I know trolls shouldn't be fed but...

Closed hardware - the user gets what the almighty Jobs and his disciples decree what the user shall have. The choice you have is between a handful of machines, whereas the personal computer makers create various permutations of sizes and specification at various price points to suit a wide range of uses. I can go to Sony and choose from 11.1, 13.3, 14, 15.4, 16.2, 17 and 18.4 inch sizes with every permutation of drive, processor, RAM, optical drive type, GPX card, etc. plus some manufacturers will let you choose if you want the AMD or Intel model. Asus quite literally seem to want to build every possible variation of machine known to man especially...

Closed Choice - yes, the consumer can use the Mac as a PC or Linux machine if they so choose. But they don't get the reciprocal arrangement from Apple not letting us geeks use their software on anything but their proprietary works of art. This lack of choice annoys us as we believe in user choice, especially for $1000+! Of course, when someone attempts to use a bit or Apple branded hard or software for a non-intended role, out come the lawyers and the litigation begins until the little guy/schoolboy/grandma is broke and suicidal...

I think if Apple uses perfection as its main advertising campaign where it "just works" then they are fair game for some stick, especially at their inflated prices!