I mention Thurrott as an exception. Peter Bright covers Microsoft, but certainly not someone who typically likes MS products. He tends to strongly dislike as often as he likes MS products (if not moreso).

People who like one Apple product tend to like most Apple products because there is a clear thread of simplicity and elegance that runs through them.

Really? Like the simplicity that is iTunes? The elegance that is AppleTV? The simplicity/elegance of OSX? Apple has been consistently elegant in hardware, but their software has been as jumbled a mess as anything from Microsoft or Google. It's just been coupled with much superior hardware -- and maybe that's enough, but it certainly not a thread that runs through all their products.

So in conclusion it's a big mess and old biases don't necessarily apply.

Yet old biases still seem to apply. Odd isn't it. And IMO the biases come out so clearly when you read what they write -- whether about the Surface or not, but especially about the Surface.

How is it possible that so many find it a joy to use, and so many can find no use for it at all. And it seems to fall completely along party lines?