I’m all about the balanced journalism.
David Sykes made the scary (actually not that scary) leap to Linix, Ubuntu specifically, and now claims to be happy away from Mac.
He’s right. I wish I had the guts to do it.
Ubuntu is available pre-installed on computers from a number of different vendors, including Dell, Tesco, and System 76. …
… Besides standard system tools and other small applications, Ubuntu comes installed with the following software: the OpenOffice.org productivity suite, the Internet browser Firefox, the instant messenger Pidgin (formerly known as Gaim), and the raster graphics editor GIMP. …
one Ubuntu desktop – Wikipedia
Many Linux users like Apple, but have reservations about the company. The iTunes / iPod monopoly, in particular:
Apple also has received criticism for its iPhone and iPod integration with iTunes for not facilitating creation of software to run and maintain those devices using different applications tools besides iTunes.
Similarly, Apple has not licensed its Fairplay DRM system to any other company, preventing users to listening to DRM protected music bought from sources other than the iTunes store. By not allowing other companies or individuals to interoperate with its DRM system, Apple prevents competition and divides the market. For that reason most other online music stores which use DRM use the Windows Media format, which is incompatible with Apple products.
Another common criticism of Apple is that its products are often not user serviceable, instead requiring they be returned to Apple for repairs and upgrades.[citation needed] Typical examples include the batteries in the iPod, iPhone and MacBook Air which are non-user replaceable, and the difficulty of installing simple upgrades (HDD, RAM etc) in older MacBooks.
There are many serious complaints about lock down of iPhones too.
Any company with something of a monopoly is a problem for customers.
On the other hand, Apple has been astonishingly successful at popularizing technology. The design team, led by Jonathan Ive, is the best in Tech. I love the philosophy of “simplification” of complicated technology.
The Steve Jobs reality distortion field works for me.
One day I too will switch to Linux. But that day is far off yet, I think.
I resisted the iPod until last year. But, since then, I’ve been very happy with iTunes and iPod. It works perfectly.
Apple is somewhat evil, but I’ll stay a Mac Snob for now. Research shows Mac users think that they are ‘self important, extraordinary and more intellectually curious’. HEY — it ain’t bragging if it’s true.
If you might be interested in Ubuntu for yourself, check Dave’s comment below.
Rick McCharles 
Hey Rick,
Funny article. Interesting thing- Ubuntu comes with a live cd. That simply means that you can stick the cd into the tray on start up and it will load into the Ubuntu environment (without screwing up you Apple OS that’s on your hard disk). So, you are able to test drive ubuntu without committing whatsoever. If you decide you like it, but don’t want to leave OS X, then you can always dual boot (i.e. you can have two operating systems on the same computer…you just choose which you’d like to boot on start up).
Actually…the move to Ubuntu isn’t actually that scary. I switched my father over about 5 months ago. He tells me he feels a strange sense of ownership over his software now. But, all said and done, he hasn’t had any issues.
The only issue you might have (if you boot it on a laptop) is that wireless is sometimes a pain in the butt to get working.
Otherwise, I do everything I used to do on my windows/os x machines on linux… The really good thing about Linux…all (or at least 90% of) software is available for free.
So…check it out…you have nothing to use…and it is a very usable linux distribution. http://www.ubuntu.com/