When will people learn that you can't just list out all of the problems you've had with something and then say "it doesn't work". The correct sentence is "it doesn't work for ME". Nor is the plural of anecdote is not data. Piling on ever more stories does nothing to prove the point. What you need to do to prove that "mac doesn't 'just work'" is to figure out how many people are experiencing each of your problems. Jerky mouse movement? If only 0.01% of users experience it, so what?

Burden of proof is properly on whoever insist it does. Thus far it has been just a marketing slogan.

I have long found Apple products intolerable.

While I don't use Apple products (as except to test websites in Safari), I've seen people genuinely delighted in their Apple products and despise the inconsistencies found in Windows and various Android devices. It may not be fit to your needs, but it doesn't mean that it will not fit to others. Similarly, I appreciate bulky but rugged laptops but you or others might not.

I have always found MS Windows intolerable, too.

> Burden of proof is properly on whoever insist it does

Why? Why is does saying that something works bring you to a higher standard than saying that something doesn't work? See, when you look at it logically that doesn't make sense.

Because not working well is the natural, i.e. higher-entropy, condition. Actually working is evidence of time and effort meaningfully expended, of money spent and not just pocketed or squandered.

It is not unlike the expectation that the toilet seat be left down, not up.

It seems to me that any burden of proof would lie with the manufacturer, who must convince the consumer. When one consumer says "it works" and another consumer says "it doesn't work", then we're outside the usual burden-of-proof social dictates and we have to adopt new rules. Such as, I propose, both people need to bring evidence or expect to convince no one.

I think the issue is where you feel you are buying a product at a premium. If something is cheap you accept problems more readily, or blame yourself for your decision[1]. Apple certainly place themselves at the premium end.

[1] This is based on research conducted in my own head.

And if someone manages to refute, using logic and statistics, the idea that Apple "just works", then they'll by definition have succeeded in refuting the idea that Apple is providing a premium product for their premium price. But I don't see it.

I prefer to say that "Macs just work" but to frame it as "Macs only just work" or more cynically "Macs only work for Apple not you"

They just do one basic job, they are not some advanced computing tool that you can own and customise.

spoken like someone who hasn't tried to use bluetooth headphones with windows after a meeting recently.

they're also moving to asahi linux when its ready, which is quite ironic since things definitely won't Just Work when that happens.