I agree. My position is that is a company is big enough people will have an opinion, and if there's an opinion to be had there's probably an opposition in there somewhere. I like the "reverse PR" theory, kinda the "no press is bad press" argument. Mac vs. PC ads are a great point! Definitely a polarisation at the time, I think Linux can be found in a lot of the most outspoken commentary around here.
The scary thought is could the whole for or against argument be created or atleast promoted by Apple itself in order to be the topic of conversation? I seem to recall a successful add campaign by Apple that did just that a long time ago. "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC"