Not feeling marginalized enough lately? That's a serious problem, you know; our very identity as Mac users relies heavily on our us-versus-the-world underdog complex. Sure, Apple's continually dwindling personal computer market share now hovers at just 3.7% in the U.S., which is a great help for fostering that outsider self-image, but even so, spillover from the iPod's top dog sales status (which has made the Apple logo much less of a counterculture icon than it one was) might be eroding your identification as a rebel living on the wild outskirts of tech society. What to do?

Well, never fear; we're here to help. If you want to feel that surge of indomitable rugged individualism again, just check out this IDG News article about Hewlett-Packard's new Linux-powered laptop. Remember how, when Mac OS X shipped, Apple liked to mention that it had suddenly become the world's largest supplier of UNIX? Well, HP's Linux veep Martin Fink is taking a similar stance regarding Linux: "This is the year that Linux overtakes the Mac on the desktop, and maybe my laptop will help accelerate that." Hear that, folks? We're about to be eclipsed by Linux. Nothing against Linux, of course, but purely from a soup-to-nuts user experience perspective, if that doesn't make you feel like a lone individualist standing firm against the pounding tide of mediocrity, we don't know what will.

Except, perhaps, for hearing that Fink apparently wasn't nearly optimistic enough in his estimate about when Linux would overtake the Mac. The same article quotes an analyst from the research firm IDC as saying that "Linux captured the No. 2 spot as desktop operating system in 2003." (We're taking a wild stab in the dark that Windows isn't No. 3.) So for months, now, more people have been buying computers-- personal computers, mind you, not servers-- running Linux than ones running Mac OS X. Just feel that wave of self-righteousness douse you in the conviction that you and you alone must save the masses from their own ignorance. Feels good, doesn't it?

So, Fink doesn't get the satisfaction of watching his product push Linux past the Mac into the mainstream (because it's already there), but at least we Mac users get to revel in the fact that we're now so fringe we could pass for David Crosby's jacket. If this keeps up, pretty soon conservationists are going to be tranq-darting us while we're coming out of Apple retail stores and we'll wake up hours later in the food court sporting a numbered ear tag and a subcutaneous tracking device. Say, does Endangered Species status qualify us for discounts at the Great Steak & Potato Company? Mmmmmmmm... Fresh-cut fries...