This seems to be more of an ego thing to me, personally I don't really identify with operating systems but do have a strong preference to supporting opensource

This seems to be more of an ego thing to me, personally I don't really identify with operating systems but do have a strong preference to supporting opensource vs proprietary software and hardware. So I suppose that would make me a linux zealot to some degree, but not to the amount of some people that feel the need to point out they use linux as if that means they are somehow better than the common M$ or IOS user. A similar attitude was also prevalent back in the 90s when artists and musicians all thought apple systems were much better for creative people and were willing to pay a premium for that hardware.