His identity has no bearing on his being right or wrong. My knowledge of him (or lack thereof) doesn't mean that my criticism is invalid.

I'm sorry I'm not a programmer?

EDIT: So apparently my criticism is invalid? Would anyone care to explain why?

Here's your quote: "And the reasoning just reeks of fanboy-ism"

You didn't call him a fanboy, but that's just a technicality. You implied. Therefore, the objection is valid. Before you name-call, know who you are name-calling. (or better yet, make a more thoughtful case)

Personally, I downvoted you asking about the downvotes. Just suck it up and stop whining. (Incidentally, as is often the case, plenty of people came along after and, caring more about the rest of your post, upvoted accordingly.)

This all still doesn't explain how "Macs rule" is a valid and unbiased explanation of how MacBooks would come to account for over one-in-two laptops sold.[1] Doesn't that sound absurd if you say it out loud? "Every second person in the country owns a MacBook." That is quite the jump for a company whose cheapest (new, not used) laptop offering appears to start at $999 [2] and who only holds 5% to at best 20% of the market share.

[1] This is slightly simplified to a world where all laptops are either produced by Apple or they are Windows machines produced by the four companies he mentioned.

> better yet, make a more thoughtful case

I would say the same to you: why should I know who I am "name-calling?" You haven't told me any reason that his opinion shouldn't be taken at face value.

[2] http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_mac?mco=OTY2ODQxN...

I think people downvote rather than comment to avoid uninteresting nit-picky arguments like this. I would love a way to attach an anonymous private message to a downvote but that's probably a non-trivial feature to implement.

Why on Earth do you want someone to defend "Macs rule" as unbiased? Who is claiming it is unbiased?

I would say the same to you: why should I know who I am "name-calling?

Because then you'd realise why you are being downvoted. It's like you are downvoting Mr Burns for being biased in favour of nuclear power, or something. Yegge's style is humorous and pushy, not graphs and references. Lots of stuff he writes sounds a bit silly.