Originally posted by: Amused
Intel vs AMD fights and nVidia vs ATI fights
The anti-MS bandwagon
The anti-AOL bandwagon
I agree with this. It goes beyond a few technology companies. It's a phenomenon that's been going on since the beginning of time. Some people feel better if they don't do what everyone else is doing. A famous author Alice James (1848-1892) once said, "What a sense of superiority it gives one to escape reading some book which everyone else is reading." That was the 1800's.
You hear music snobs who don't like "commercial" or "sell out" music. They'll only listen to underground stuff that no one has heard of. And if the band does pick up popularity, suddenly they don't like it. There are car snobs, beer snobs, tv show snobs, etc, etc. It's the same with computing. People use Linux over Windows. Opera over IE. AMD instead of Intel. If it's mainstream, they don't like it. It's a type of conformity. What's funny, is the reason they do it is to prove to others that they aren't conformists. But in their efforts to prove their non-conformity, they're actually conforming. I just use what I like, listen to what I like, eat and drink what I like, and give no thought to how it impresses other people.