Well, see, this is what YOU don't get, I think .....
If you go far back enough in the history of the "personal computer" (where many of us "enthusiasts" got our start), you were used to a time when MANY vendors offered unique computer systems that ONLY ran software and took peripherals designed for THEIR machines. This created "factions" of loyalty to specific brands. Each person had to shop around and carefully decide which offering they thought had the most "vision", "flexibility" and overall value. Since support was limited in those days, entire communities formed around the different makes of machines, and that "support system" added more value than the manufacturer themselves ever could.
Then came IBM and Microsoft, who managed to turn that whole business model on its head - selling the masses on the superiority of getting everybody under the SAME hardware and operating system choice.
Honestly, that's when the true enjoyment of owning and using my computer really started to die. It quickly deteriorated into being just another tool. The collective knowledge of "support groups" plummeted, as every single Tom, Dick and Jane who figured out one was there started flooding them with "noise". The main sales tool for new PCs became "lowest price!", and quality suffered. With millions of no-name expansion cards and peripherals being cranked out - device drivers were often "iffy" at best, and led to instability and system crashes everywhere. Instruction manuals went from 150 page quality documentation to 1 page fold-out fliers poorly translated from Chinese.
The "pride of ownership" was completely gone.
BUT - there was still ONE last exception to the rule. There was one alternate choice, still standing after all those years; Apple! Until Steve Jobs came back and revitalized it, it looked like it was headed right down the same drain the other "non PC clone makers" went down.... but with all new products and OS X, they finally had something again.
So I think Apple is much more than "just a company" that most Mac owners "couldn't care less about". They're your last viable personal computer choice that means you chose those values of "yesteryear". There's a reason Apple is big on the idea that you're buying a whole "experience" with their machines. If you don't value that or understand that, then you'll never understand why "people pay more for a Mac", or "tolerate fewer options" with one. You'll always complain about the "Mac fanboys" out there, and shake your head every time someone defends one proudly.
Dell or HP? Sure, they're just companies, mass producing generic PC clone with Microsoft OS's preloaded, like everybody else. Dell puts in 0% effort on research and development of their own OS to run on their hardware. Apple, by contrast, puts in 100% of the effort it takes to get their OS on theirs.
Some people just don't seem to get it - Apple is a company and Mac OS is a system. I bought Apple hardware so far because I was interested in the system, not the company and because up until recently, I could live with the hardware Apple was offering. I couldn't care less about Apple. Just as I don't give a rat's a** about HP or Dell or Microsoft or Google. They're all inhuman, unscrupulous money-making machines that don't care about anything else but their own dividends. If Apple doesn't offer the hardware I want to run my system on, I'll build it myself. It's that easy. If anyone's weaseling here, it's Apple for not listening to customers demands and instead trying to force computers they don't want (but have to buy because they've made an investment in the system) on them buy virtually making the Mac OS X retail version an "upgrade" (although it clearly contains the full system) with the sole aim of trying to tie their (good) software to their hardware (which, partly, is crap - and they know it).
if it doesnt work I will try to build my own when I have time, but I hope it works
