I don't hate Windows. I just don't use it anymore. The last version I have used was 2000, and then when my desktop was stolen, I switched to a Mac laptop, mainly because I had friends who recommended it. Against that background, and without any experience whatsoever of Vista, I can say that the consistency of the user experience in OS X is what separates it from Windows. And MS is to blame for that, unfortunately: while Windows is, in a sense, more "open", Microsoft isn't. For example, if you want to develop an application using the ribbon UI from the new Office, well, tough luck. You have to buy a license from MS for that. No wonder you see all kinds of user interfaces in Windows apps. Apple, on the other hand, is very straightforward in their human interface guidelines, although I only have experience from iPhone development. Even though iPhone is kept under tight wraps by Apple, you still get all the same interface elements and ready-made classes that Apple themselves use, so you can easily make apps that are consistent with the rest of the system. In the end, I would argue that Apple doesn't concentrate in developing features, they develop the user experience, whereas MS and the FOSS community, to an extent, develop features.
