Win & Mac are sisters born of divorced parents! @redsheep @chrisleow @geminianeyes @joycescapade

It started with this tweet yesterday from @redsheep:

- : #win7my does this to you for staying free for the trial period. Sigh. Hard to keep the romance.

I replied:

Windows has had a hard life and finds it hard to give himself fully to a relationship. #win7my

@chrisleow responded:

RT @alphalim Windows has had a hard life and finds it hard to give himself fully to a relationship. #win7my - WIndows 7 is a HE? Since when?

@geminianeyes chimed in:

@chrisleow #win7my is a girl la! http://is.gd/4LPf8 RT @alphalim Windows has had a hard life & finds it hard 2 give himself fully to r'ships

@redsheep commented:

@geminianeyes To be fair, #win7my is an IT (sexless). @alphalim @chrisleow

I tweeted this explanation to @chrisleow:

Windows is androgynous. I use he/she as situations warrant ;). E.g. when comparing Win & Mac, I think of em as sisters.

...

To expand on my reply to @chrisleow, this is how I think of Windows and Mac:

I think of the both of them as sisters born to the same parents, who divorced, made up and maintain a tentative friendship with occasional spats. Not surprisingly, Win and Mac had traumatic childhoods.

As often happens, people compare siblings: This one has the looks, that one has the brains. But with Win and Mac, one of them inherited looks and brains, while the other was born plain but streetwise. So, although not as gorgeous as her sister or as good at maths, she did pretty well for herself, earning worldwide acclaim. Her fame spread farther than her sister's, and she got to travel the world.

Yet, annoyingly, everywhere she went, people kept asking her, "So what is it like, having her as a sister?" "What's your sister really like at home?" "Does your sister share grooming tips with you?" "Those are her hand-me-downs you're wearing, aren't they?"

All this made the more-travelled sister only try harder. She kept bumming invites to all the cool parties, she tried her hand at doing her own make-up - though she tended to put on too much. (The brand she used was Luna, I think.)

The well-travelled sister has garnered such a following all over the world, that every time she loses weight, updates her look or gives birth to a child, everyone stops what they're doing and pays attention. (Sadly, many of her children did not survive past adolescence; some were even stillborn. I think genetics are to blame for that.) And despite her success in the eyes of the world, I suspect that deep down she wishes she could trade some of that acclaim for a bit more of her sister's natural beauty and wits.

...

When I began to think of Win and Mac in this way, it gave me more compassion for Win. You don't criticise a girl when she's trying her best. You encourage her to be all she can be.

Nevertheless, if friends need a good mind and natural charm, I won't recommend they hire Win just because I feel sorry for her. (Although, Mac can be a bit snooty at times. Still, she always gets the job done, and with such flair!)

...

Finally, I will forever be indebted to @geminianeyes for opening my eyes to the world of OS-tans! OS-tans are anime-style personifications crafted by fans of operating systems. (Trust the Japanese...) It's a bit comforting to me, that I'm not alone in thinking of operating systems as girls.