Why I need more than one OS (and machine) in general

• I have had many instances where a problem on one system is easily bypassed on the other system. Without Linux as an alternate platform, I probably would have reinstalled Windows XP and all its service packs and apps from scratch--a time-consuming operation which thankfully I've never had to do--I always just limp along until its time to build a new machine or install a major OS upgrade. For the same reason, one should consider installing multiple Web browsers.¹

• It is good education for a ``software engineer'' or ``computer hobbyist'' to keep up with the leading operating systems and user software.

• All machines get busy once in a while, and instead of staring at an hourglass cursor indefinitely, it's great to be able to pop over to a different machine that's raring to go at the push of a button (on the Belkin OmniView switcher in my case).