As I said above, I owned an Apple ][ (not ][e or ][ +, just a ][) which I bought used in 1982. In 1987 when I needed to upgrade Macs were two to three time the price of PC computers. In addition, only Apple programs were available for the Mac and Apple had shut down the independent software system that had been so great for the earlier Apples.
To get the programs I needed for my business with a Mac would have cost over $6000. I bought a PC clone and shareware that did everything I needed for under $2000.
Later in the late 1990s I began rebuilding old computers. I started out with PCs and Tandys that were old family donated computers. User clubs and online groups for those systems gave me lots of help and in some cases donated programs and parts to make them usable computers. I gave the working systems to families that could not afford computers as an introduction to their use. Then I was donated a bunch of old Apple ][e computers but no one would help me work on them. Most worked but had no programs and even the local Apple User Group would not help me with that. I had to trash every one of those otherwise working computers.
Apple had convinced their users that unless you used the latest of their products, you were better off without than with an old system. On the other hand, other systems were for many years more open to the users, allowing independent software development and even a variety of operating systems. Since I have built my own computers or selected the parts and paid someone to assemble them (when I only had one working hand) I can customize my system to do what I need without paying the premium that Apple computers cost.
While I have stuck with Microsoft operating systems since DOS 3.1 I tried Linux a few times. But I do too many different things with my computers and have too much invested in my programs and peripherals to make the investment in overpriced Apple products.
As for Apple products other than computers, I have owned two tablets, each of which cost me less than $200 but which do everything an iPad would cost. My cell phone investment over the last sixteen years is a fraction of what one iPhone would cost including the actual phones and the minutes on them.
For years I considered Apple users to be a little like cult members. Now I think they are marks handing over too much money for what their products can do.
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