When a windows/microsoft thread is posted (there are many of them. See dayglored to get on the ping list for same) the discussion is largely about the OS itself, it's strengths and shortcomings. Disparaging comments are directed at Microsoft or their amazingly craptastic products. You don't find the Apple or Linux users insulting the users of the craptastic products. By and large the comments are about the perceived shortcomings of various Microsoft offerings, or posts extolling the virtues of something else.
However, when an apple thread appears, within the first ten posts, often within the first five, there are always comments directed at the users of Apple products. Not posts that are relavant to anything actually in the article itself, but directed at the users themselves. It's remarkable, consistent, and easily discernable with only a casual perusal of any assortment of tech threads about Microsoft, Apple, or Linux offerings.
Hang out for a while on liberal sites, and you'll see exactly the same dynamic in the way the discussions run. Insults fly almost instantaneously, and liberally (pun intended) throughout the 'discussion'. Those of us who've watched this same tactic used here on FR on the tech threads put up with a lot of crap from supposed adults who are such enthusastic supporters of anything Microsoft that they can't differentiate between the user of a product and the product itself.
One could observe this behaviour here and elsewhere, and notice a smiliarity between these discussions and others, and note that often times the poster making the insults is really doing nothing more than projecting. I've thought for many, many years that this behavior indicates a certain insecurity on the part of the poster. I suppose it makes a bit of sense, because if I had to expend as much effort and resources to keep my computer malware free as windows users do, I'd probably be a bit insecure in my choices as well.
Another common thread of many of these posters seems to be utter ignrance about Apple products in general (beyond the iPhone/iPod), and OSX specifically. This utter lack of knowledge doesn't slow them down any though. On the other hand, the vast majority of OSX users do have experience and familiarity with Windows, as painful as that sometimes is, because we're forced to use it elsewhere. The reverse, is seldom the case.
BTW, I'm not particularly an Apple fan myself. I prefer Linux because it better suits the way I work, and can't say I have a whole lot of experience with Macs. I just find the insulting behavior of some Microsoft supporters is beyond the pale.
http://theweek.com/articles/474359/5-signs-that-apple-cult
My real problem with Apple is that they DELIBERTLY chose to make obscene profits (and enrich the Chi-coms) by having products made in the China. China allows teenagers(Under 18) to work in a factory environment. I have a big problem with cultists who defend that situation.
Apple owners are for the most part the Prius owners of the tech world:
VERY perceptive (and quiet correct IMHO) post. There’s a one-sided mental derangement going on and the underlying psychology driving it is a mystery to me.
Again, good post and analysis.