evanmeagher

The “I switched to -insert operating system here-” article has become a common theme on blogs and social media websites. For a while there a few months ago, it seemed like a different “hey, look at me, I switched to Ubuntu” article landed on the frontpage of digg every other day.

After reading the latest one on digg, I’m struck by a great revelation: these articles don’t prove a damn thing. It’s like professing to the world that you prefer Coke to Pepsi, except masquerading the article as a legitimate technology piece. That being said, the article in question is an outlier in that it goes a bit into the logistics of the case in question, as opposed to being some guy talking about how his new OS choice has increased his fertility and helped him lose weight.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Ubuntu and respect anyone willing to take the time and effort to try new things. The world needs more people who are up to trying software alternatives. My beef is that the situation and opinion of other people shouldn’t influence your own. Yes, Ubuntu works for many people who like to talk about it a lot. But you may be different. Inversely, many more people are happy with Windows or OS X. More power to them.

My advice to anyone reading this is to try software alternatives and find the perfect setup for you. My view is that all of the world’s software is a giant, metaphysical toolbox in the sky. I can pick and choose between many different applications and frontends in order to finely tune my computer to my personal workflow and computing style.