Appl€ sucks, but M$ is worse
As someone who is using neither Appl€ nor M$ products (Linux only here), I think I can be fairly objective here -- both suck, but M$ is worse.
Apple has done a lot of good things, their work on WebKit has benefited everyone, and libmDNSResponder and the likes being open source helps too.
Microsoft, on the other hand, never releases source to anything useful, and actively tries to prevent people from writing open source software.
The criticism of Appl€ for tying OSX to Mac hardware is justified, but then, anyone who has worked on an operating system will understand the reasons -- one of the top things holding Linux, FreeBSD and the likes back is that people expect them to run on every piece of "Designed for Windows Vista" hardware, and people get angry at the OS if it doesn't support their latest toy - when instead they should be getting angry at the manufacturer of that toy for not providing drivers or documentation needed to write a driver.
Apple gets around that sort of criticism for OSX by making sure it runs only on hardware they've tested and where they know the hardware makers will support them.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
