Despite Microsoft’s overwhelming dominance of the operating system market, the platform wars are alive and well, thank you very much. And quite frankly I’m really beginning to tire of it.  Earlier in the week, I read a blog entry about how many people see other products as bad just because they go against their personal preference. I was reading some rather contentious comments to an article on Engadget today and I found myself a little more than annoyed.

A typical platform war battle starts something like this:

1. Person X says something inaccurate about Platform A.
2. Person Y flies off the handle and gets angry over Person X’s inaccuracy.
3. Person Z comes in and refers to users of Platform A as a cult or sufferers of Stockholm Syndrome and mentions how mmuch of a fanboy Person Y is.
4. Person Q says that Platform B sucks for whatever reason, makes disparaging remarks about users of Platform B.
5. Big long flame war ensues! AAAH!
6. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Windows users call Mac users cultist zealots who have had one to many glasses of Kool Aid.. Mac users call Windows users blind sheep and Windows drones who don’t think for themselves and do what Uncle bill tells them. On and on and on. All this time, very few people seem to have the sense to wake up and realize that the bickering is pointless, rude, and just plain silly.

To some it may sound like I am saying that Mac advocacy or PC advocacy is a bad thing. It isn’t. There’s nothing wrong with advocating the platform you choose. In fact, I encourage it. But this advocacy should be to enlighten others about other platforms out there and their benefits, not to say one sucks and yours is the One True Path. It isn’t. There is no One True Path in the computing world. Just because the Mac is the best solution for me doesn’t mean everyone is going to find it to be the best thing ever. Just because some of my friends may find Windows to be better for them doesn’t mean it’s best for me. Everyone’s different. People will disagree with you. If you can’t deal with that, you have no place advocating anything.

Instead of combative advocacy, I think helpful advocacy is a better route to go for both sides of the rift. What do I mean by helpful advocacy? I mean provide answers to questions others might have about your given platform and to clear up any misconceptions others may have respectfully. Also, one should not spread misconceptions about the other side. Don’t force your views on others. and if the other platform would work better for the person, tell them. And no cheap shots! Also, it’s okay to feel the other platform isn’t as good in certain aspects, provided you cite specific reasons and provde a strong, accurate argumet. I know there are many people out there like this, but there are many who are more combative. Okay, it might have felt good for a minute to tell the poor uninformed Windows user who thought Office for the Mac doesn’t exist off, but in the end all you end up doing is perpetuate stereotypes about Mac users. Not good. Don’t do it, no matter how annoying the person is. Instead, either inform them calmly and respectfully about their misconception or ignore them completely and save yourself the time you wasted on the person.

Our behavior reflects on the platform we choose. If we behave poorly (i.e. help perpetuate stereotypes about users of our chosen platform), we can inadvertantly turn people off and hurt the platform we advocate. This goes for Mac users, PC users, Linux users, Amiga users, and so on. So try be bigger than those who get into petty flame wars over a computing platform. After all, there are bigger things in the world.