For some reason, I feel like I should yet again install Linux. More specifically, Red Hat. I don't usually mind things that occur on the spur of the moment..actually, hold on, I do, very much! But anyway, I don't even know why I want to do this. I have some notion of installing it and becoming a proficient Linux user. As if that would make an impact on my programming ability or my all round knowledge of computers. It is perhaps the exposure to other Linux gurus who remind me of a stage that I was once at a few years ago - I would lean towards jealousy then as my main motivation. However, the fundamental issue with using Linux is that there's nothing to do. Literally! It comes to do the question of what you use a computer for. And, essentially, how Linux would offer a better experience than Windows XP! I simply don't see any strong motivation at this point to use Linux. If I were to install it, then it would probably be a full install on one of my old computers, which would invariably mean that I would never use it anyway, it would just be sitting there. And if I were to use it, then it would be for no real reason - again, what could I do better on Linux that I can't do on Windows?

Comfort is probably a large factor then, since we could flip it around as ask what can I do better on Windows that I can't do in Linux? (The answer - everything ;) Heh just joking!) At the moment Linux seems to have decent alternatives for most major Windows apps. There even seems to be a Linux version of MSN messenger, so there you go. But I suppose at the end of the day, a shift to Linux is simply too big to be warranted the way things currently stand. And of course there is the recurring feeling that there are probably small areas of incompatibility that will prove to be a pain (this is just speculation based on past experience of course. The right thing to do would be to actually try it out to see if it is the case, but I am far too lazy for that. I suppose that nullifies this as a rigorous argument then!). Perhaps if something genuinely exciting happens with Linux I would consider it.

The wonderful thing about the split between reason and action is that given all of the above, I am still just as likely to go ahead and install Linux on the spur of the moment as I was at the start. "Reason is the slave of passion"; is that valid here? Makes me sound more important at any rate.