One of the most common things you’ll see on any technology based internet forum (I could name many, but why bother, I’m sure you all have your dungeons, caves, hiding spots, and water coolers that you hang out at), is a mammoth an ugly behemoth-sized cult that’s following reality distortion field religion behind every platform on the face of the planet. Who really knows why?
Let me get it out of my system before I even continue – every platform has a place in the market, every platform caters differently to different groups of people.
There are things that Microsoft Windows does quite well, there are things that Apple’s Mac OS X does well (I’m not really in the mood to touch on the “classic” Mac OS, I didn’t really enjoy those days of my middle-school education dealing with Mac OS 8.6’s misbehavior utter delinquency), there are things that Linux and FreeBSD do well, hell there are things that DOS does well (remember DOS? Disk Operating System? The thing you actually had to type commands into for your computer to do anything besides sit there and look at you like a 1980’s commercial for ET).
With that being said, why are there so many flame wars over which platform someone chooses to support? We aren’t monkeys, we don’t need to be flinging poo at each other. A lot of people like Linux because it’s free and the source code is readily available under the GPL licensing, it’s great for someone who really wants to learn the inside of an operating system in their spare time. A lot of people like Mac OS X for it’s outstanding user interface and rich UNIX underpinnings and excellent applications, everything feels like it goes together and overall it ‘just works’. But, the majority use Microsoft Windows, and that’s perfectly fine – Windows has the largest user base on the planet, there are thousands (if not millions) of different programs developed for it, and Microsoft have a really great set of developer tools available (known as Visual Studio).
Instead of whining over which operating system you want to sleep with you prefer and insulting every other person who isn’t running [insert your favorite operating system here], try to channel that negative energy into something constructive — like posting constructive criticism or helpful information, instead of turning every thread on the internet into a slag-fest between a healthy piece of food (Apple), a piece of glass (Windows), a penguin (Linux), or the devil (BSD). It’s not rocket science, it’s not politics, it’s a computer, a tool for communicating with friends, family, and co-workers no matter where you are, a tool for keeping track of your quarterly budget, a tool for listening to music or enjoying a movie, a tool for viewing the pictures your sister just sent you from her wedding in Milan. Let me say it again, just to be clear — a computer is a tool. It is not a religion or a cult following, and it doesn’t change your underpants for you.
As long as you are making corrections (strike thrus) you might want to correct your grammer in your first line… “creative God?s above” to “creative gods above”. It doesn’t read correctly the way you have it written. Not trying to be critical, just corrective.
BTW That is my real eMail and web site. Check it out if you don’t believe me.
I generally have a bit of a saying when it comes to the whole PC Vs Mac thing, they are as bad as each other, only one is more expensive 🙂
Mike: Thanks for the correction there, I was pretty tired when I wrote this 😛
well, I was directed here by the #windows ppl on irc freenode, but in my defence i would like to say I really really don’t care what OS, or about all the pretty transparent animated gadgety widgety things, but I just wish the one I *buy* would do at least the things it promises, as for my undies, Ill manage those myself from now on…
The whole OS war is so pointless, if you really care, then there is something wrong with the important things in your life. And why does Apple have to run attack ads, not so different from political ones, to try to bump up support. And it really doesn’t matter what you’re running on your computer, but price is always important.
Eventually people will realize that Windows and Mac OSX are equal. They both have their ups and downs, but those equal out. I wouldn’t say Linux is equal to Windows and Mac, yet, but it’s still a contender which some people prefer.
No operating system is “the best”, since that’s more personal opinion, and the kind of opinion which doesn’t need to be “expressed” unless asked (or something, you understand what I mean).
You know this is almost the same with the web browser war. People swear by firefox, safari, opera etc. and others just prefer the default browser in the OS. Personally if I can access the pages I want make them show up most of the content correctly, I don’t care how I get there, just as long as I do.
Nice blog though, I think a lot of people are now realising that this OS war is really pointless.
SnowDogNZ: I agree with you on this, the whole browser war is pointless. Some people like Internet Explorer, some like Firefox, some like Safari, Opera, and whatever. As long as it can display web pages, that’s all that really matters. It all comes down to personal preference.
Oh yeah I do remember DOS.
Hey, when I had a Commodore 64 I thought DOS was high tech!
Man I suddenly feel old…
Bottom line, the people who bleat and moan about an operating system are usually the ones who don’t do anything creative or constructive on their computers! They spend so much time bleating, they never have enough time to actually do anything else!!
“I” like Windows!
“I” like the look of the MAC!
“I” do not like Linux
These are my opinions, but the bottom line is, I make a living from Microsoft products, I would be broke if I had to try and make a living from the Mac or Linus side!
🙂
On the other hand, some OSs perform better than others – faster, more stable, etc. – some have more applications available, some have better hardware support and some are prettier than others (not my favorite criterion). All else being equal, faster and more stable would be better, assuming you have the tools to get your job done.
For example, many believe Vista is slower than XP, with less program and hardware support. If so, it would seem a worse OS than XP.
That being said, the religious fury behind some OS comments is nuts.
Agreed in full. But people have this ‘brand-loyalty fever’ in things just like, say, car brands, soccer (or any sport) teams, and so. It makes the human kind more ape-like than fur!
Greetings from Brazil,
Eduardo, that’s an interesting point! But I think it’s just more of a matter of how far you take your preference vs actually having a preference in the first place.
For instance, I’m a BMW zealot (BMW M6 FTW!!!!)… and though I jokingly put down any other car (Lexus, Mazerrati, and Lamborghini excepted), I don’t have a problem with the people driving other cars….. and can accept that they’re decent modes of transportation as well.
(not as good as BMW though, of course! J/k :P)
Mahmoud, I feel like a poor fellow from a 3rd world country (which I am, but that’s something else). An M6? Oh my, I feel humiliated. BMW is one of my dreams too. I got an itty-bitty ’99 Mercedes A160. And only the brand name makes people think I got some money in my back pockets!
This thing of brand-loyalty and respect is funny thing among people. We should use this care and respect to actual people, not things we use to go to work and back!
I gues we are getting too phylosophical here!
Best regards,
Edu
I multi-boot XP, Customised and stripped XP for recovery, Vista Ultimate, Fedora, Ubuntu, DOS, a patched OS X Leopard, OpenBSD, Server 2008, and a more-or-less pointless OS that just writes ‘Hello World’ to the screen…
I should be satisfied, but I’m not.
Well, to be fair, I’ve already toyed with a dozen of Linux “flavours”, not counting the mainframe OS’s of the past (yes, I am that old). The champion of all this time is still DEC’s VAX VMS operating system. But that was a working tool, and very good at that; we are talking fancy interfaces here.
And amazingly enough, NTFS had its roots on VMS; check this out:
http://windowsitpro.com/article/articleid/4494/windows-nt-and-vms-the-rest-of-the-story.html
Superb article here… People just keep blabbing about OS and which one is better and which one is worst. As long as the one you are using serves ur purpose, then shut the f~~k up and leave others to decide which one to use. It is not a religion.