Macs. Mac users, more specifically. They claim they have a superior user interface to the rest of us. I mean, if there was something that was supposed to make it worth it for a PC user to switch to a Mac, it was supposed to be user interface. I mean, I generally accepted that despite the fact that I could never (since primary school) make heads or tails of the mac UI, that it was somehow better than the ones Windows and Linux users have. However, I've seen a fair share of OSX and OS9 mac-heads use their macs. I expected to see them achieving their goals quickly, without thinking. Instead, I found them floundering, slow and ineffective at getting their tasks done. I've seen nathan & tim, and they're very much included in this group.
First, I don't claim that the Windows users are necessarily much better off. I've sat with a number of Windows users, and their "umm"ing and "aah"ing and random floating through menus has prompted me to ask "what exactly are you trying to do?". However, all the coders I work with are extremely quick, regardless of whether they use Windows or Linux. I've only ever seen one quick Mac coder, and he was the guy doing the presentation for Ruby on Rails. His voice alone should convince you that he's had to irrevocably alter his body and mind to be able to use a mac at that speed.
This is something I don't understand. People who use photoshop are really quick at using photoshop, regardless of whether it's on a mac or in windows. When it comes to using their "native" OS, however, an OS which is supposed to make it easy for them to do what they want, they just click around like idiots, seemingly lost in the pretty graphics and the multitude of windows. I just don't understand it.
I claim to have one of the better UIs at work. Quick multiple desktops, file browsing, and terminal windows. There are two people who are I've seen that are better, and one of them is a wierd mouse freak (types and cut-and-pastes a lot), and the other pretty much exclusively uses cygwin. And he's fast when he does. You can do a lot to windows to make it more Linux-ey, and give it the power to get shit done, but now I not only have no idea how someone could use a mac, I also have no idea why.