I actually think its the sales staff. A lot of the linux devices that reach the market are pushed on unknowing users who freak out when it doesn't work as expected.

People who adopt Macs know its going to be different. The guy in the shop is often saying how much the same it is, and the user doesn't realize that it is different until they try and put the printer driver disk in and it doesn't work.

Except that a) some people did a study on this and published a white paper, it's really difficult to find but I'm sure you will if you look hard enough (hint: under your nose) and b) I've introduced very non-technical people to Ubuntu and they have had no problems with it.

That doesn't explain all the people buying Macs. What it does explain is why cheap Android tablets can't make a dent in the tablet market, while the iPad, among the most expensive options, prints money for Apple every year. It's the disproportionate importance of branding.

Not to mention how relatively easy Macs and iThings are to use. This is subjective, but I think Apple's better than anyone at making computers that "non computer people" can figure out.

I don't think OS X nor iOS are much easier to use than their free counterparts, it's just that new users have at least two incentives to learn them, and so they do, without thinking too much about it.

First, they have a positive reinforcement: Mac is "hip", so you'll look cool by using their products (the fact that everybody and their mother owns one or ten doesn't seem to diminish this perception), and also a negative reinforcement because everybody knows "Apple makes easy-to-use products" so if you don't learn to use them quickly you'll look bad.

I'm sure Linux and *BSD have earned more followers by looking different or difficult than by trying to be "easy" (whatever that word means). But that's a discussion for another day...

Apple operating systems (and Microsoft operating systems too) are absolutely easier to use than Linux. For example, my Linux box regularly throws up dialog boxes that are nothing more than rehashings of error messages printed out by command-line utilities. My Mac computer and my Windows computer never do that.

>"(the fact that everybody and their mother owns one or ten doesn't seem to diminish this perception)"

Not thus far, but once there is a viable "underground" replacement suddenly the Apple will become passe and everyone will be on to the Pear. Apple is nearing that tipping point, at least in some markets. Once trends get big enough, they stagnate until something comes along and replaces them; Apple is approaching stagnation. The market is ready for real disruption if someone can put the pieces together correctly.

People still get friends to help them out. The support networks in computing are very important.

Except people know what a Mac is b/c it has boatloads of marketing behind it. Linux lacks that push.