Major thread creep alert but I didn't start it.
I bought the third Mac sold in Seattle in 1984 to write my first book on. I have used Macs at home ever since, going through a number of generations of them up through today.
Boeing, after thrashing around with a number of types of computers including Mac, finally settled on PC/Microsoft Windows, most recently Windows 7.
So I use both every day. And as far as I and everyone in my department are concerned, Windows is the most unintuitive, trouble-prone, unstable piece of electronic crap ever conceived. And they manage to make it worse with every new iteration.
From all the people I encounter in the course of my work, Windows is almost universally hated. The only thing hated more are Microsoft's applications for it-- Office, Outlook, etc. which also get worse--- more unintuitive, frustrating, and bloated--- with every new version.
While I understand the frustrations that can arise from Apple's closed architecture, from a purely user point of view, Apple is both intuitive and user friendly. Recently several of my co-workers have given up on Windows after years of using it at home and changed to Macs. Listening to them talk about setting up and using their new Macs is like listening to ex-smokers wax evangelic about the evils of smoking (aka Windows).
A long time ago I read a lengthy evaluation of Apple and PC (Windows) and what characterized the users of each system. I don't remember all the points that were made but the bottom line was that a PC user is likely to be analytical, precise, highly skewed toward following rigidly defined processes, very focussed, not very flexible, and very much into "data."
An Apple user is likely to be creative, free-thinking, have a variety of mostly creative interests, likes finding new ways of doing things, and is not at all interested in adhering to rigid processes.
Based on my experience and observation over the last almost three decades of personal computer use, I would have to say that this fellow's analysis rings pretty true.
There are certainly exceptions--- I would never have figured Eric for an Apple user based on his posts to this forum, for example. On the other hand he certainly takes a creative, unique, and "out of the box" approach to things like anchoring and a lot of other technical subjects, so in reality I guess he actually fits the Apple "personality" very well.
Boeing's most revered engineer is Ed Wells, who started with the company in 1931 and was instrumental in moving it into the jet age after the war, even contributing to the 757 and 767 designs long after his retirement. In an extensive interview I did with him in the 1980s I asked him why he had been quick to embrace the switch from piston to jet propulsion.
"Because," he said, "I realized that life's simply too short to spend it working on propellers."
In the same vein, I feel that life's too short to spend it screwing around with Windows.