We walk a fine line with this topic. Let me point out that I have *no* intention of discussing the relative merits of Linux, Windows, Mac OS, Unix, or any other operating system. Nor do I want you do so. Doing so will earn my scorn and derision.
My problem is this. I'm the IT guy as a (very) small company. Yesterday I was trying to capture and error that a WinXP computer kept throwing (due, according to my research, to the firewall installed on the computer, working with the software manufacturer to get that straightened out). The firewall was shutting down services.exe which in turn was shutting down the whole computer. This made getting the screen capture onerous at best, so I started typing out the error on a different computer, word for word. Unfortunately, I didn't realize I was in an IRC window when I started typing, and the whole channel got a looksee at my issue.
I wasn't worried about security, but it was a social faux pas.
So what comes out of the channel?
Before I can even say I'm sorry, before anyone can respond, some ******* says "Get Linux"
Instantly entire fountains of this man's blood appeared in my mind as a vision quest. Disembowelment on a scale unprecedented is too good for this response.
Now, it's not that I have a problem with Linux, though for my own reasons I don't use it. But i find that response at best unhelpful. More realistically it's condescending and misinformed.
1) It's a work environment. My boss's computer. He won't be converting to Linux even if I wanted him too.
2) We make software for Windows. We have never done a Linux distribution of our software. Nor do I believe we ever will. There is almost no one in our potential client-base that would use it. Therefore, Windows environments make more sense for our company.
3) The problem was not with Windows. It was with a third party firewall.
Those are just the initial problems I would have with the proposed solution, were I to actually consider it. I have several more.
So why do people do this? There's no way that the user could have ever known any of those factors. He assumed I was a personal user complaining about M$ (ha! See the clever $ instead of an S! Note how it shows my derision!). ANd well, when you assume, you make an ass out of 'u' and me. He seriously thought this was a viable and helpful solution. As if I'd say, "oh yeah, since you said it in your smug, ****eating manner, I'll certainly do what you think is right even though you have no familiarity with the problem and it will cause more headaches than I have to deal with now."
The "panacea" OS isn't always Linux, either. I've heard Mac users recommend a Mac in as casual, but serious, manner. Oddly, I've not heard it done for Windows, though I don't expect this is because Windows users are more polite, but because I use Windows and so it wouldn't change anything.
Why do these people do it? Why do they think that after 3 seconds of information they know enough to recommend an entire platform change? Especially when they haven't been asked for their opinion! Please tell me I'm not the only one to have run into this.