Operating systems are fundamental to the world of computers, and yet many people have no idea what an OS is.  For everyone else, it is a nearly religious form of expression.  Seriously, there are very few people in between.  You either have no idea or you have THE ONE idea.  "OS zealots," as I like to call them, come in all shapes and sizes, but they have one very important trait in common with each other:  they seem like normal people until the topic of computers is mentioned, at which point they become Frothing Messengers of Doom!!  Quite scary, actually, and it might even be amusing at times.  Those times when you are standing behind a 2-foot-thick wall of lead, for instance.

Not that OS zealots have nothing to offer their fellow humans in terms of computer advice.  They actually have a lot of knowledge on the topic.  It is just that it can be difficult for normal people to trust a computer person that is talking more from the heart than from the brain.  Computers are purely logical devices, at the expense of any common sense, so it is a little confusing to encounter a purely illogical lifeform extolling the poetic virtues of a computer.  One has to wonder if common sense is absent from both.

However, the issue is bigger than that.  It stems from the fact that operating systems are the most complicated pieces of software in existence (with the exception of the operating systems that have been specifically designed NOT to be like the others).  No single person fully understands any modern desktop or server operating system, much less all of them.  Operating systems have simply become too big over time.  The best that any person can hope to become is an expert, which is still quite good but is far from knowing everything about everything.  We have two separate words for "expert" and "omniscient" for a reason.  This concept appears to be lost on OS zealots.  Indeed, this merely feeds their intense emotions because they feel validated in believing their OS of choice is complex in a good (or "holy") way while other OSes are complex in a bad (or "evil") way.  And because the complexity in every OS really is insurmountable for any one person to understand, there is no need to learn more about any OS because of course they will merely find more of the same - more reasons why their OS of choice is "holy" and more reasons why all other OSes are "evil."  In actuality, OS zealots often know relatively little about the "other" OSes because that would involve spending time with "evil" things and who wants to do that?

The whole thing would not be such a rampant issue, I think, if all humans could agree on what is good and what is bad.  But since that is unlikely to happen any time soon, the choice of which OS is preferable to any given person is inherently just that - it is a choice.  If someone else thinks you have made a poor choice, or a bad choice, or an "evil" choice, well... I highly doubt that choosing an OS will be the first time that will happen to you!  This is the same old thing we encounter in everyday life; some people will agree with you while other people will disagree with you.  Nothing new, nothing unexplored.  Choosing an OS by whichever method you prefer should be your choice entirely.  Ideally, you would want to make an informed decision based on information gathered on many operating systems and then weigh the pro's and con's of each, but also ideally we would all be at our ideal weight, fully healthy, and aging gracefully with our soul mates.  Hey, life is about picking your battles and cutting corners when necessary.  If you stop reading my OS series right now, I will not judge you any more than you should judge me for buying a bag of potato chips three days ago and learning that it is gone already.  Contrary to what the OS zealots may think, life is about more than computers.

Now then, with all of this unpleasantness behind us, stay tuned for the next segment, in which I will attempt to compare various operating systems in the most simple terms possible.  This will undoubtedly go very poorly since an "intro" or "demo" is not really possible with OSes, but we must start somewhere.  Oversimplifications are a necessary evil when explaining very complex topics.  More disclaimers to come.

All operating systems suck.

There, I said it.

Go ahead, think about it.  Take your time.

Windows?  It collects malware and viruses faster than anything else.

Mac OS X?  It can only (legally) run on expensive Apple hardware.

Linux?  It cannot do a thing without GNU.

BSD?  It suffers from obscurity and complexity.

OS/2?  OpenVMS?  RISC OS?  Ummm... huh??

Yes, the situation is a mess.  Not to say that all operating systems are useless.  I am merely pointing out that none of them are even close to being "the best," much less are any good.  When you watch a futuristic science fiction TV show or movie, like Star Trek or Battlestar Galactica, do you ever see any pop-ups on their consoles?  Do you ever hear them complain about a confirmation window when they attempt to fire weapons?  Are there ever any software regressions that disable engines with the latest update?  Do you ever wonder if just once a Cylon squad could be disabled by a new virus because they had not been able to receive the latest security update?

I mean, really, if we think about a futuristic science fiction battle in terms of today's computer technology, all that would need to be done is to knock-out the enemy's communications for a month or two and wait for a new virus or exploit to be developed that would disable their defenses.  Science fiction does not work very well without the science part!  It would be so easy to just walk right through the enemy at that point.  Wham, bam, done.

But it does not work like that in the majority of science fiction universes.  We like to think that in the future the science just works without any drama.  We like to think that computers will be better in the future than they are today.  By the standards of science fiction, all operating systems suck.

This website will be dedicated to talking about technology, in all its forms.  Over the course of many articles and rantings, the topic of operating systems will be explored with numerous examples and unabashed facts.  No favorites here.  No FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt).  No religious zealotry.  In short, I aim to make enemies from around the world by exposing every OS to true and unflattering light.

Follow me on this journey as I explore the wonderful world of computers, as well as the horrible world of computer users.  Follow me as I uncover the truth as to why no OS is perfect, no OS can do it all, and no OS is really any good at all.

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