I think a lot of it has to do with snob appeal and the religious fervor that a lot of Mac addicts display. Apple is a bit more style conscious (but being Italian, I love that aspect) and the price, which reflects that, is prohibitive to a lot of people.
I think you’re assessment is right on. I’ve never cared for Mac users who had a superior attitude but then I guess I don’t restrict that just to computers. When I bought my first pre-built computer I so tried to convince myself to get an Amiga, but I just couldn’t overcome the disparity in the amount of software I want that was available for the PC instead.
Also I don’t think most people would come close to taking advantage of a Mac. I imagine most computer users just surf the internet, send emails, social network and other pretty mundane stuff that doesn’t require much. Hell I’m so cheap my primary online computer I’m using right now is a 6 year old Emachines that cost me <$350 w/monitor, keyboard and mouse. All I’ve done to it is upgrade the memory and video card right after I got it and it still does everything I need day to day. Best computer purchase I ever made so I agree with bigwill2 unless you have a special need treat it as a consumable product.
My housemate at UW Madison hated it when he had to get a PC at home to use some of his work software, he always had one of those stickers saying “Intel Outside” on his Mac. He was actually much more computer savvy than me but was so pissed off one day because he couldn't change the way something work. When I asked him if he looked for a registry key for it he just gave me a blank stare. I couldn’t help but laugh and show him Windows version of a big bloated branching tree of a .rc file. He was like a kid at Christmas until he realized how limited it’s functionality was.
I agree that Vista sucks. My first Vista install, post service pack 2, was the easiest OS install I ever had. 3 hours from entering the store to buy all the parts to booting up the PC. 6 hours later I finally got Civ 4 to actually run on it. The second install took over 6 hours to get the install to stop hanging half way through or crashing and not rebooting event to safe mode while using Windows update. So now despite any accolades heaped on Windows 7 (figure out a naming scheme please, Bob? WTFO) I’m running XP until those computers die or there is some feature/software I must use Windows 7 or “Melinda” or whatever it’s call by then for.
But I still like not having to load DOS high, find which hardware will play with what using whichever IRQ . . . .
