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Jul 05

Two People Switch from Coke to Pepsi. Coke is Dead

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I had to laugh at the crazy talk that come out of this entry that two ‘important’ alpha geeks switched to Linux.

I am sure a lot more than 2 people have switched from Mac to Linux in the recent months, and that is just fine. I think there is room for Linux geeks.

Apple is going mainly for the mass market. My family has switched because they get an out of the box experience that works, is simple, and doesn’t get a million viruses in 30 minutes online.

The fact that a lot of geeks have become Apple users is a nice side effect, and definitely important for Apple.

I think that the perfect Apple geek is one that:

  • Also wants a nice experience
  • Wants to be able to be a power user without having to install cygwin and such
  • Maybe wants to have unix below so the prod environment can be similar at least [this is the case for me. dev on mac, prod on linux works great for me]
  • Doesn’t want to recompile kernels, or pray for drivers to work

I know that Linux has come a long way. I still remember having to muck around with my Xconfig to get the damn monitor to close to work. As someone who has had Mac, Windows, and UltraSPARC desktops in recent years, I also appreciate something on why people have switched to Mac, and to Linux, and to …

HUMANS CAN GET BORED.

Windows has barely changed. This is a good thing in that you can get productive on it. It is a bad thing if you happen to just be plain bored and want to try something else out.

In the past Linux was such a commitment. Mac OS X was instantly gratifying and fun.

Unless you are Cedric. There is no hope if you prefer Google Desktop Search to Quicksilver ;)

18 Responses to “Two People Switch from Coke to Pepsi. Coke is Dead”

  1. Geert Bevin Says:

    Ha ha! Love your title, I thought something along the same lines when I read this.

  2. Jon Tirsen Says:

    I’m actually very disappointed how far Linux haven’t gotten. It’s been about three years since I used Linux full time and this week I’ve been setting up a box to do CI builds at my current project. It hasn’t changed at all! Drivers that don’t work, ugly user interface, inconsistency, and so on.

    Re: Quicksilver. I just got my new MacBook Pro and Spotlight is just so fast I haven’t found the need to install Quicksilver yet…

    Re: Cedric. I think there’s two types of people in this world (how’s that for a generalization!): People that like Eclipse and people that like IntelliJ. IntelliJ people wants the totally integrated, slick, usable out-of-the-box experience and stands cold to things that Eclipse people like: total flexibility, configurability, tweakability, plugins, blah blah. I think this is the same type of people that would prefer Linux over Mac OS X. That Cedric prefers Windows over either of them is baffling though.

  3. Anonymous Says:

    I didn’t know there is an ultrasparc desktop. Is it any better than the intel or amd desktops?

  4. Diego Says:

    Well, it really depends on who are those 2 people (I know who they are) and how big is their sphere of influence.
    If one of them is the pope and the other one is jesus, I would bet that most religious people would follow and switch :D

    P.S.
    how long is it going to take for you and ben to fix the comment submition form and the navigation links on ajaxian.com???
    Or maybe you guys are not aware of it?

  5. Vik Says:

    > doesn’t get a million viruses in 30 minutes online

    Okay, that’s way more than hyperbole. I’ve been online for more than a decade with Windows NT and now XP, and I’ve never gotten a virus. I know there are a few others (10s of millions?) like me.

    Also, you totally left out that macs are way prettier and just “feel nicer”. Go ahead, no one disputes that, and there’s no shame in saying it. But please no more overplaying the security threat issue.

    If virus writers can spread an internet worm on “industrial strength” unix, I’m sure they can do far worse for Macs — if the market share made it worthwhile.

    Thanks,
    And FYI, I love macs, so save your flames.

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    Want to start your private office arms race right now?

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  17. zenaire Says:

    I do agree with you that Linux is getting more popular but what about designers; I think they may not prefer linux that much..

  18. itbaymarketing Says:

    I do really agree with @diego on exactly which two people you are telling about.
    And also I do think that programing lover user will definitely switch to Linux and for the rest I think we should have to wait and see. What Linux is trying to do…

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