Manners

It always amazes me the amount of misplaced passion and anger that people can generate for inanimate objects. From the Furd vs Cheby fans to the Windows vs Linux vs Mac wars.... Sadly, this is not just advocacy, but descends into senseless name calling and personal insults at the drop of a hat. You'd think that people would have better things to do with their lives, but apparently that isn't the case.

I've used a lot of operating systems in my career, and although I have my favorites, ultimately they are all only tools to accomplish given tasks. Some of these tools may work better for an individual or a situation, but, all (more or less) get the job done. In any case an OS is merely that... A tool, nothing more.

Of course everyone has their favorite tool, and, advocacy, for that tool all is well and good, but all to often lately, advocacy quickly lapses into fanaticism, where no criticism or comparisons can be tolerated. Sadly, that also means that nothing positive or constructive will ever happen.

As a mild example, when a Linux advocate tells his Windows contemporary that all Windows users are ignorant or a Windows advocate tells the Linux user that Linux is only for geeks, neither is ever likely to listen to the other side ever again. And, Bad enough that people fight over which OS is the best, but when the row continues over which Linux Distro is the holey grail??? Come on guys, Linux is Linux.

The odd thing is that the most rabid of the people ranting 'claim to be' knowledgeable and competent. But, how anyone can expect that rudeness and disrespect for a person will bring him over to your point of view boggles the mind. Disrespect of the other person, in fact, only brings into question any claim of ones own expertise no matter what else is said. At very least, this shows a misunderstanding of how people relate to each other, total disregard for people in general, and an inability to rationally support and defend one's own ideas and position.

I'm not sure what to make of the people who are into this kind of dysfunctional behavior... is it their rampant ego, just human nature, or, poor toilet training??? Durned if I know, but, responding in any sane way to their insanity just eggs them on. So, I try to ignore or avoid the garbage that is going on. And, hope that most of us will try to do the same.