Linux Fanboy? Mac Fanboy?

Some of the folks who commented at Linux in the long run seemed to miss that I am a Linux fan. In fairness, those folks probably aren't regular readers of this site, so in reading through the short post at typical web scan speeds, they only saw the negative things I said and missed all the positive. That's normal on the web today.

Of course the chances of any of those folks coming back to read this is low.. they made up their minds as to what I am and that's probably the end of that. But just in case one or two do find their way back here..

Really I'm a Unix fan

My main concern with any operating system is that it be Unixish and have a strong shell. Obviously there are a number of possibilities that meet that criteria. I also strongly believe in open source. I think software patents are wrong, wrong, wrong, and really think that open source software is important to society as a whole - we need it.

And yet here I am running a MacBook Pro. Believe me, I am a little conflicted about that (Mac OS X Shame) but because I need a laptop and didn't want to have to struggle with finding the right hardware for Linux, I took the easy way out and went with the MacBook. You can argue that I wimped out too easily, but that's the decision I made.

However, in the rest of the world, Linux always wins my vote. When I sell Kerio mailserver I always try to convince the customer to run it on Linux. Why? Because it will work better, it will handle more users, it's easier to do anything funky that might be required.. sure, Mac OS X does all that too, but why spend all that money for something Linux does perfectly?

I also try to use Linux for file and print servers. That's sometimes a harder sell, especially when someone has convinced the client that they must have a Microsoft Domain Controller. But I have put up more than a few.

One area I would like to use Linux for is centralized backup of Windows machines. I haven't done enough research on what's possible in that area (suggestions welcome).

So am I a Mac Fanboy? I'd say no - I'm a Unix fan who opted for convenience. Am I a Linux fan? Obviously. But lazy enough to run a Mac for now. Confused? Me too..