Religion in computing

Ok, so just because we computer geeks/techie people claim to be intelligent and thoughtful humans, does not mean that we are actually intelligent or thoughtful people. Case in point is the Linux and Windows debates that seem to cause a near religious fervor from the geek/techies that use these platforms.

When you get a Linux enthusiast and a Window enthusiast in the same room, the bad blood in the air is so strong, that you could cut it with an acetylene torch or maybe even a bromine laser. When will these two factions get a grip and get over their own self importance and get along? Granted both sides have ideological differences, open source versus mainstream closed systems. But when I think of Windows, I don't really think about the OS, rather I think about the applications that run on them and REALLY, isn't that what's important? Both sides talk about security, but any systems can be secure as long as it is administered properly and both platforms are just as vulnerable when left in the wrong hands i.e. a retatd that won't take the time to understand their computer.

The REAL issue is the people who use these systems. It's the people that use these systems that are the security risk. It's also the people that develop these application on these platforms. When we look at the nuts and bolts of these two platforms, they pretty much do the same thing, they allow people to use productivity apps so that they can get work done. Hell, you can even get a UNIX environment on a Windows box if that's your kick using free software such as *****.

What is to be learned from this issue is that people with educations can still lose site of what's really important rather than ideology, we must focus on credibility and functionality. If you decide to use a Linux flavored OS, great, free shit is cool and the community is friendly and helpful. If you decide to use a Windows OS, wonderful, there are tons of install and the user community is a lot bigger than Linux and the support out there from Microsoft is pretty damn good, even the Linux folks have to admit this. Microsoft has spent a lot of time creating a wonderful knowledge base to allow an end user to support their computing needs.

So where does this leave us? It leave us with a group of educated people that fight over an ideology of open source versus closed source also known as the evil empire. Just because a company is successful and takes over a market, doesn't mean they are evil. I would agree that many of the Microsoft strategies are meant to drive any competition out of the market place, but if you have a strong product, even the Microsoft machine can't stop you case in point is Firefox. This is the darling of the open source committee, but even this product has to grow up past its open source grass roots to survive past its hype. Many web applications to not functional well with this product and they must address this. People aren't going to redevelop an app to work on a different browser, cost and time are against Firefox right now, but I for one hope they are able to leap these hurdles since it REALLY is a great app and the functionality is a helluva lot better that IE.

So geeks/techies, get over the fact that one person may be on a MS or Linux camp and remember that it's the apps that are important and not the OS.