You can use GNU remove, which lets you put arguments last for safety, on any Linux box:

Eg:

rm /whatever -rf

Ie, if you hit enter too early, you still haven't forced.

I've been using Linux for 14 years and have never accidentally rm'd recursively. I'm not sure when they added it, but I've been using it for a very long time.

I just use it for my boxes. It doesn't stop me putting something silly in a make file (as in the example here), but it does stop me getting burnt by it.