Can I be a Windows, Apple, Linux, and Google guy all at once?

Any computer worker who only works on one OS is like a workman who only has one tool in his toolbox.

As long as its a Gerber Multi-tool it's amazing what you can get accomplished with that ... kind of like Linux.

Not disagreeing with the comment Sam, but with the tool analogy, Mac's are kind of like a star driver with the hole in the center, it does that job really well, but the need for that specific tool is rare indeed. That same analogy works with varying degrees of success with the other O$'s as well.

Knowing what other tools are capable of is all well and good, but a good multitool will get the job done 9 times out of 10. I've used my gerber to fix a radar, rewire a generator, etc. Linux is a good multitool, the others handle the corner cases.

Anyone speaking of geeks and tools must give due respect to the Leatherman™ line.

In 2005 disassembled an ancient HP PA-RISC server in a badly beat-up case, using nothing more than the Leatherman I had gotten the previous Christmas. I didn't use the fork or the butter knife for that task, but I think everything else was useful.

I burn a lot of ISOs onto DVD in OS X, and it does a great job of it. I also like being able to check an MD5 in the terminal. None of my Linux boxes have a working DVD writer ...

Re: ISO burning - I went out to office depot and bought a memorex external dvd writer, so that I would have that capability. I'm happy to report that all works great in linux too if you have the hardware.

I should do the same and get a USB DVD burner. I have a Firewire DVD burner that doesn't work in Debian Etch (which is all I have Linux-wise on my Apple G4).

USB CD/DVD drives are superawesomeuseful. Go for the good brands, like LG and Lite-On, and use Taiyo Yuden blanks.

Taiyo Yuden? I'll have to look for those. I've got a stack of Sony DVD+R right now, and those have been pretty solid.

Optical drives are so prone to dying, I think the external is the perfect solution. I've been thinking about Mini-ITX for a long time (my converted Maxspeed Maxtor thin client uses an ECS Mini-ITX motherboard), and I'm always worried about whether or not to stick a slim optical drive in the box ... but it's probably better to use USB and keep the box itself simple.

I've been picking up my stacks of Taiyo discs at SuperMediaStore ( http://www.supermediastore.com ) and have been pretty happy with them.

I'm using a Plextor external burner with my new main machine build and have been happy with it.