Linux Snobbery

[writerkit]

This command line book keeps stopping to make commentary on how WONDERFUL Linux is in comparison to Windows-- the latest being that Windows is like a Game Boy where you can only do what the game cartridges say and eventually get bored, while Linux is like an erector set because you have COMPLETE CONTROL.

Quite aside from some fundamental skepticism of that entire metaphor, this is an instructional book on Linux command line. If I am reading it I am probably committed to using Linux. There is no need to get all dramatic propaganda.

Comments

[jducoeur]

I will note that, aside from quality of the user experience (where Linux was terrible until relatively recently, and is still mediocre), I largely agree with the comparison. And mind, I spent 20 years as a Windows programmer. Windows internals are pretty horrible, and used to be even worse.

That said, Mac arguably is the best of both worlds -- the internal quality of Linux, combined with a solid user experience. (It has its own issues, of course, but is a more interesting argument.)