My take on it is this... I started on a Windows computer running DOS and Windows 3.1 in about 1989. Dos was clunky looking and Windows was basically nothing but an address book in black and white.
The whole computer didn't do a thing cause there were no programs available for it, so you were either stuck trying to write your own program, or spend all your time typing Dir/ to see the list of stuff on your hard drive and the textual Star Trek game that somebody had loaded on there.
1991 comes along and I see a Mac SE computer. A little box with a 9" b&w screen. I boot it up and first thing that happens is there's no DOS.
My first reaction is "well.. this is stupid, how are you supposed to use it if you can't even list your files in DOS"?.
Then I start playing around with it... and realize, holy crap. DOS is totally unnecessary because the whole desktop is like working with a real desktop.
All your files go in folders. You buy programs or get shareware and it's compact and looks really cool.
I buy Opcode Vision midi software and in less than a week I have the computer running our entire band. Doing all the midi background parts from samplers and synths... basically filling up our 4 piece band so that it sounds like we have strings, synths, sampled bass runs, talking voices... you name it... I have the midi output hooked up to my ME-5 MultiEffects unit and program it to automatically change patches during songs. Now I never have to hit another pedal again. After rehearsal we take the computer upstairs and design our brochures and advertising materials. Then use a word processor to write letters.
I'm totally amazed... I go back and look at my Windows 3.1 computer and think..'what a piece of crap compared to a Mac'.
5 years later, Microsoft starts copying everything that a Mac has been doing all along. They steal the idea for the desktop but make everything opposite so that it isn't a direct ripoff and they can't get sued. Plus they add an extra step or two to everything and make everything 'user friendly'... or in other words 'dumbed down for stupid people'.
Now Vista comes along and hey..suprise, they've copied all the stuff that OSX has been doing for years, except everything's backwards again and they have so many virus problems that you can't do anything on it without getting warning messages.
To me Macs have been a constant feeling of pride in a company that actually goes out of their way to come up with new technology and new ways of doing things (look at the new iPhone for instance)
Microsoft is a rippoff company that does nothing but copy what Macs do, makes everything more difficult and more subseptible to failure... yet they have this unbelievable hold on people who will swear up and down that Windows is better than Mac, even though the people making the comments have never actually used a Mac except to glance at it or do some basic game playing.
Most users are basic users and don't know how to use a computer. So lots of pretty games and simple word processing programs is exactly what suits those types of people. Maybe they are well versed in one particular program like Quark or whatever.
Mac users know that the Apple company are at the forefront of technology and are responsible for everything that Windows is and it makes absolutely no sense that so may people buy them.
As Mac users, we've gotten to use this operating system for almost 2 decades and know it inside out. How simple it's laid out. How much care has gone into making it work.
We look at Windows machines and just think.... crappy rip off... stupid people buying them cause they don't know any better cause all they wanna do is play games and surf the web. And now they've bought their Windows computer and spent several hundred dollars on one or two programs that they really like. Not realizing that Mac has already been there and done that 5 years ago. Also not realizing that those great Windows programs they love so much are actually included for free with OSX and integrate completely so that each program works off each other.
Buy iLife or iWork and get a new iPhone and everything works smoothly.
Get a Windows computer, buy a dozen programs to do the same thing that aren't even integrated. Then spend an extra hundred bucks on virus software.
Like seriously, I bought a Windows computer mostly out of curiosity and just to satisfy myself that I was right all along.
My 1996 Mac outperforms a brand new Compaq computer running XP. And never has a problem with virus's. Never breaks down. The operating system is smoother and more intuitive and the whole idea of how the desktop runs native is just brilliant. (no ugly 20 year old graphics that look like DOS prompts... like... 'Safe Mode?' .... it's looks like my 1989 computer all over again..
10 years of dust running a Mac 24/7 and it's still running like new.
My 2 year old windows computer is sitting down at FutureShop waiting for me to pay $100 to re-install system software I've already paid for and will break down if I don't clean it out every month.
So where's the mystery?
