Slightly tangential, but it seems to be popular to assume that fanboyism is universally a bad thing. Which makes sense intuitively, but here's the thing: I _like_ fanboys.
When I meet a fanboy of something I don't tend to use or like, I make a point to talk to them as much as possible. It starts off rocky - after all, I'm coming from a completely different perspective, and to me, everything they're saying is obviously idiotic. But I persist. I try to get them to convince me however they can, that they are right. And very frequently, I learn a whole of new _something_, if I'm not introduced to an entire new way of doing and/or thinking about things. Worst case is I hone my debating skills. Best case, my life significantly improves.
Not that fanboyism is always, or even usually, a good thing. In most cases, it's politest (and easiest!) to stop the argument before it gets to the point of calling into question the other person's expectations (and I find myself doing that alot, especially with relatively nontechnical folk). But for me - I _want_ my expectations to be called into question. And nobody forces me to refine - and trash - my own ideas as well as the most hard-headed of fanboys.
I at least, and I think most people, have a distinction between 'fan of' and 'fanboy'
Where the line is that a fan of a something can talk about its virtues and concede its limits, but a fanboy will gloss over any limitations as irrelevant / wrong "its not a bug its a feature"
I have a real problem with the word fanboy because this distinction is rarely made well in practice. 95% of the time it's hurled as an epithet by someone who simply disagrees. Even worse, the word is disproportionately used by people who do not have particularly well-reasoned opinions. So for me, non-ironic use of the word fanboy flips the bozo bit.
Agreed; I have long since given up caring about being called a fanboy. I like what I like and I make no apologies for it.
That's one reason I prefer Apple kit -- I am no longer fascinated by twiddling with things to get them to work. Apple gear tends to work without twiddling more than the other crap (though not always). I'm not interested in trying to get stuff to work that doesn't.
When I meet a fanboy of something I don't tend to use or like, I make a point to talk to them as much as possible. It starts off rocky - after all, I'm coming from a completely different perspective, and to me, everything they're saying is obviously idiotic. But I persist. I try to get them to convince me however they can, that they are right. And very frequently, I learn a whole of new _something_, if I'm not introduced to an entire new way of doing and/or thinking about things. Worst case is I hone my debating skills. Best case, my life significantly improves.
Not that fanboyism is always, or even usually, a good thing. In most cases, it's politest (and easiest!) to stop the argument before it gets to the point of calling into question the other person's expectations (and I find myself doing that alot, especially with relatively nontechnical folk). But for me - I _want_ my expectations to be called into question. And nobody forces me to refine - and trash - my own ideas as well as the most hard-headed of fanboys.