We all know that Linux is about choice. Everyone has the choice of what they use and how they use it, provided they have access to a tame hacker with suitable programming skills. A consequence of this is that there's a huge range of software out there.

Every once in a while I come across the argument being made that OS choice is like car choice. It's usually in a forum involving Linux, where one poster will lead off that there's too much choice and the follow-up will read something like:

...we're looking at 8.9-inches dolled up in a sub-$500 price tag with a choice of both Windows XP Home or Ubuntu Linux, 8-in-1 card reader, integrated webcam, direct media playback buttons, and a "host of wireless access options."

...ECMA CLI would have given the web both strongly typed and loosely typed programming languages. It would have given developers a choice between performance and scriptability. A programming language choice (use the right tool for the right job) and would have in general made web pages faster just by moving performance sensitive code to strongly typed languages.

I argue that Linux is about choice. Why then, do applications (or their developers) decide to take away that choice?

"...Prism now provides a cross-platform way to integrate the web platform with the desktop environment, and developers don’t have to lift a finger to desktop-enable their web applications, while users have the choice to use their favorite web apps in their browser, on their desktop of choice, or in both places..."

There's no doubt that Linux—particularly Ubuntu—is a killer operating system full of excellent apps, but for about a million reasons, you're stuck running Windows as your main operating system. We understand, these things happen. But what about all those killer Linux apps you've left behind when you decided to live the Windows life?

"When I wrote a passioned statement about how having a choice of distros was a good thing, I decided to list 359 other things that it was good to have choices for. I thought it was a good effort, and still do. But in the course of a week I have also come to realize that other points of view may have some validity, too."

I’ve been posting less and less here, simply because I’ve been very happy with my system as it was. My distribution of choice is Arch, my DE of choice is KDE, and my applications of choice are Pidgin, Chromium, Amarok (yes, it’s back), and Transmission. I don’t need more, and I was happy. However.