Curmudgeon

I am becoming more and more of a curmudgeon.

More and more set in my ways.

For example, Linux, open source etc.  Linux was such a breath of fresh air to me coming from Windows back in the day.  I went from Microsoft spoonfeeding me a web browser, a chat client, a media player an effing operating system - to Linux - totally open, totally free, no horizons.

Whatever Microsoft dished out I had to take (I knew no better, I was content) coming to Linux was an epiphany (even thought it took a month to get sound up and running -- Luckily my W Virginian pal sent me Dave Matthews and Jack Johnson CDs to get me through, whenever I hear those songs i sill think of KDE2).

So has does this relate to my curmudgeonliness?  Apple.  Over the years I came to view closed source as something to shy away from whenever necessary.  Closed source just wasn't for me.  But I feel I kinda got lost in some internal anti-closed-source dogma.

I bought an iMac a few weeks ago.  It's OK.  In some ways it's better than Linux, and other not.  Thing is I have some kinda internal cognitive dissonance in my head about using OSX.  OSX is tempting for people like me, cos the internals are Unix and instantly convenient to Linuxers.  Plus you have things like Lightroom.  Still I feel uncomfortable...

Then you have the iPhone.  It's not all that expensive.  But I don't like the feeling of sinking so much cash into a phone that's locked down by Apple.  It seems like slipping back into the Windows bad old days, you accept because you don't know any better (or are locked into a 2 year contract).

So while I have an open mind about Apple (and even Windows) I love the open horizons of open source, the no strings attached do whatever the hell you want style of freedom that Linux gives you.  The Linux community is also awesome.

Maybe I am not a curmudgeon, I just value open source software and its community.