Is it just me or do too many people treat OS's like football teams?

[SomeGuyDude]

After reading around both on this board and others, I'm starting to notice that there's what could best be described as "brand loyalty" or at worst described as "xenophobia" when it comes to OS's in general, and sometimes even between Linux distros.

Case in point: DistroWatch. I never look at it. Don't care to. It doesn't give me any useful information on distros, just tells me what's popular. I read on here a bit back where someone was accusing PCLinuxOS users of spamming DW in order to inflate its ranking.

I don't give a fig how popular a given distro is outside of its effect on future development. If Ubuntu's #1 or #100 in terms of users that's fine by me, all I care is how well it works. And if it doesn't work? Well I'll switch to another one. But it seems like people almost identify by their OS of choice and refuse to even consider other ones.

And it just gets more pronounced when it comes to Linux versus other OS's. Am I the only one who just cares about finding what works for me, helping someone else find what works for them, and leave it at that?

[~LoKe]

Is it just me or do too many people treat football teams like something that matters? ;)

[Nano Geek]

Is it just me or do too many people treat football teams like OS's? :) (EDIT: Apparently great minds do think alike ;) )

Seriously though, just about anything from cars to computers will make people competitive and passionate to find out who is best.

[p_quarles]

Is it just me or do too many people treat football teams like something that matters?


Is it just me or do too many people treat football teams like OS's?
Just to complete the cycle of variations:
"Is it just me, or do too many football teams treat people like operating systems?"

Anyway, yes. I use what works for me, and so should everyone else.

[DoktorSeven]

People treat everything like football teams these days. Like their chosen "side" in politics. (And now that I've brought politics into it, let's say no more about it, shall we? :) )

It's just too much of the "our side is right and yours is wrong" mentality. Let's get together and admit every absolute view has some flaws that the other side might have some viewpoints on.

Like the good things about Windows, which.. um... er... well, never mind then. :D

[FuturePilot]

After reading around both on this board and others, I'm starting to notice that there's what could best be described as "brand loyalty" or at worst described as "xenophobia" when it comes to OS's in general, and sometimes even between Linux distros.

Case in point: DistroWatch. I never look at it. Don't care to. It doesn't give me any useful information on distros, just tells me what's popular. I read on here a bit back where someone was accusing PCLinuxOS users of spamming DW in order to inflate its ranking.

I don't give a fig how popular a given distro is outside of its effect on future development. If Ubuntu's #1 or #100 in terms of users that's fine by me, all I care is how well it works. And if it doesn't work? Well I'll switch to another one. But it seems like people almost identify by their OS of choice and refuse to even consider other ones.

And it just gets more pronounced when it comes to Linux versus other OS's. Am I the only one who just cares about finding what works for me, helping someone else find what works for them, and leave it at that?
I kind of feel the same way. I really don't pay attention to DistroWatch. And to be honest I don't care where Ubuntu is on the list. I just really care about what works. And Ubuntu does. That's why I use it.

[inversekinetix]

People like to belong to things, thats why they band together with likeminded people, when a group of likeminded people reaches critical mass it often goes awry.

[kopinux]

well, the bluray people are celebrating their championship victory already.

[Meep3D]

I agree. The problem is especially prevalent on the Windows-bashing front. If as much effort was paid to finding out the core reasons why people still use Windows when they know about Linux and addressing them as people spend bashing Microsoft and it's users Windows would have been dead a long time ago.

I use Windows over Linux for many reasons and am perfectly well aware of both options* and I am sure I am not the only one. I am entirely non-partisan with regards to os's - I simply do not really care about taking sides or the politics involved - not that I don't understand them.

Yet, there is no way I can constructively state my reasons for my decision. It would by the second post collapse into a Windows bashing thread and achieve nothing.

If there was more honesty and less partisan bashing of Microsoft there would be more effort put into competition and self improvement. It seems to me the general attitude of most Linux users is that Windows is the worst OS ever, and getting worse with each version, and that the battle is over because Linux is so much better.

As they say in the AA, the first step towards dealing with a problem is admitting it is there. It seems in the frenzy of MS bashing that the required critical eye is very rarely turned inward at Linux itself and since it's such a partisan issue pretty much nobody is willing to speak critically of Linux even when it is deserved. You don't attack your own team.

If all the attention is spent talking about flaws in your enemy, and none is spent talking about flaws on your own side, how are things meant to improve?

* I do use Linux webservers and firewalls. I am not that stupid. :)