I have the impression that ever since Microsoft assimilated Apple (bought a controlling interest therein, as I understand it), the Macintosh vs. PC Holy Wars have been less relevant, if not dead.
Since then, I have a relatively rational view of the differences--certainly more rational than I had during the Holy Wars. If I bother to think about Macs, I vaguely disdain them, partly due to a residual disdain for the GUI (that's the nonrational component--nonrational because at least since Windows 95, it's been hard to escape the GUI if you're an average user), but now, mostly because I've used Macs so rarely in the last ten years that I no longer know how to work one. The last time I had to was four or five years ago, when all the PCs in the college computer center were taken. I tried to use a Mac, only to give up because I couldn't find the power switch.

Back in eighth grade, my Macintosh-hating best friend and I were gleeful partisans in the Holy War. We insulted Macs for fun--really, that's largely all we were interested in insulting Macs for. We sort of had a field day over the Macintosh Classic in our English class violently breaking down on the last day of school; and sometime before that, he snuck up behind two unsuspecting Mac users, grabbed the mouse, and tried to dump the hard drive in the Trash can, while I tried to contain my laughter. (It didn't work, of course. Pity. We would have been even more amused to see the Trash Can spit out its own system in revulsion.)
Some months later, when I started high school, I wrote what became my Anti-Macintosh Manifesto--a collection of anti-Macintosh jokes.
During some downtime in a short typing class that was part of my freshman orientation week, I started typing aimlessly--stream-of-consciousness, in the abstract sense of the phrase--and mostly because I was annoyed at our being seated at the lab's Macintosh Classic terminals, below is what came out. As you can perhaps tell based on how childish some of it (especially the first paragraph) is, this document started as a boredom-killing exercise.
Some time later, it evolved into a parody of fanaticism (and, even before that, I deliberately typed everything in caps), and in between, told some good jokes, some bad jokes and, for humor's sake, a few baldfaced lies. I'm a bit disappointed that these disjointed fragments are about all I can remember.
___________________________________________________
... I'd say that the CPU flew south for the winter, but I'm afraid I cannot say that because, as any PC user knows, a Macintosh doesn't have a CPU at all. Where the CPU should be is a box with an abacus inside. Apple's engineers have, however, devised a method of attaining additional CPU speed: while computations are handled by the abacus, a gerbil runs circles inside a wheel.

When I acquired my first computer, in summer 1993, being used, it came in a box originally belonging to a Macintosh SE. Examining this box at some point, I noticed "Keyboard not included; mouse included" listed among the "features." Assuming the relative who gave me the computer had also owned the Macintosh, I wonder if she was ever heard saying "Look at this great typing speed I can reach on my mouse! By jove, I think this really does beat a keyboard after all!"

...

...It is no less a travesty that Microsoft saw fit to equip Windows 95 with an offshoot of the pitiful Trash Can concept. When I want a file deleted, I will "delete" it, thank you very much. A Macintosh user who is exploring the Skid Row of cyberspace can expect to click open his Trash Can and find an addressless cyberpunk inside, foraging for unwanted scraps of data. The Trash Can has apparently drawn praise from less anonymous people, such as Oscar the Grouch. There is a program that makes him pop out of the can and sing, "I love trash!"


Modern versions of Windows may now make full use of a graphical user environment (GUI), but Apple invented, or at any rate popularized, the GUI with the advent of the Macintosh. I expect that before Microsoft stole Apple's idea, it was quite common for a Mac user to pass by a PC user typing commands at the MS-DOS command line, and blurt, "How can you read that? It doesn't have any graphics!"

The warm, fuzzy, "Welcome to Macintosh" GUI is only the beginning. The GUI and layers of user-friendliness hide far more of the operating system's potentially intimidating inner workings than is the case on a PC. Hide them behind an obnoxious, patronizing attitude best summed up as, "Let the computer do your work and your thinking for you; ignorance is bliss." Nuts to that, and to the GUI, and to the Trash can. Together, they remind me of what the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine character "Quark" once said about a drink he didn't like: "It's so bubbly, and cloying...and happy. But you know what's really frightening? If you drink enough of it, you begin to like it."


My aforementioned Macintosh-hating best friend is now the president and CEO of Apple. He purchased all the stock in the company, having found an extra quarter in his pocket. His first major goal as president and CEO is to change the company name from "Apple" to a more fitting appellation: "Lemon."


Ah, Macintosh, you are but a useless pile of junk and are strictly for amateurs. We PC users are professionals, sir. After the sword of technological righteousness has carved many a bold swath through the computing world, there will come a day when all computer users can work in peace and harmony. At their PC terminals. Until then, I will continue my valiant hate crusade against Macintosh computers with considerable zeal. Death to Macintosh. Glory to the PC and the PC user's cause.


--The Mad Macintosh Hater

I was a bit of a fanboy back in the day.... for an AP History class I had to do a presentation on the anti-trust case against MS- I came out in favor of MS in the dispute- I like to think that 3.5 years on Linux full time now has made up for my transgressions.

But... I don't think I quite understand the anti-Mac stance... Mac OSX is quite Unix like... in fact I believe it is based on BSD?

Its not so much OSX that I hate. I like OSX. I just can't bring myself up to say that a Mac is somehow any different that a pc. Mac == PC, PC == MAC, end of story. This is ever more true now since it uses an intel chip/board, and ATI card. I now see some macs offering NVIDIA. As far as I'm concerned a 'Mac' is just an over glorified pc, overpriced I might add. I would love to run OSX, and now I can on my own non 'mac' system. I could careless what Jobs has to say about that. If he wants to completely prevent people from running OSX on third party hardware or custom build hardware, he can just go back to PPC (makes a go-away gesture).

The only thing that distinguished macs from pcs back in the day was it's use of non x86 architecture processors.

I like the software, but the hardware is nothing special, and certainly not worth paying a premium for. I can build a pc with way better specs than what apple has to offer for said price.

And yes, OSX is based off of BSD, and also certain elements from the NextStep project.

Well, I was being nonrational as an anti-Macintosh partisan.

Ooooo-kay, then.

Ford == Toyota, Toyota == Ford. They both have 4 wheels, an engine, a transmission, and they run on the same roads.

Perfect logic, right?

Sounds like an oversimplification. There are subtle differences.

Those were the worst jokes. Ever.

gg, you failed.

It's a shame Commodore dropped the ball with the Amiga and AmigaOS. It was years ahead of the competition back in the day. Would have been interesting to see what a 3rd platform choice would have done to shake the OS market up.

I think I'm rather funny. Nyah, nyah.

The "subtle" difference being that Toyotas work and Fords don't. But that's beside the point. I like OS X but I have really grown to resent Apple's business tactics. I was extremely close to investing in a Mac but then it occurred to me that Apple treats its customers like dirt. So now I just run Linux and virtualize everything else. I actually was raised a Mac fanboy. My father had a 128KB Mac and a 512KB external disk drive.

I do define a Mac as a PC because it seems like "PC" should be a generic abbreviation for "personal computer," not a proprietary term for a machine running Windows. Back to the car company example, a Pinto is car, but not all cars are Pintos. But that's just my opinion.

PC == "personal computer"
Mac == "personal computer"
Which means that Mac == PC.

So, what is the problem?

P.S> Jokes weren't funny.

Says you, my friend. I have nothing against Toys, but AFAIK, my dad's 13-year-old F-150 has never had a breakdown other than dead batteries. I know that some wag claimed Ford spelled backwards stands for Driver Returns on Foot, but I have news for him/her: Ford isn't spelled backwards--nyah, nyah. I won't say anything further for myself on that matter, because I don't really want to mock the purpose of LQ by discussing automobiles. ...oh, I forgot, that was started by someone else. His/her analogy, not mine.

Regardless of which vehicle is better, I doubt that people who have driven of one or both of them would confuse the two.

Ford stands for "Found On Road Dead". I used to have an F-150. It was a pretty good truck.

Except for the time when I was driving down the road at highway speed and the engine suddenly quit (ignition module on the distributer).

And the time when the hydraulic clutch went out (line to the clutch split, and the quick release on the slave cylinder wouldn't release at all, forcing me to drop the transmission to remove the slave cylinder and replace it as well as the line with its "quick release").

And the time the front driveshaft snapped, bashing a hole in the transmission housing (though I was able to fix that with some aluminum, a bit of time with a hammer, a couple of sheet metal screws, and that wonderful adhesive product Goop).

And the time that there was an electrical problem that I couldn't find for awhile, that resulted in the engine intermittently losing time, going to full rich, and chugging. I forget how I finally found and fixed that, but it took awhile.

Then there was the electrical problem that took out the air conditioning. And the electrical problem that took out ...well... all of the electrical system AND melted a fuse (didn't "blow" the fuse...physically melted it).

Then there was the time that the thing let fly with a huge backfire and caught fire. That was related to the chugging problem though.

Yeah. It was a pretty good truck.

Then there was the Windstar my wife had. Good minivan. Except for the time the head gaskets failed.

And the time it sat in the driveway and broke a front spring...just sitting there. Drove that spring right through the tire, too.

The air suspension was fun. Sometimes when driving along, it'd just dump all the air. The back end would drop 6 inches and would then run like there were no shocks (of course, this was because there were no shocks). The solution was to turn the ignition key off and back on, thus resetting the computer, and it would then pump the suspension system back up.

Oh. Yes. Mustn't forge the time the wheel fell off - literally. This vehicle, with absolutely no warning, broke the right front spindle and the wheel fell off, held in place only by the brake caliper. Wife and kids were in it driving at about 50 MPH when it happened.

It did have a great stereo system, though. And the air conditioner was simply excellent.

Great stereo and AC? Sounds kind of like what I say to anyone who asks me what ARizona State University West, where I spent one semester, specializes in. I tell them: "Well, it does have some nice Xeriscape in the parking lot."