I've been reading Thom's posts for long enough to infer that Apple is his least favorite company bar none, and that he would much rather side with Microsoft than with Apple.

This anti-Apple bias is common in people who write tech reviews because (a) their audience is often international and Apple has been historically been popular internationally than in the U.S. (today, with China and Japan, things are a bit different), and (b) the reviewers are interested in creating as much confusion as possible about a large variety of tech products in order to ensure page hits, and Apple is actively working towards eliminating consumer confusion. Who wants to read boring, often poor-quality tech reviews when things just work?