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Quoted from Leonid on AtomicMPC:

99% of people here have a preferred OS*

15% of people have a preferred OS that they will defend the honour of, to the death. To the point where they will link to millions of websites and studies to prove how “teh awesome” their OS is, compared to the competition.

Microsoft cops the brunt of “[insert OS here] is shit” type arguments because they’re the most visible targets. Apple follows Microsoft. Then Linux.

I have news for y’all:

.

That’s right, it’s a full stop. It represents that point where you all shut up and think a little clearly.

Protip: there is no such thing as a perfect OS

I’ve learned this over several years in many environments. My conclusion is that KISS applies everywhere – use what is simplest for you.

I once worked on a contract in a graphics design company – everything was Apple. Guess what… it all worked. Sure the laptops may be fashionable white dinky things but they worked great. They did the job that Windows or Linux machines couldn’t. But maybe they could now – the company made its choice.

Likewise I’ve worked with firms of Lawyers – they’re almost exclusively Windows-based because they need the security of group policy, complicated custom programs written for Windows and 100% MS Office compatibility.

I once worked at a software developer that developed java webapps – they used Solaris desktops – no joke.

And I’ve worked with Novell who used SLED desktops.

The fundamental point is this – when somebody asks you for advice, don’t give them what suits you – give them what suits them. If someone asks for an HTPC and isn’t interested in anything more than plug’n'play, tell ‘em to buy a copy of Windows Media Centre XP/Vista or download MediaPortal. If they want to tinker point them to Linux. If they already have a MacMini, tell ‘em reformatting to Yellow Dog is a pain in the arse and tell ‘em to find a suitable Apple HTPC solution.

Likewise with servers. Environments can work with integrated solutions. Right now I’m standing in front of a rack with a quasi-Linux-basede virtualization solution running AD, MS Exchange, Kerio, Dansguardian/Squid proxy authenticating via NTLM, apache webservers and BIND DNS servers.

The fundamental point I’m making is that even if you have an OS of choice it’s time to admit, once in a while that it has flaws and that other operating systems can be better at certain things than others. And the other point is that complexity is generally bad if simplicity offers a similar feature set.

Chill.

* 87.4% of facts are made up

Original

This entry was posted on Friday, July 31st, 2009 at 9:22 am and is filed under tech. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.