Ahaha! You've perfecly summarised all linux users. Still, at least their OS of choice is infinitely configurable, for those blessed with infinite (worthless) time to configure it in.

Laugh at me, using any modern desktop (GNOME, KDE) changing your default browser is as easy as it is on Windows, either open file association settings or click "Make Default Browser" in Firefox.

My colleagues laugh at me when I tell them I don't click links.
I'm not sure they quite understand...

Well, at least Linux doesn't require another browser to be installed to change the default...

I don't click on links on my Win2k machine, because it insists in opening Internet Explorer.

Hey, getting FireFox and Thunderbird working together[1] was EASY compared with:
* getting Acrobat Reader5 installed[2],
* getting DNS resolution to happen in less than 10 seconds[3], and
* getting my LinkSys wifi card working[4].
Of course, that was after getting Linux installed and running in the first place[5].

The Acrobat Reader article is consistently the most popular article on my web site. I get multiple search hits for it almost every day, apparently from people who can't figure out how to get the most popular browser plug-in installed.

I wonder why EVERYONE doesn't use Linux?

[1] http://creativekarma.com/ee.php/weblog/comments/mozilla_sometimes_annoys_me_too/
[2] http://creativekarma.com/ee.php/weblog/comments/adobe_acrobat_reader_joins_in_on_annoying_me/
[3] http://creativekarma.com/ee.php/weblog/comments/slow_dns_response_on_linux_with_wrt54g_router/
[4] http://creativekarma.com/ee.php/weblog/comments/linksys_and_linux_join_forces_to_annoy_me/
[5] http://creativekarma.com/ee.php/weblog/comments/linux_annoys_me_at_times_too/

Gah. I have so much trouble with Linux installation and configuration. I must be an idiot. I'm certainly not in the same class as, say, Eric S. Raymond[6].

[6] http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/cups-horror.html

I think calling Eric S. Raymond an idiot is a bit harsh. Fair, but a bit harsh. Perhaps you could consider "Gun toting hacker in need of a haircut"?

But I wonder how you click a link on a Mac as the mouse only has a scroll wheel and no buttons! :-P

This is a common misconception about Macs.

In fact, all Macintosh computers today ship without a keyboard or a mouse: they just have this small, elegantly designed button with the apple logo on it. Pressing the button will activate a sophisticated, context-sensitive user interface that will cause the computer do whatever you want it was you wanted it to do.

Linux machines also have such a button, which as a clever optimisation is wired directly to the power supply.

*chuckle*

So, it begins ...

I've found that links usually come from one of three places:
1) Other web pages (Firefox)
2) IM (Gaim)
3) E-mail (Thunderbird)
Amazingly, it all works without a desktop environment of any sort (I just run a window manager). The hardest part was getting Gaim to cooperate, and that was a matter of setting my browser in preferences.

I resent how un-lazy many Linux users are ... "I run Linux and am therefore ferior! Not that I'll bother to update my software ... or set my default browser ... or do much of anything." Those aiming for optimal laziness will actually configure things so common tasks take minimal effort.

Okay, so I'm *extremely* daft because I've been completely unable to discover how to change the brower Mail uses when I click on links in MacOS! Help please?

I love this OS, but sometimes I think to hard about where to find things and end up missing very obvious levers and switches.

> how to change the brower Mail uses when I click on links in MacOS?

fom: http://www.monkeyfood.com/software/moreInternet/

"What is More Internet?"

More Internet is a System Preferences pane that uses Internet Config to allow you to choose which applications are set as helpers for internet protocols (i.e. which application will be chosen to handle which URL.)

Apple's own Internet Preference Pane only allows you to set Mail and Web applications - More Internet allows you to change (or add/remove) any of the internet protocols.