I don’t really get those who treat brands like sports teams, offering blind allegiance over self-interest. That’s just zealotry. God bless that file system; my platform, right or wrong.

via If You Already Hate Windows 8 Then You Hate Technology [Gizmodo] .

Neither do I.

Throughout the years, I’ve been faced with flame wars in the various aspects of my life: programming language or platform of choice, operating system, camera gear brand, etc. . Fan boys that defend the lighter, faster, more stable or simply the best thing they’ve found as a crusade, feeding long hours and lengthy pages of discussions with empty arguments like someone keeps pouring gasoline to a bonfire.

I’ve seen too many Java programmers bashing vigorously .Net, programmers who don’t really grasp the main concepts of Object Oriented Programming. Console gamers that play the same game but keep repeating when it’s played in their . The endless Nikon vs. Canon feud, which is worth a post of it’s own, where in every meeting or photowalk people inevitably start counting how many Nikonians and Canonians are present, like choosing sides on a war. Some Apple fanboys, probably my favorite, that some time ago criticized Windows and praised openness of Linux and now seem to switched sides by defending a system that’s actually more closed than Windows.

I’ve chosen may brands but I never offered allegiance to any, some I’ve used for many years while I dropped others. I’ve always used Nikon gear, I’ve bought a grand total of four Nikon reflex cameras and a handful of Nikkor lenses, I was always pleased and never considered switching brands, despite finding features elsewhere that I love. On the other hand I used Windows for many years but got very tired of it, which pushed to try the several flavors of Linux, I ended up sticking with Ubuntu for it’s active community and the uncluttered, straightforward interface of Gnome, and the truth is feels more natural and fits me much better than Windows.

Regarding the post linked above, which caused me to write this rant, although my platforms of choice nowadays are Linux and Android I was really pleased with Windows Phone 7 (although I still believe it arrived too late and fail eventually) and I’m very curious to see how the Metro interface will evolve in Windows 8.

I guess that’s human nature that people like to choose sides.

Technology is just a tool, something to make your life easier and more comfortable. It isn’t a sports team or a religion to follow blindly, and since I’m openly “religionless” I’ll reserve my biased thoughts only to subjects related to my sports team.