The range and oven is the Unix of cooking appliances. It is powerful and versatile. It cooks almost anything. But, it’s hard to learn and there’s a lot to think about. And messing up with a range and oven results in disaster, whereas messing up with other appliances is much more forgiving.

The Foreman Grill is the Mac OS of cooking. It is easy to use, quick, effective, and, most importantly, stylish. However, it’s not very versatile: there’s a lot of food you can’t cook in it at all. Plus, it’s highly polarizing: lots of people hate the Foreman Grill just because it’s different from what they’re used to, though it does more than an adequate job.

The microwave is the Windows of cooking. It’s good for thawing and reheating, and very easy to use. However, it’s woefully inadequate for real cooking, and unless you’re very careful, you are constantly plagued by improper heating. Additionally, there are an awful lot of people who don’t know how to cook anything without a microwave, there are a lot of people who think the microwave is the best thing ever invented, and still quite a few who don’t even know there are other ways to cook.

The deep fryer is the Plan 9 of cooking: it cooks everything the same way.

The charcoal grill is the Palm OS of cooking. It’s not as fast as other cooking. But it’s sexy, portable, and works anywhere. The need to carry around the power source is a tad annoying, though.

The open flame is the VxWorks of cooking: it’s the absolute minimum you can cook with, and one normally only does it in specially designated areas.

The convection oven is the OS/2 of cooking. It’s really a nice appliance that can produce nice meals, but no one seems to have one, and very few have heard of it.