In some respects had I never discovered Linux I would probably be a technology-agnostic person.
Part of that is down to the sheer ‘tech know-how’ you learn as you use Linux – though this is likely less intense than it once was, I’m sure.
Secondly, Linux made me view things differently; it made me view my interactions with my computer differently too. No longer was it just using what was available, such as Windows Media Player for example, but more about what I wanted to use; what kind of software i wanted or needed or would like!
Whilst i was always a bit of a geek in my XP monogamy back a year or so ago (seriously, that’s all it’s been!); my XP was skinned to look like OS X; I wasn’t overly aware nor appreciative of how much work and choice there is out there for end users.
An example being that I now use OpenOffice on ALL my OS’s. How many people make do with Microsoft’s Wordpad or pay for iWorks?
While some may look at it as a case of ‘windows does all i need’, which is fair enough, I find that if it wasn’t for Linux’s comparative instability at times (for example the system failing to boot after some .config file gets accidentally nudged by a new application install) then I’d likely answer the shout of ‘Windows does everything I need’ with a ‘Yeah, but Linux does it better.’