The Adventures of AlisterComputeron

If you want to start a heated conversation, mention politics, religion, sports…or operating systems.  It’s interesting how users can be so passionate about using a particular computer.  I first took notice of the OS debates in the 1980s when techies of the day debated the merits of the Commodore-64, TRS80, or the Apple IIc.  And I’ve noticed it again now that Apple has resuscitated itself from near-death in the 1990s.  With the popularity of Linux growing in some communities, the debate over which operating system is “best” is bound to get even more vocal.

But arguing which operating system is the “best” operating system is, of course, a debate that can be won by neither side.  The choice of operating is a personal choice, especially if you’re the one buying the computer.  So someone trying to tell me that OS 1 is better than OS 2 has no validity.  It’s along the same lines as trying to tell someone their religious views are wrong, because their views differ from yours.  End the end, religion is about trying to achieve heaven/paradise/eternal peace/whatever.  In computing systems, it’s about getting the job done.

I use a MacBook as my home computer, and I absolutely love it.  For a long time, I was an Apple hater, and I’m not sure why – not understanding the unknown, I guess.  But I’ve been using Windows since version 3.1.  In fact, I fiddled around with Windows 2.0 in the early 90s, which was mainly a menu driven system.  Windows was beginning to get old to me, and Macs were getting popular again with their slick desktop.

I use Windows XP at work, and it has been rock-solid.  I rarely need to reboot, and it’s fast and responsive.  It does exactly what I need it to do.  I poke fun at Windows and Microsoft now, because it’s easy; they’ve brought a lot of it on themselves.

So I found it refreshing when I ran across this post last week.  Joseph G at the Comtempary Man has always been a Windows guy.  He was discussing computers with a friend recently, and they were talking about technology on TV, Star Trek in particular.  They were noticing:

The thing that made the computers on the show seem so amazing and futuristic wasn’t their complexity, it was the simplicity with which they could be used. You never saw Worf or Spock installing drivers, dealing with a blue screen of death, or have the computer tell them that it couldn’t raise shields cause it needs to install a critical update.

Joseph says while he’s not a convert to Macs, he has a new respect for Macs, because of their simplicity and ease of use.  I hate to get sappy here, but it’s always a good idea to try to see someone else’s point of view, even if it’s different than yours.  This is true wheter we’re talk about politics, religion, sports, or computers.  The world would be a happier place if we respected each other’s opinions.