Sigmund Freud, Linux and The Narcissism of Minor Difference

Linux Zealots. We all know at least one.

From that fat smelly guy who lives in the server room at your workplace to your neighbor's fifteen year old son in his "Limp-Bizkit" T-shirt,
Linux Zealots come in all shapes and sizes, but two things
remain constant.

1) The personal hygeine problems

2) The inability to concieve of any valid viewpoint other than their own.

In this article I will penetrate the very psyche of the
alternative OS zealot. Distasteful as that might sound, I
will be probing the inner mind of the Linux Zealot
attempting to shed some light on what drives these social
misfits.

You may have heard about Linux - a hobbyist operating system based on the shareware principle,
has been making waves in the hacker underground and in the
periphery of large corporations for around five years now.

Linux is a competent operating system which can even be
said to compete with professionally designed OS's such as Microsoft Windows XP.
Nothing remarkable there, after all the market place for
other goods has many examples of competing products which are all but identical to the casual observer.

What many people do not realise is that to some of its advocates, Linux is more than a simple tool to get a job done.
To these extremists, Linux represents a philosophical
almost religious belief system - a way of life based around "open source" and "free software".

You may have encountered one of these Linux evangelists at work.
They make themeselves known by constantly berating Microsoft
products, and blindly praising Linux. Their belief in the
power of Linux is akin to the Muslim's belief in Allah.

In fact, fundamentalist Islam and hardcore Linux zealotry
are two sides of the same coin. Press a Muslim as to why he or she is a Muslim, and they will
suggest you read the Qu'raan. Ask a Linux apologist why
Linux is better than the alternatives and the explanation you are most likely to hear is "Linux Rocks - Micro$oft Sucks"

The Linux Zealot typically displays an irrational hatred of Microsoft, a complete conviction that his choice
of operating system is the only valid one, and a scathing
patronising contempt of anyone "stupid" enough to use "windoze"*.

What causes this mindless OS bigotry? you may be wondering.
Well, the father of modern psychoanalysis - Professor
Sigmund Freud proposed an idea which he called the
"narcissism of minor differences". Put simply it means that
people hate other people who are very similar to them. This
similarity threatens their sense of individuality, their
sense of self, causing them to react in a hostile manner,
which seems to become more hostile, the closer the
similarity.

We can see this effect in conflicts all aroung the world. From the (white, Christian) Catholics and Protestants i
n war-torn Northern Ireland, to the (white, Christian)
Serbs and Croats in the former Yugoslavia, to the (Monotheistic) Muslims and Jews, semite brothers in hatred.

In the same way that Arabs and Jews differ very little in genetic make-up and yet almost every single
one of them hates the other with a passion, Windows and
Linux have very much in common and yet their supporters fight tooth-and-nail over which one is "best".

No doubt a qualified psychologist or doctor could come up with all kinds of elaborate theories as
to why the Linux Zealot behaves the way he does.

One theory I have is that the Linux Zealots have small
penises and belittling others for their choice of operating
system is their way of 'getting back' at society and the
world for their unfortnate genetic inheritance.

Another possibility is that due to the aforementioned hygiene problems the typical Linux Zealot cannot get laid,
and subliminates his frustrated sexual energy into blaming
Microsoft for all the evils of the world.

But I expect you have heard enough of my amateur psychology, I am interested in what you, the adequacy readers think.
Why do these Linux advocates get so riled up about
something so utterly insignificant as choice of OS ?
Surely they cannot all be mentally ill ? (however
intuitively obvious that answer might be)

*Windoze, Micro$oft, Microshaft, Winblows, etc are all terms used by Linux Zealots.
If you recieve an e-mail containing any of these terms, you
can be sure you have a Zealot on your hands.