[mattrepl]

Can you really identify the number of columns being used by looking at a layout? And is Bootstrap the only one to use 12-columns?

I've used Bootstrap as a starting point for several apps and have modified the grid setup before, but it wasn't because I thought it looked like Bootstrap.

[pseut]

I probably can't guess the number of columns in the grid just by looking at the webpage, but tons of landing pages break up their explanation/details into 2 or 3 columns below the header, and (I suspect) that's a direct result of Bootstrap's 12 column grid.

And that's all fine, because it gives these pages a standard structure so that they're easy to navigate and I wouldn't suggest that people change it just for its own sake. If there's a good reason to change it, definitely do it, but otherwise leave it alone.

I'm not anti-bootstrap and, to my untrained eye, it encourages pretty good design. My only point is that it takes a lot more than changing fonts and colors to make a website look not-bootstrappy, so one should only make the changes and tweaks that have a specific purpose. Changing the colors to match other websites within the same organization makes sense, but changing the colors because, to quote the article, "that button and that menu still both look awfully Bootstrappy" doesn't make sense, unless you are a designer.