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A long, long time ago, an entire generation of kids grew up with a war. Nothing that you'd see on TV, nor read about in the papers. This was a bitter, merciless war that raged on behind the scenes, pitting people against each other, most of them without even knowing it. There was no winner, the good old Amiga vs Atari war just faded away into oblivion. For those who are interested, I was an Amiga person myself.

Things have changed since then, and nowadays, rare are the families that don't have at least one PC somewhere. Most families even have several. One per adult, one per child. In my family, 2 adults, no children, we have no less than 4. One desktop PC that Lolo uses daily, my trusty lappy that goes everywhere with me, an ultraportable that gets flung into a suitcase here and there, and an old laptop that is about to be retired, who lives behind the TV and acts as a gateway and remote application tester. Most people, when asked, will say they use Windows, because most people do. My job as a Linux user should be to say horrible things about Windows, poke it cruelly, point at it in public and laugh at it. I don't. I won't.

So, what do we have here? A Linux user who likes Windows? Nope, not me. Sorry, I've tried, and I just don't like it. I have my reasons, and it isn't even about the money that Windows costs. A few years ago I used to make my own PCs, nowadays I just buy one and add the required hardware. The OS comes preinstalled, and is included in the price of the machine, so that rules out financial issues. Philosophy? I might not Bill Gates as a CEO of a company, but hey, he didn't make this thing on his own, and he didn't make all of the decision on his own either. And talking about Bill Gates, name ONE person that spends an equal percentage of his fortune helping others. So no, nothing to do with philosophy. Application support? Come on, Windows is THE OS to run for application compatibility. No, I just don't like it. I like having full control over my machines, so I use Linux. I like developing, so I use Linux. I like playing games, but I still use Linux (the ones I play are supported, anyway). I've used Windows, and I don't any more. However, I don't hesitate to advise it to people.

I strongly believe that each and every OS has a potential use, a market and a niche. Windows is great for casual users, and Lolo is one of them. She happily plays World of Warcraft, copies her CDs to her mp3 player, does some light office stuff and surfs the web. She could do the same with Linux, but she likes Windows, so she gets Windows. I've used Solaris, and I can advise it. Ive used BeOS, and it's dead, so I don't advise it, but you get the feeling.

There is but one exception to the list, and that is MacOS. A sweet, sexy system that is inherently safe and secure. It is, in my opinion, one of the best systems, and I loved using it, but I avoid it as often as I can. Why? The OS itself is great. The machines are sexy, all be it a little expensive, but the cost of rock solid systems with perfect compatibility with the system comes at a price. MacOS might only support, say, 10 graphics cards, but those cards work, and they work very, very well. Nope, the reason is extremely simple, I don't use MacOS because sometimes I just can't stand the fan club. Some Mac users (I said some), are religious to the point of being extremists. I can still remember an "argument" about the Mac office suite being the best in the world, and while it is good, they are still playing on Microsoft's lawn. The people I talked to needed to win that argument because if they didn't, a huge apple would fall out of the sky and kill them. I know a lot of people who use Mac, and it's sad that just a remote few can really ruin it for the others. Some people worship their hardware, I'm not the religious type. Yes, I have an iPhone. Yes, I had a Powerbook, and I loved it. Yes, I was an apple Dev, and I loved it, but some things I just cannot stand. I've had job interviews for Mac development, and I've said exactly that reason, and even the employers agree with me, to an extent.