I asked the WordPress bot to tell me every time I mentioned an operating system and this is what I got:

WordPress Agent: OS Mention History — Why The Hell? Blog (2002–2026) (Personal use only — side jobs removed)

2002–2003: The Linux vs. Windows Wars

  • Apr 29, 2002 — “Well.. here we go again” — “I installed a version of Linux. Fun OS…”
  • May 3, 2002 — “Not much to report…” — “I’m still messing with Mandrake Linux 8.2 and other than a few things/settings I want to do, it’s working fine.”
  • May 4, 2002 — “Uneventful Day Off” — “Boy, Linux/Netscape formats things on web pages different than Windows.” / “only about 4 people with Linux have visited my site. That’s compared to maybe a couple hundred Windows visits.”
  • May 12, 2002 — “Houston, we have a problem..” — “My main goal is not to become some geeked-out super Linux guru, but to use it in the place of Windows for everyday tasks.” / Mentions Mandrake 8.2, Debian Linux, Red Hat 7.3.
  • May 28, 2002 — “Done messing with Linux.. XP does what I need it to..” — “Linux is not the ideal desktop OS.” / “Windows XP Pro is what I need.”
  • Jun 15, 2002 — “It’s been a while…” — “re-installed Windows XP Pro” / “I installed a version of Linux… it was called Lindows. It’s based on BSD Linux, and it’s awful.”
  • Jul 15, 2002 — “Messing with Linux again…” — “I’m posting on the Blogger site and I’m on Lycoris Linux.”
  • Jul 21, 2002 — “Good news, Bad news” — “I’ve finally chosen my Linux distribution for good… Lycoris Linux.” / “it means sacrificing a few programs that are Windows specific (Streets & Trips)”
  • Nov 11, 2002 — “Back and fourth” — “for maybe the 20th time I’ve decided to try Linux again… This Linux distribution is called Lycoris.”
  • May 15, 2003 — “Interesting Link - Part Two” — “The great thing about Linux is that it’s free and the bad thing is that it takes a bit of work and probably never could replace Windows for me.”
  • Jun 20, 2003 — “Windows is so reliable..” — “my windows installation crapped out on me.” / “I installed Lycoris Linux.”
  • Jul 6, 2003 — “Windows sucks..” — “If a decent version of Linux worked with my hardware I’d use it. I had to re-install Windows again tonight.”
  • Sep 1, 2003 — “Now entering September..” — “This ‘call me’ app is for Windows and uses ActiveX.”
  • Dec 17, 2003 — “Free Long Distance for the Holidays” — “use Windows Messenger” (re: FWD VoIP)
  • Dec 28, 2003 — “Got my internet installed!” — “I had to re-install Windows.”
  • Dec 29, 2003 — “Just as good as I’d hoped..” — “With my last job I trained on a Windows 3.1 machine.”

2004–2006: Still fighting the same battle

  • Jun 23, 2004 — “Getting used to posting earlier..” — “Windows has failed on us numerous times.” / “If it weren’t for a few programs I’d use Linux all the time.”
  • Jul 9, 2004 — “Windows.. can’t live with it, can’t live without it..” — title says it all.
  • Jul 10, 2004 — “Firefox; a good browser..” — “So many people use Windows and in turn use Internet Explorer.”
  • Jul 14, 2004 — “Pregnancy appointments..” — “Windows refuses to cooperate with me.”
  • Aug 10, 2004 — “Lost access to my own site..” — “I’ve just recently installed Windows XP Service Pack 2.”
  • Sep 3, 2004 — “Just a few hours to go.. Trying Linux yet again..” — mentions Xandros Linux 2.01 / “Every day I swear off Windoze.”
  • Mar 31, 2005 — “High speed internet and added features..” — “I had to fool it with XP’s built in ‘compatibility mode’ to make it think I was using Windows 2000.”
  • Sep 13, 2005 — “Thinking of Linux.. again!” — “never-ending quest to rid ourselves of MS Windows” / mentions Mepis Linux.
  • Sep 17, 2005 — “Got Linux up and running..” — Mepis Linux / dual boot with Windows.
  • Oct 6, 2005 — “My Linux journey so far..” — “I’ve been using computers for over 10 years and I’ve always used Windows.” / Mepis Linux.
  • Dec 20, 2005 — “More video of Alex..” — “These are Windows Media files created by Windows Movie Maker.”
  • Jan 3, 2006 — “Townhouse news.. Ubuntu..” — Mepis wouldn’t work with new LCD, tried Ubuntu Linux.
  • Jan 4, 2006 — “Back to work.. Linux communities..” — mentions Ubuntu/Kubuntu, Lycoris, Mepis.
  • Jan 8, 2006 — “Good Saturday.. Alex still sick.. More Linux talk..” — “switch over to XP when necessary.”
  • Jan 12, 2006 — “Still messing with Linux..” — trying PCLinuxOS.
  • Sep 5, 2006 — “A post about nothing..” — “I use PCLinuxOS (an OS like Windows but made up of Linux at its core)” / mentions Ubuntu via VMware.

2007: Linux on the laptop

  • Apr 20, 2007 — “Ubuntu on my laptop..” — Ubuntu “Feisty Fawn” 7.04 dual-booting with XP Home.
  • Jul 12, 2007 — “Trip to NY soon..” — Ubuntu, PCLinuxOS, Fedora 7 on laptop.
  • Jul 13, 2007 — “Linux on my laptop.. what an adventure..” — “too many people are tied to Windows applications.”
  • Nov 27, 2007 — “Good visit from my Brother..” — PCLinuxOS two years, then Ubuntu, SuSE, Kubuntu.
  • Dec 24, 2007 — “Tough to find a good Linux distro for my old laptop..” — tried Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Fedora, PCBSD, Mepis; landed on Mandriva.

2008–2016: The Mac Era

  • Feb 3, 2008 — “Tax refund time = Second desktop” — “What haven’t we tried? Mac! We’re getting a refurbished iMac. I’ve been fascinated with OSX.” ← Mac era begins
  • Feb 10, 2008 — “Learning to use a Mac..” — First hands-on with OSX.
  • Feb 14, 2008 — “Playing with Mac OSX’s Photo Booth..” — OSX mentioned.
  • Apr 27, 2008 — “Ubuntu on Leopard..” — Ubuntu 8.04 via virtualization in OSX. “I love my iMac.” / “I’d like to get my hands on a copy of Vista… It is essentially a new face on XP.”
  • Jan 2, 2009 — “Playing with Windows.. Welcome 2009..” — Windows via Boot Camp on Mac. “I still prefer OS X.”
  • Jan 13, 2009 — “My luck, good or bad?..” — “Microsoft officially released the public beta of Windows 7.” / “I haven’t actually run Vista on a real hard drive (only virtually).”
  • Aug 29, 2009 — “Snow Leopard.. More family visiting..” — “I installed Mac OSX 10.6 Snow Leopard.”
  • Apr 29, 2012 — “Just a lazy weekend..” — “I have an Android phone I like and an iMac I’m happy with.”
  • Oct 3, 2013 — “Playing with my new Raspberry Pi..” — “Linux always worked well for me but when I bought my first Mac in 2008, I put it aside. For years I have not used Windows as my primary operating system.”

2026: Full circle

  • Jan 31, 2026 — “Just a short break from blogging..” — “I’ve recently gotten back into Linux.” / Aurora (Fedora-based immutable distro) as primary / “Windows 11 on a separate hard drive” / “Mac from ‘08 to ‘16.”
  • Aug 9, 2026 — “The Coolest Thing I’ve Done With AI (so far!)” — Aurora Linux as primary / “several VM’s (Windows 11, NixOS and Ubuntu)” / “Windows 11 p2v was the biggest eye opening task yet.”

The arc: Windows → endless Linux experiments → Mac (Feb 2008–2016) → back to Linux (Aurora) with Windows 11 in a VM. 24 years, same obsession.