A long-time mac user and developer discusses why he ditched Mac for Linux. His biggest gripe? That the Mac user comumnity sucks. Of course, he’s at least partly right on that count, but I never realized how right until I saw the comments over at Dive Into Mark when he discussed his reasons for leaving Apple (many of which, I think, are quite solid — uhh, the reasons, not the pissy comments). Some commentators seem downright offended that someone would ever — gasp! — point out problems in their favorite operating system. Personally, I found that kind of reaction odd. Every OS has its weaknesses and its strengths. Sometimes, for some people, various strengths or weaknesses mean that one will be more comfortable on a different platform. For me, for my day-to-day work, Linux is best. But if I were a graphic designer, that couldn’t be the case. Similarly, the tools for audio work are far more developed on the Mac side, so much so that I have little choice but to use my Mac for the audio editing I do each week (and yeah, I know about Audacity, but I can’t stand to use it).

For me, going back to Linux for my full-time desktop OS felt like going home. I prefer the options, the software, the politics, and the community on this side of things. Plus, I got tired of spending untold dollars on shareware to get the mac to do things that I wanted it to do. Still, I woudln’t expect that my wife would hate me for using Linux because she’s a Mac zealot (heh). Rather than getting pissed, dedicated Mac users would do well to conisder why people may not love their platform of choice, and to consider if the critiques being put forth might come around some day to bite them in the ass.