Equilibrium

I've always had this theory that humans seek a natural equilibrium with all things they interact with around them.  I'm not talking about artificial stuff here, none of that tofu/vegan/save the green whales stuff.  I'm talking about the unspoken, subconcious stuff.  It manifests itself in all sorts of ways.  Most of which we observe in others as "habits" or "personality".  But it applies to software as much as anything else.

Whenever someone puts even a few seconds of thought or effort into finding a better "solution" to their needs, that's when they're trying to find equilibrium of effort with benefit.  

This applies to operating systems, applications, gadgets, even how you arrange your desk or your rooms.  If you have to walk through a room and go around things, you will eventually get tired of that pattern and try to change it to minimize the perceived "effort" by moving things around.  I see people do this with software all the time.  Whether it's finding a better application to solve a problem or do a tedious chore, or switching complete computer systems, such as moving to Apple OSX, Linux or Windows.

In my case, I have been shuffling around for years.  I'm sure many of you have also.  Every few months I will wipe out a machine and try something different for a while, just to see what it does for me and what it doesn't.  The exception to this is OSX because I'm not stupid enough to skip a mortgage payment to buy a new piece of hardware just to run a different OS.  It doesn't make sense.  Maybe if my house burned down and I had no hardware left, I could concoct some rationale to justify that, but with a house full of PC hardware, well, you know.  If Apple made a version that ran on Dell platforms I wouldn't hesitate to try it out.  I've thought about some of the hacks out there, but I'm too busy to spend a lot of time on hacks.

I think my search is over.  I've settled on a mix of software that works for me and doesn't get in my way:  Windows 7, Office 2007, Google Chrome and VMware Server.  It's time for me to snatch the pebble from the master's hand and leave the temple.