[craniumslows]

I use GNU/Linux and OS X soon to be rebranded MacOS. I started off using RedHat 3 dot something ages and ages ago then moved on to FreeBSD for about 6 or 7 years before I did lots of distro hopping in my 20s. I remember the fun and annoyance at having to recompile your kernel for sound driver support, or to add or remove a feature.

So the why? I think that it gives me the blend of power and convenience that I am personally looking for. In my early days the open source, free compilers were a godsend as I had to get a ride out of town to get to a book store that sold a book or manual with a distribution CD. As the internet access got better I started using the GUI and noticed that my use case was slowly evolving. Now-a-days I find that I am on whatever is handy Chromebook, iPad, MacBook, Desktop PC running Fedora.

Many computer users merely want something that works, and you can't blame them for that either.

This seems like it could be a fun question.