I absolutely do NOT hate Apple. They make good products. Unfortunately, they are far too overpriced for what I am paying for. The amount of functionality lost compared to that gained is not justifiable in the additional costs.
That said, I do hate fanboys and zealots, of any product for that matter. I absolutely despise being told that a mac "just works" when more and more that is proven to be far from the case as userbase increases. I am sick of being told by a co-worker that he bought his dad a mac and now "I receive no more support calls". I absolutely cannot stand the smugness with which Steve Jobs operates and works. Take the iPhone4 fiasco, he could have just been a man and admitted a problem rather than drag 4 other phone manufacturers into it. I really do hope that litigation is brought against him for that little act.
I am fairly certain that, at least my first point, is felt by quite a few people. There is nothing worse than someone trying to sell you something that you A. have expressed no interest in learning about or possibly pursuing, B. Legitimately cannot afford, and C. is sold in a manner that says "You will be cool if you use this" or "You will now be in high society". It reminds me too much of organized religion or those door-to-door people who try and push "The watchtower" on my family. They assume that because they found something so great and useful in their lives, that everyone must know and be interested in the same.
This level of fanaticism does not limit itself to Apple. The group of *nix/OSS (Notice the lack of F/OSS, this is because many users assume that OSS == free) is far deeper in their level of fanaticism. There are Microsoft fanatics, ford fanatics, toaster fanatics, you name it, there is a fanatic for it. Let people use what they like. Do not try and push something on me that I did not ask you about. And most of all, DO NOT blow smoke up my @#! by telling me how your product is "all that and a bag of chips". I learned long ago that you trade one evil for another no matter which decision you make.
</rant>
-Josh
+1,000
Except that I do hate Apple a little. (My rage after they switched their SDK license right after I spent $2,500 on an iMac is subsiding now... 4 months later.)
I think the main reason for a lot of hatred there is due to the zealots.
There's nothing worse than having a perfectly good system working for you, then having some self-righteous zealot come along and start preaching a sermon on just how stupid you are for using that perfectly good system, and that if you don't convert to his religion, you'll burn for eternity. The level of condescension in a lot of fanboy zealots is simply incompatible with not being a <insert profanity here />.
That is only compounded by zealot claims of counterfactuals. e.g.
Given X (reality)
If -X, you're an idiot (fanboy assertion)
--------------------
You're an idiot. (fanboy conclusion)
(See
here or
here.)
It's enough to drive you mad, in both senses of the word.
Having the same drivel
Apple makes some wonderful interfaces (iTunes not one of them), and does a fantastic job of design. There's nothing to hate there. They're gorgeous.
As for *nix/OSS fanatics, I think that they are an entirely different case. They aren't "dismissable" like Apple zealots are. I mean the *nix/OSS fanatics that actually have a grip on things, and not the wannabes that are just cheap followers.
The mode of information communication and access to computing power will be increasingly important moving forward. While I primarily use Windows, I am very glad that there is a very strong OSS / GNU GPL / Linux / FOSS community and movement. I see the GNU GPL philosophy as a necessary balance. They truly serve a purpose.
Apple zealots on the other hand do not serve a purpose. There is no underlying philosophy or rationality behind them. Considering the way Apple treats its customers and developers (compared to other companies), there's every reason to be repulsed by them.
Bah... I need to get to work...
