but a major part of the appeal for developers is that they can have a great desktop they love without non-geeks thinking they must be a little weird to love it.

but a major part of the appeal for developers is that they can have a great desktop they love without non-geeks thinking they must be a little weird to love it. Most developers (and sysadmins) I know positively delight in their reputation of being a little weird. I know that given two options I like as well otherwise, I'll usually pick the less common one. I still use OS X, though, having switched from Gentoo in 2003, and having tried Ubuntu and Arch for 6-7 months within the last year.