To be honest, I've been watching this thread from the sidelines and wondering what to say. If someone has no clue that rm -rf / means tabula rasa, should they have root on a production server in the first place?

I understand what you're trying to say, and I respect the intent, but I think your appeal is misguided. I can't help feeling like it's just political correctness in a different context, an attempt to offer a safe and wholesome experience for the whole family. Ultimately, that is an excercise in absurdity.

Where do you draw the line? Should the rm command print a WARNING: this command may cause loss of data. Are you really sure you want to proceed?[n] ? No amount of disclaimers can ever be a substitute for a healthy dose of common sense.

Update: I feel I have to add what I just figured out was the reason that this thread irked me - the whole thing erupted out of what amounted to a practical joke on ferrency's expense rather than an actual disaster. So while I can understand the shock, there doesn't seem to be any actual evidence.

Makeshifts last the longest.