This could just be my personal perspective, but the simplest way I tend to describe Macs vs. PCs is that Windows tends to make you do four or five more steps to accomplish the same goal that a Mac lets you do in one or two steps. And the terminology in the Mac OS has always made more sense to me than that of Windows.
A few examples: to restart your PC, you go down to the "Start" menu in the bottom left of the screen. you click and go up to the "shut down" thing. Then you get a box that asks what you want to do, and you pull down to the "restart" word. It might ask if you're sure after you click okay, I can't remember. Then it restarts.
On a Mac, I go to the Apple menu and click Restart. I don't have to have prior knowledge of where the restart function is, I can just click on each of the menus and read what's under them if I forget where it is or if I'm new to Macs. So much simpler.
Most PC users store things in "My Computer" or "My Documents." What the heck is the difference? And who can remember all those drives with letters for names? Even in 1995 when I put a floppy disk in my Mac it mounted on the desktop with an icon that looked like a square floppy disk, with whatever I'd named the disk (or Untitled if it was new). If I put in a CD, the icon that came up on the desktop was a round shape that was unmistakable for being a CD. When I want to save something, I find the word that says what the type of media is: Hard Disk, Desktop, the name I've titled a CD or flash drive etc. I could never figure out why there was an A drive (Floppies, I think?) and a C drive for the hard drive, but where the heck was the B drive?
I used to go to my school's computer lab and rebuild the desktops on the Macs that people had crashed when no PCs were available to use so they HAD to use a Mac. No one understands that when you click the upper corner of the window on a Mac, the application doesn't quit. It just closes the window. The application is still open, and the memory would be fragmented on the computers because no one ever quit applications, they just closed the window. I miss the Rebuilding the Desktop option in OS X. Repairing Permissions just isn't the same.
But I'll admit I'm biased: when I got to middle school in 1994, my school had two computer labs: a PC lab and a Mac lab. When we used the lab in the library, we used the Mac lab. When we had our obligatory careers/computers class we used the PC lab. in 1995, my parents decided to get our first family computer, and they asked us kids what kind to get. My preference was the Macs because they were easier for me to use. We got a Mac in 1995 and I used it until I went to college in 2000 and got my own iMac.
My college required everyone to have certain kinds of software, like Office. I went for 5 years never having to buy that software because I knew how to manipulate file extensions in Clarisworks/Appleworks: everyone thinks Macs used to be SO incompatible with PCs, but you just had to know how to finagle things. And I am not computer savvy by any means, Macs just are easier to use IMHO. My little brother put a business card CD in my slot-loading iMac in 2001, and I just got a screwdriver and took it apart and removed the small CD from the CD drive, and put it all back together and it still works fine. I did replace the CD drive in that computer too, with no problems all by myself. My family's computer bought in 1995 never left our house for any type of repair, and we got internet access in 1997: it was our primary computer well into 2000, and then when I was away at college I would email my family on it, and then my mom got an iBook in 2003, but for 8 years it never had a problem that couldn't be fixed by using the software discs that came with it or simply rebuilding the desktop. Sometimes it would "bomb," but it always had a place you could click to Restart it, and even Sad Macs could be easily remedied by starting up from the Software Restore CD. And I remember dragging those Rescued Items from Hard Drive folders from the Trash.
I realize computers were much more simple back then, but today when I have to use a PC I honestly get really nervous. I'm afraid someone's going to tell me to do something and I won't know how to do it because I'm so unfamiliar with the machines. I can browse the internet or create files in Office, but that's about it.
Macs just make more sense to me, but I grew up with them. I think it's hard for anyone to change what they're used to, but in a different way. Mac users have to figure out that Windows takes extra steps that don't often make logical sense to perform the same actions we can do in a few clicks. PC users look at a Mac and it's so different from the drab blue and grey (no offense but it's kind of ugly!) of Windows that they don't know where to start. Not to mention the one mouse button thing, but what most PC users don't know is if we press a key and then click, we get the same menu you get with your second mouse button (I think it used to be Command, then changed to Control? shows you how much I ever need a right click button!).
There's a learning curve no matter what you do, but Macs are definitely more fun. They have always had so much more personality than PCs. I used to get alert boxes in Classic on my iMac, and if you didn't click on the options right away (like OK or Cancel) it would talk to you, and say something like "Pay Attention!" or "It's not my fault!" in a creepy computer voice. I even recorded my own Alert Sound on my iMac in 2000, which was so easy because Macs have almost always had built in speakers, microphones, etc. Well, except for the MacBookAir, which doesn't have much built in!
But the most endearing reason to like Macs? Oregon Trail, of course! I bet all of us grew up playing that game at school, and I know I play it on Facebook today. Although some of the diseases have changed, someone in my wagon got "explosive diarrhea" the other day.
