[mattbrewsbytes]

There are developers with biases for/against most major tech companies, Apple is no different. Developers tend to be extremely opinionated about stuff they use (e.g. vi vs. emacs) and aren't afraid to voice that opinion. HN is a good place to do that because usually there is good signal to noise ratio in the discussions.

Apple is a company that uses emotion when describing their products. I think this tends to bring out stronger opinions than a tech company like Google. People's perception of companies isn't going to be rational.

What is your end goal with proving/disproving a bias regarding Apple on HN?

I think what is more interesting is exploring the root cause for some of these biases - sometimes there is history of a person strongly disliking Microsoft so their perception of Apple is based in that. Sometimes someone really dislikes closed source/eco-system and prefers open-ness and tinker-ability.