Microsoft has always tried to be everything to everyone, but Apple has never been pro-consumer as far as I can tell. They try to make a small set of features perfect for the majority of users, but the second you want to do anything outside their supported features you're fucked. /opt folder? You must be dreaming. I work a lot of tech jobs and developers always seem to prefer Macs. I have no idea why — they're not built for development work and to get anything at all done you have to hack and circumvent everything that comes with the system.

But let's not end on a negative note. There is an example of how it can be done right. My favorite computer ever is the Amstrad NC100, an A4-sized Z80-based computer from the early 90s — sort of a proto-laptop. For the non-savvy users the keys were all color-coded for ease of use — you've got your word processor, your calculator, your address book… Savvy users could also access a BASIC interpreter, allowing them to write their own computer programs. And really expert users could get access to an assembler, allowing them to hack the Z80 CPU and even write their own OS for the machine. It was beautiful — an infinitely hackable computer that was both simple and complex. Oh, and this was also the early 90s, back when computers only ever did what you told them to do. No secret Windows 10 upgrades in the middle of the night!