Point one: Microsoft is not to blame here. It is the hardware vendors such as Sony, HP, Dell, Lenovo, etc. who install all the trialware/bloatware that no one really needs and it just craps the system. It is their fault, not Microsoft's.
Point two: This is not an unfair comparison. The point the author is trying to make is spot on. Apple does not load their machines with any of the crap that other hardware vendors do. There are only two applications on an Apple notebook that are bundled as trial versions and none of these slow down the machine in any way. Uninstalling them is also a snap. When, and if, you re-install Mac OS X, you get the option of removing those applications too. Those two applications are the iWork and Microsoft Office suites. I hope you'll agree with me that these do not come under the category of crap and Apple does not bundle them for any monetary benefit or for the purpose of advertisement.
Apart from that you get Mac OS X (which itself has a host of useful built-in utilities that you have to install separately on Windows), the award-winning, semi-professional iLife suite, QuickBooks NUE, OmniOutliner and Comic Life. All are full versions, of course. You also get a set of DVDs for re-installing the OS and other applications, not a crappy restore partition.
Point three: Apart from the bloatware, the other thing that makes Macs (the notebooks, at least) better PCs than "PCs" is the trackpad. You just cannot beat the trackpad. There is no competition. Scrolling, dragging and right-clicking is a pleasure.
