so, why is mac os/x popular? and is my bias against it accurate?

so, often times I see people using macs, and I end up trying to convert them away from mac for several reasons -- my reasons being many. I dont know if im far off from the truth with any of it, and I'd like to hear a rebuttal. the basic gist of my view is

-you are paying a several hundred to a thousand dollar premium for ancient hardware -- the processors, ram, hard drives, etc which they use are actually basic, mass produced parts, and compared to what anyone, and I mean ANYONE else offers, it is severely underpowered for the cost. and if you want a hardware graphics card even to play emulators or something, your stuck at the almost $2000-3000 range, for a graphics card that is SEVERAL SERIES OLD and nowhere near top performance. Especially after the switch to intel, its the SAME MACHINE as that cheap lenovo -- in many cases, a cheap laptop is a 1-1 copy of the mac, with a different OS and maybe a slightly different mobo. sometimes, you can even install OS/X on that much cheaper computer and have it run as good or better than the macbook pro. for a thousand dollars less.

• there are NO specialized apps that can do things as good as or better than software on linux or windows. this is myth. it may have been in the early days of the 512k that macs had 'better graphics' because everyone else ran terminal operating systems then. today, you can get BETTER audio recording with programs like adobe audition, and better graphics processing with photoshop or the GIMP, iMovie is not the best, nor is any of the other software. at best, the Mac software is comparable or equal to competitors -- this not being a strong point at all.

Maybe the operating system by default comes with more eye candy -- but in todays world on linux you can have 3d desktop cubes, windows that wobble and burst into flames, raindrop effects and more.

• unintuitive interface - some people LOVE the interface -- but its kind of terrible in my opinion. menus can be cryptic, and ports of software like SNES9x are almost unintelligible compared to the same software on other machines. they change words, make things difficult to find. and unlike every other system that has open source software. its been mac-ified, and in my opinion, looks and feels terrible. this would be ok if you traded this for performance, but you dont really get any better performance than you would if you used linux.

maybe some things look nice, I can give it that. but the finder bar is absolutely unintuitive. as is almost everything else about it. it begs to be different, just to sell to a crowd incapable of customizing their os themselves to be different.

-Hardware support and nonstandard software -- this is what irks me the MOST. macs have virtually zero hardware support -- want 5.1? better buy the one sound card that works for again, super inflated prices. Want to chat with a friend? Better HOPE they have an iphone and imessage - because lord knows, the standard communications route everyone else uses is inferior and they arent good enough to talk to you anyway. FaceTime? WTF. there is NO REASON to have a facetime. Skype all day, for the same reasons -- you can chat with anyone on any operating system or phone. not just your mac only clique.

nonstandard cables, ports, and hardware are the norm, because you are trapped in a walled garden, and god forbid someone sell you a standardized part that does the same thing, equally as well, with the possibility of greater compatibility and communication potential, for a far far lesser price tag.

basically, the gist of my argument is that all the overpriced, nonstandard parts are annoying and in fact, function WORSE than the competition (because they straight out dont even compete, they just say use ours or dont use any -- talk to other mac users or dont talk at all),

that the pricing of the hardware is ridiculous - they are literally selling bargain bin parts at exorbitant high end prices -- for the same price you could literally build a linux or bsd or windows pc that could overpower the mac at a 10:1 ratio or greater. for the same price as a basic macbook pro, you could probably manage to afford 2 GPUs a high end processor 12 gigs of ram (or more) and maybe even a small solid state drive. My ASUS laptop from 5-6 years ago is still way more powerful than a basic macbook pro, for $300 less, granted I overclocked it and modded the bios, but still, I play modern games on this thing no problem, emulate gamecube, can run anything and communicate with anyone, for a huge discount off the mac price.

the elitist exclusionist walled garden ideology -- where you make your communications software nonstandard and prevent inter compatibility is sort of backwards, and highly inefficient. I find it annoying that families love things like facetime, when they couldve paid the same price, all had gaming powerhouses even if they didnt need it, and had the same functionality they 'love' with alternatives like skype.

I like the kernel architecture and some things about mac. some things that are theoretical and dont add up to usability or performance in the end. I like how its a commercial system based off bsd.

but I dont like how it doesnt cater to the user. to ALL users. I dont like how they pretend they have a premium product when they have a bargain product with a custom OS that makes it look fancy. when we buy a pc we buy the components, and the OS separately -- but with clever marketing they tied the two together, and make no mistake, it is NOT a custom system anymore (it was with PowerPC, but now, its actually the same as anything else, with hardware outsourced to the same manufacturers they compete with. under the hood, 100% the same thing)

how can they even get away with selling things at the prices they do? I understand if they want even $300-$400 for the operating system. which is kind of crazy really ($200 should be the maximum)

I feel like they even lie to users making them think its special by refusing to sell the OS stand alone -- because then they would have to lower their hardware prices vastly, or increase the production cost by including more modern, up to date, powerful components, or far worse, BOTH.

I could be wrong here. I really could be, and if I am, id like someone to tell me why I am. I really WANT to love macs, and feel like they are special.

but when it comes to function vs form, power/usability, and standardization, Mac seems to fail miserably. if I am correct it is all clever marketing without ANY of the promise at all.

Like I said, maybe iOS is more streamlined, maybe even OS/X is, but with linux based operating systems (or windows) you get more applications, often times more powerful ones, the ability to communicate inter-OS worldwide with any phone or computer, a wider array of development tools, and two to three times the raw power per dollar.

I just dont see why anyone who isnt caught up in the hype or elitist attitude (anyone who judges a machine based off its components and capabilities) would ever choose to spend that extra dime on the mac, when they could get so so much more with any other system. even if you dont need the add on hardware like surround sound and graphics processors, you still stand to save a ton and get a lot more out of the computer by choosing anything else.

so can someone refute my argument and enlighten me as to why Ive been wrong all this time?