I'm an occasional reader of Linux Journal. My friend, uteck, gets it and I get his cast-offs, which makes good reading since I use it for more of the technical content. However, recently I've been reading the etc/rant stuff in the back, by Nick Petreley. I think I've come to the conclusion, I don't really like him.

In general, I don't like anyone who makes black-and-white statements. I'm a middle-ground person in most things in life and saying Gtk or KDE is better than the other is like saying one religion is better than another. It isn't.

The argument of using the best possible tool is a good one. I fully believe that the best tool should be used. However, the best tool is based on the one using it, not an answer for everyone. I use Emacs, I'm damn good at it and over the decades, I've grown to its quirks and adjusted to it (just like a marriage). I'm a touch-typer and Emacs doesn't need a mouse, which is perfect when you try to program at 80-100 words per minute. I also prefer Gnome but I use KDE tools when they fit better. My Gnome system uses Amarok because it doesn't crash, but it uses Nautilus because I find it so much more ascethic than KDE's file manager.

Guess what? Emacs isn't for everyone. Hell, for some it is an antiqued piece of work that resides in the dark hearts of those who like ((((((Lisp) 2)) And))) other things. On the other hand, MonoDevelop and Visual Studio aren't for me. So, I'm going to use the best tool for me, Emacs.

As for programming, well... let's say I hate both. The GTK signals are nice, and I consider easier to work with than the slots of Qt (of course, I haven't coded Qt in a long time) but I prefer the events of C# over both. I'm also not a GUI programmer, I can write some really nice back-end stuff, but polished front ends, that's one of my weaknesses.

So, when Nick says that something is better than the other, such as jedit being the best editor on the planet, it shows someone who sees something in black and white, someone who follows the extremes instead of my believes that you should use the best tool for "you" not everyone else. I use Emacs and I use vim, guess what, they have their place. I use Mac OS X, Windows XP, Linux, and even the occasional SunOS box, but each one has their place and I don't really consider one better than the other, just better at certain things.

I will not tell you anything is the best, just try to tell you what works for me. Mainly, because I'm not going to set myself to be a zealot, except for not liking other zealots. :) So, that is my "etc/rant"