed if I didn't mention your name) and their unselfish contributions to Linux Mint (glug, glug, glug).

(Hiccup) How 'bout it npap, you got any ouzo?

PS. Oh yeah, thanks to Carlos too for his wallpaper of the naked girl sitting on the thatched roof, the grassy slope, or in the field of straw; just please don't shatter my fantasy by telling me she's not naked.

[kenetics]

Scorp,
What about benefits, retirement, etc? How stable is the smaller company? How marketable are your skills if the move doesn't pan out? Things to consider.

[scorp123]

What about benefits, retirement, etc?

Not as luxurious as with my current employer, but that was to be expected. Oh well ... I don't get married to them, I don't have to stay with them for the rest of my life ... my wife and me discussed this all evening, if they suck I can still leave them as well and search again if I really really need to.

You see, my problem is that on one hand I feel tempted to say "yes":

* they are really really close to where I live
* I could spend more time with wife and kid, lose less time in traffic jams (my current work place is 35 km away; takes me almost 45 minutes and more to get there and again almost an hour every evening to get back home ... if you add this up I am losing tons of time here!)

* smaller company means more freedom sort of ... No big "corporate policy" forbidding or preventing me to explore certain topics I just happen to be interested in ... In a big company there is always the danger that you will thread upon someone else's territory when you do something ("Hey, you're not supposed to deliver Linux OS support ... that's our piece of the cake!! Stick to your middleware applications, alright?!" ..... )

* chance to expand my knowledge ... I will have to do more stuff myself. OK, it's also challenging, but I sort of like that ...


... But on the other hand I am a bit afraid too:

* smaller companies may disappear all of a sudden or go bankrupt (less likely to happen with the really big ones ...)

* 140'000 employees where I work now ... and there they have 140 employees. Both sides are sure as hell in for a "clash of cultures" which is going to cost both a lot of patience and energy.

* less flexibility. At my current job I can come and go as I please, I don't even need to be in the office, I can just as well stay at home and work remotely via VPN. This new small company: No dice! I'd have to be present in the office. But then again they are only five minutes away ...

* tons of other reasons going through my head ...

How stable is the smaller company?

As far as I understood they started in 2002 with a dozen or so employees and now they make 40 million profit per year and have 140 employees .... They are specialised in providing IT and ASP services to health insurance companies (and there are many here in Switzerland!), and given the numbers of transactions their installations have to deal with every day, they are very focused on UNIX, Linux and IBM MainFrames (which will slowly be replaced with UNIX and Linux until 2008); they do a little Windoze too, but the job they are offering me would clearly be focused on UNIX and Linux and MiddleWare stuff (application servers, databases, etc.)

How marketable are your skills if the move doesn't pan out?

Why bet on one horse if you can bet on two or even more? I employed the services of a professional "head hunter" and together with him I "pimped" my CV (no lies or untrue stuff .... we just pimped the presentation style so that it now should be a joy for every HR dude to read my CV). And this head hunter has submitted my CV to some other companies too .... So I am in no rush to sign any contract yet, I first want to see what kind of other reactions I get from the other companies ... But still, this job I got offered today is a great opportunity worth thinking about ...

Toast to all of you guys and thanks for your advice

[antiquexray]

Are there any Microsoft fanboys at this new place?

[scorp123]

Are there any Microsoft fanboys at this new place?

Few, if any ....

[npap]

.

[scorp123]

Confucius says:" Bettel big fish in smorr pond than smorr fish in big lake"
And: Smorr fish arways food fol big fish!

Unless small fish sharper teeth than big fish and big fish old, slow and/or without teeth. A small Piranha can make a big whale run away ... just bite hard enough where it hurts

[mintero]

scorp 123

How about starting your own linux services company?

[clem]

Scorp123,

Not to mention that you might be contacted by me to work on the Linux Mint Support Center if things work well over there. See, you're not finished being head-hunted

Clem

[npap]

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[npap]

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[npap]

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[scorp123]

How about starting your own linux services company?

Too risky of going bankrupt here. There simply aren't enough potential customers in all of Switzerland (the total population here is only around 7 million people) let alone in the area where I live for this kind of one-man-show. Plus the market here is already saturated with one-man companies who try their luck with IT services of various kinds ... some are succesful, others vanish just as quickly as they appeared. That's too risky for me. I have a wife, I have a kid, I have financial obligations ... If I was still single and alone I'd consider taking on this challenge. Or if I lived in a more urban area with more potential customers around me, then maybe the chance of survival would look better. But here where I live? And with wife and kid who depend on me ... Nope, better look for a job at one of the established companies, IMHO.

[scorp123]

Not to mention that you might be contacted by me to work on the Linux Mint Support Center if things work well over there. See, you're not finished being head-hunted

Hmmm ... are you serious? Because that idea sounds very attractive to me ... Always wanted to work for a Linux distributor

But I suppose you won't be able or willing to pay the insane salary I'd have to ask for to maintain my living standards (plus let's not forget the high living costs here in Switzerland ... )

But you were joking anyway, right?

[carlos]

Scorp your practically synonymous with Mint support. That would be cool.

[clem]

I'm not in a position to hire anyone yet (I'm not in a position to quit my job yet actually), but hopefully we'll get there. What I'm serious about is the fact that "if" we need of people to work on the support and "if" the Linux Mint treasury allows it, you're exactly the kind of guy I'd be contacting.

So in other words "I'm kind of kidding but it's not a joke" ?! (can't remember who I heard that from...).

You're already helping a lot of people for free, if we grow and have enough money you might begin to help them for a little money, and if we grow even bigger you might be able to help them full time and do that as your job.

It's the same for me, I maintain the distro and develop some of the applications for free in my spare time. I'm now getting about 1/4 of my salary on top of my existing one so I don't do overtime anymore and give more time to the project. If the project grows and I can replace my salary, I can basically "hire" myself and do that kind of stuff full time.

I don't expect to get much money out of this project, but hopefully enough to have myself and a small team of people working full time on it. It's definitely worth it, and when we see what we can achieve just by working on it in our spare time, imagine what we can do if we're constantly on it Monday to Friday. The sky is the limit

Clem

[carlos]

Its funny you say that Clem, we just had a huge lottery here on the east coast in the US. I was imagining if I was to win I would definately like to fund the distro and get full time people on it. Well its a dream. There is a saying here, "you have to be in it, to win it."

[AlsaPhil]

I will just promise here one thing, guys
At first, I will offer myself a space flight and as soon that I am back, I hire the Mint dev team and some other guys from here, install them in a "chalet" in Switzerland and organize every month a seminar in Greece, in the olive garden by our friend npap , sorry
OK OK may be I'm just dreaming too

[npap]

On Being Your Own Boss

Mutt: Why don't you give up your expensive habits Jeff?
If you didn't drink expensive Scotch, and didn't smoke for so many years,
you would own that big company across the street!
Jeff: Don't you know Mutt? That company used to belong to me!
Mutt: What happened? Why don't you own it anymore?
Jeff: It's a long story Mutt.
It was nice working for myself. There were no other employees except
myself. I liked myself since I was a very good worker.
I kept asking the boss for raises quite often, and he never refused.
So, it didn't take long for the business to go bankrupt!