A different kind of switching

During the same period that I thought I’d be playing a lot with an old Dell laptop running Ubuntu Linux (but haven’t), several notable Apple fans have made, or are seriously and publicly considering making, the jump from OS X to open-source operating systems like Ubuntu.

Mark Pilgrim led the way. (He does work for IBM, though he’s gotten remarkably few snide remarks about that in the comments.)

Cory Doctorow is talking like he’s about to do it as well. Cory has a Mac tattooed on his bicep, but that might not last either.

Tim Bray also seems ready. Some kind of XML-based conspiracy between him and Mark no doubt.

John Gruber is not switching, but has some thoughtful comments. My favorite:

I’m deeply suspicious of Mac users who claim to be perfectly happy with Mac OS X. Real Mac users, to me, are people with much higher standards, impossibly high standards, and who use Macs not because they’re great, but because they suck less than everything else.

Jason Kottke expands on early adopters, canaries, and coal mines.

Tim O’Reilly mulls it over. With graphs.