“End-users run applications, not operating systems.” A Gartner guy came into my place of business the other day and said that. It’s a pretty profound thing to say, honestly. I think that it accurately describes many/most of the corporate people in the business places that I’ve seen.

However,

I am not an end-user. Nor are MANY people that I know.

That is to say that there are MANY people that DO care about what their computer is doing without their permission. They DO care about things deeper than just what applications they are running. They DO care about having a choice and not having something forced down their throats because someone else decided it was best for them. They DO still think. They ARE willing to learn Scary New Things (TM).

They DO care about what operating system they are running.

And sometimes, they are willing to accept the difficulties along with the advantages of having taken this road.

If you look at the large numbers of people that don’t fall into this category, they are the vast majority, I believe, of those who use desktop/laptop computers. One should not be swayed by the numerical arguments that Microsoft would have one be bedazzled by.

Having started this thing off like that, then, I’ll say this: it is an exciting time to be running Linux these days. If I had the money to try such things, I would dare say the same about the Mac, though that’s hardly something even worth saying, because quite honestly, if you have the money to do so, the Mac path has always seemed far more interesting than anything coming out of Redmond or Helsinki even, really. But I digress…. =:)

I’ve been running ONLY Linux for the last 8+ years. And there have been rough spots, to say the least, in my insistence on running ONLY Linux on my machines, work and home. But now, things are advancing so rapidly, that other than silly decisions made by companies to cater ONLY to Microsoft Windoze, there are very few things functionally that Linux lacks compared with WinXP (other than the ability to easily and completely screw up your system beyond repair or recognition, I guess).

I’d been running debian as my desktop of choice for probably the last 6 years, but have just in the last year switched over to fedora, and am REALLY, REALLY impressed and pleased with it.

So, to wind this down…. If you’re among those of us who have not given our brains over to someone else for our decision-making, I suggest you check Linux or the Mac out.

Then again… maybe you’re just not ready yet….