Pick an OS. And stick with it.

I have said in a previous post that I am OS (operating system) agnostic. Seriously. I don't care what I am using, as long as I am able to get the job done. And unless you are a geeky hobbyist, that's all you should probably care about too.

Back in 1975 the first personal computer, the Altair 8800, made available, for the first time in the history of man, the ability to manipulate bits and bytes in the privacy of your own home by manipulating a series of switches on the front of a blue box. You did not have a display, you had a series of red lights that told you if you were doing something or not. Manipulate the switches (or "program" it) and if the light at the far left did something then, you were right, or wrong. It was a freaking light. I can turn on a flashlight and get the same effect. But hey, we had to start somewhere.

Fast forward 31 years. Now we can actually get work done with these things. And if you have purchased a computer in the last 6 years, there is nothing you can do on one operating system (OS) that you cannot do on another. Really, I mean it. No joke. Read on...

Some computer interfaces are prettier, some are more standardized and come pre-installed for your "convenience," and some are given away on the internet. Since I daily use all three of the majors (Windows, Macintosh, and Linux), I can say this with a modicum of confidence - they all can do what the others can do. Sorry, but, it is the truth. Some just do it with more style than others. And even that concept of "stylish" is merging and probably sooner more than later, style will not matter at all, because they will all have style (or at least look better than they do now).

You can, right now, make movies, compress video, rip and burn CDs and DVDs, make Word documents, type up your blog post, make web pages and if that is not enough for you, you can even run other operating systems on YOUR operating system of choice. There it is, the nail, that is, that drives the point home, or in the coffin, or something (note to self: stay away from metaphors.) You can do what you want on your computer, even get it to behave like another computer.

Though, after having, much day to day experience with all three, I must say, you need to pick a team, a side, a horse, a metaphor, or whatever and stick with it. Since I have a fondness for older systems and getting them to do what they were not really meant to do, at some point I came to the conclusion that the older a system is, the smarter YOU have to be. You can still run an 400Mhz Pentium II with Windows 98, because the combination is ideal (old computer runs old OS quite well), but you better know what you are doing.

In the PII/Win 98 example, you need at least to become much more security aware, a part-time registry hacker and part-time program version tracker - and that is work.

Or you could change your OS to a current version of Linux, like Ubuntu - the easiest of the breed now, in my opinion. But you better get used to or at least understand how to use the command line. Sorry, even the program that makes installing all the finishing touches of Ubuntu (Easy Ubuntu) requires you to get to a command line. And in Ubuntu you need to get to know the "sudo" command and what it does. I am not complaining, that is just the way it is. And that too, is work of sorts.

Currently, I am running Mac OS X 10.4 on a 450Mhz G4. Getting smarter about the OS on the old hardware means shutting things off (Dashboard) and running better versions of Firefox (Deer Park complied for the G4.) To find that out is work.

Or go buy a new computer. They are so much faster for the price now and the newer stuff allows you to not have to be so smart about what you are doing. They just keep themselves up to date so you do not have to worry about ugly internals. You can get on with the business of computing without the hassle. Less work. More money.

Money is an option, unless it is not, then you have to use your brain (you'll be fine, trust me).

If you are in OS limbo, welcome, have a look around, it is a neat place. Try other OSes. Feel that bold new look of Windows Vista Beta. Go to the Apple store and taste the Aqua goodness. Download a copy of Ubuntu and just boot it (the install disk just boots, giving you a preview of the OS without installing.). What ever your choice, rest assured that you can get it to do what YOU want it to do - because they all can. It may cost money or time but they ALL can do it.

When you have made you choice, and you will, stick with it. Get it to do what you want it to do. Learn about it. Tweak it. Buy a good book or two about it. Spend time with it. Get to know it. As much as you may know you can always know more. And don't give up on it. Depending on the road you will go down, half the fun will be the trip.