I go to a coffee shop often and among other things, I notice people's machines and how they interact with them. Two observations:
1. People with non-Mac machines always plug their laptop into AC power before starting work (unless it's a netbook). My previous Windows laptop had battery life of about 2 hours while my Macbook Pro has about 5 hours.
2. People with non-Mac machines have to be very careful where they sit, or the glare from the outside makes it impossible for them to see their screens. This was my experience with a Windows laptop as well.
With every new release the Mac operating system becomes, in my opinion, more complex and harder to use. Mac hardware on the other hand, just gets better.
Much more accurate would be to say "people with shitty laptops" or even better "people with laptops that have short battery life or glare screens".
I have a non-Mac and I don't have to do either of the two things you listed. That's because I put great care into selecting my machine and because I don't like paying out the ass for Apple's overpriced laptops, although I know a lot of people who do. (I do have an iPhone 4S, but not because of the hardware)
1. My notebook has short battery life because it wasn much less important than price for me when I chose it.
2. My notebook has a glossy screen because I didn't find one with a matte screen < 500€ with the same performance.
With every update my Archlinux system is approximately around the same difficult to use. I wouldn't care if I used it on Apple hardware or not but it's just more expensive.
Hmmm...I live in Florida so our outside glare is pretty bad. I have a one year old MacBook Pro and have never had a problem (even outside in the shade in the summertime).
I'm sure there are very good Windows laptops. As the previous poster wrote, if you do your research, you can find one. I don't want to do research.* I want to walk into a store and say "I'll take that one," and have it work.
* Useful, accurate online information on laptop battery life and other performance statistics is pretty much nonexistent. The only trustworthy information source is to ask strangers "How do you like your laptop?"
Your "a good Windows laptop is hard to find" statement is a non-sequitur. I wrote that glare is an issue on Macbooks. It is. It doesn't matter if Windows laptops are very good or very bad or don't even exist.
I believe that you're able to deal with the display, but I'm not making anything up. Check out this photo from an AnandTech review[1] of the Retina MBP : http://images.anandtech.com/reviews/mac/retinaMacBookPro/DSC... From left to right, it's MBP, MBP retina, and MBP with matte display.
1. People with non-Mac machines always plug their laptop into AC power before starting work (unless it's a netbook). My previous Windows laptop had battery life of about 2 hours while my Macbook Pro has about 5 hours.
2. People with non-Mac machines have to be very careful where they sit, or the glare from the outside makes it impossible for them to see their screens. This was my experience with a Windows laptop as well.
With every new release the Mac operating system becomes, in my opinion, more complex and harder to use. Mac hardware on the other hand, just gets better.