You know, I was reading this and it got me thinking. (Was that your plan?) I think that Linux is more akin to Root Beer than the ‘Dew’. There are thirteen ‘brands’ of Linux on ‘Linux.com’ and I’m sure that there are more as well, possibly even ‘home brewed’ versions that uber-geeks have tweeked to the nth.

Now going back to the soft drink comparison, how many ‘versions’ are there of Mountain Dew? There are seven listed on their site.

How many versions are there of Root Beer? Well, at Root Beer World  root-beer.org) there are 2315 listed. (Research on this took me over an hour, what with following links to recipes and other brands.) And for the root beer uber-fan, making your own ’special’ brew is easily accommodated with various recipes, supplies, and hardware.

Just like Linux.

Maybe Linux is more like Jones Soda. Comes in a lot of weird flavors, most of which aren’t very appealing, but everyone can appreciate it because they empathize with underdogs :)

Mountain Dew: In your face, opinionated, and definitely not for everyone.
Why do I always get these funny characters for - and ” in your
[Lockergnome] IT Professionals ~ December 1, 2006?

Before the Mac gained such a strong market share, I would have given it the MT Dew ranking. But since it has done such a fantastic job with OS X, its market share is simply too strong for the renegade labeling anymore. I mean iTunes and DRM – it’s hardly a rebel, anymore. No, because of the Do It lifestyle that “The Dew” seems to market its beverage with, I am going to say that Linux fits the bill nicely. Enjoyed by growing numbers every day, but still missing the general audience appeal that the other two guys have been able to provide.

Matt, I’m sure you are unaware you are describing a variation of my patented ‘3 Pop’ theory of consumer capitalism! ;-) I noticed the tendency in Canadian politics, but then realized it could be applied more generally.

The ‘3 Pop’ theory suggests that while there are typically lots of varied products or platforms, we have a tendency to produce 2 major brands which are like opposite sides of the same coin, and a third which is an alternative in some respect. It will often be very difficult to tell the difference between the 2 main players. Brand colours will often be the biggest differentiator. The third, alternative choice exists to re-inforce the idea that choice exists, but few will choose it because it will have problems being effective due to lack of mass appeal. (In politics, for example, if the 3rd party gets elected, they will be forced to behave like the other 2 would. Or for example, if it’s a communications product, not enough people will use it to make it effective.)

In Canadian politics, there are 2 main parties, and one alternative. Each party aligns with pops over colour lines.

Conservative is Pepsi - mostly blue with red and white.
http://www.pepsi.com/
http://www.conservative.ca/

Liberal is Coke - red with white.
http://www.coca-cola.com/
http://www.liberal.ca/

NDP (Liberal Democratic Party) are 7up (Sprite, Mountain Dew) - Green (although the NDP have played around with moving through to orange and brown at various points.)
http://www.7up.com/
http://www.ndp.ca/

In Britain, the parties are quite similar: Conservatives are Conservatives, Liberals are New Labour, and the NDP are the Liberal Democrats. And of course, the colours tend to map across as well.

The OSes:
Windows - open hardware, closed software, closed file formats
Mac - closed hardware, closed software, open file formats
Linux - open hardware, software, and file formats.
Windows and Mac are Coke and Pepsi and Linux is the un-cola. Sadly, no one informed platform makers of the colour schemes.

Very interesting and entertaining. I am curious to know what might Dr.Pepper be? The hip cool Microsoft Windows Media Center Edition?

Dr. Pepper? That would be WinCE.