The original web article shows how one man went from Isheep to informed user. I think this is a great article, mostly because he makes a point in his last paragraph.
http://www.vectronicsappleworld.com/2006/0804.asp

The Apple web is perhaps the most dynamic sector of the Internet. Thousands of people labor day and night to feed the technological swill that we all lap up. The web has undergone dramatic changes over the years, but one thing remains the same, the iSheep march on.

iSheep are Apple zealots who can't see past whatever technological or philosophical incarnation Apple is religiously lauding at any particular moment in time. iSheep are cult-like in their devotion to their Apple religion. They wage ruthless jihad on the infidels, those who suffer the unforgivable blasphemy of not using Apple products. But the cult of Apple is just like every other cult created by man. Those blinded by ideology are in the end made to be the fool.

This website is full of "iSheepery." One only has to read the postings of years past. The primary rule of this site is that once you post it, it stays posted, so you better mean what you say when you say it. Looking back at some of the old opinion posts, I believe that some of the authors are probably now a bit embarrassed by their iSheep rantings.

That is the problem with the iSheep mentality. You don't realize you are an iSheep while you are caught up with your iSheepness. It is not until you realize how silly is your devotion, that you can actually see the world from the perspective of a rational human. Until then, you are nothing more than a ranting iSheep.

For example, in the early 1990s, the iSheep were all up in arms over the switch from the 68K Motorola processor to the PowerPC processor. The iSheep had for years been fed the convincing Apple propaganda of IBM = bad, Motorola = good. IBM was a significant partner, along with Motorola, in the creation of PowerPC technology. How could Apple shrug off its old line dogma aimed squarely at Big Blue?

Apple took another page out of George Orwell's 1984, and this time it didn't have anything to do with "Big Brother." How do you turn an enemy into a friend? Create another enemy. Nothing motivates a cult more than hate. Apple shifted its propaganda from IBM is evil to Microsoft is evil. This happened overnight and was extremely unsubtle. Suddenly, IBM became an ally in the battle against the real enemy, Microsoft, who had coupled with an even more diabolical and evil foe, Intel. Why was Microsoft evil? They make really good office software. I don't care for their operating system, but I wouldn't exactly call them evil.

iSheep bought into "Microsoft is evil" hook, line, and sinker. Here was the line fed to and repeated by the iSheep: Microsoft makes horrible software and Intel makes horrible, slow, and inefficient processors. Sure, I bought into it just like everyone else. I was an iSheep.

Apple shifted its propaganda from a battle over hardware (Apple II/ Macintosh versus IBM) to a battle over software (MacOS versus Windows). There was still the obligatory jihad against Intel or other industry standard equipment, but the main focus was with MacOS, which was unfortunate for Apple because Windows caught up with and perhaps even surpassed Classic MacOS in the late 1990s. Apple needed a spin. They needed something to bring the iSheep back into the fold, something to keep the faithful, well, faithful.

They once again moved back to the hardware angle and produced beautiful candy-colored computers. The iSheep fawned and purred, but Apple was finding it hard to hide the embarrassing fact the MacOS was about 5 years down on the high tech curve. Apple played it beautifully. They filled the iSheep with the holy word, OS 8 is wonderful and then OS 9 is the most advanced operating system in the world. The iSheep again lapped it up. They bought every word.

Huge efforts were made by the iSheep using the young Internet to spread the word to all corners of the world. MacOS is superior to Windows! MacOS is superior to Windows! Microsoft is evil! Bill Gates is the new Big Brother!

And then Apple partnered with Microsoft. Sounds familiar doesn't it. Apple realized that it needed Microsoft as a friend way more than it needed it as a propaganda tool. So Apple entered into a detente with the evil monopoly and the evil monopoly kept making its evil Microsoft Office for the Mac so that the holy Apple Corp would not go under. Bill Gates loved the coin thrown his way by the little iSheep following Apple's lead.

But for Apple to keep the iSheep religiously funneling money back into its coffers, the company still needed to maintain an enemy and as always, Intel fit the bill. Oh, how we spent hours in the forums back in the late 1990s, making fun of Intel. The Pentium is garbage, megahertz is a myth, Alta-Vec is awesome, and on and on and on. Apple really had us iSheep sputtering all their holy pronouncements with fervor and conviction. But trouble was brewing in the cult. Apple was about to make its greatest transition since the PowerPC chip replaced the 68K chip. Apple was going to kill Classic MacOS in favor of a Unix-based operating system developed by another company, OS X.

This iSheep propaganda machine was a sight to behold, let me tell you. Apple spun it with an ingenuity seldom seen in the business world. They came up with a catchy symbol: "X," and named it after large predatory felines, "Puma," "Jaguar," "Panther," "Tiger," "Leopard." Now the enemy was no longer external. The new enemy was internal, Classic MacOS. Classic was now called vile, old, primitive, and dangerously flawed. OS X would save the company where Classic was leading it to destruction.

It was a blood bath. The iSheep were eating their own. The evil Classic iSheep supporters had to be put down, removed, silenced, and shunned because OS X was going to save us from total oblivion. Finally, after a few years, the iSheep emerged stronger from the experience. Mention Classic MacOS in any forum, and you will immediately be attacked. Classic sucks, OS X is the greatest thing ever, ect., ect. I can hardly wait for the impending spectacle that will result when Apple encourages a new generation of iSheep to kill off the OS X iSheep. Perhaps they will name the next generation OS after birds like Falcon or Eagle or Condor. Now that would be a cool way to brainwash the future iSheep. It is going to be disastrous for many sites on the Internet. Sites with domain names containing "OSX" will have to change or die. So strong have they been programmed that they may think OS X is forever. Believe me, Apple II wasn't forever, neither is OS X.

So what is happening today? I think that is most obvious. Apple has once again done a radical 180 and embraced a former hated and scorned enemy. You guessed it. After spending millions upon millions pushing the PowerPC architecture and encouraging the iSheep to poke fun at everything else, they are abandoning it in favor of Intel. Furthermore, they have all but abandoned Apple proprietary standards in favor of superior industry standards. Say goodbye to ADB and AppleTalk and say hello to USB and Ethernet.

Even OS X is losing its importance. If you don't like it, you can run Windows instead. This is astounding. How many iSheep have spent countless hours defending the honor of their holy OS only now to be told that it wasn't all that important after all?

I am no longer an iSheep. I try to evaluate technology on what I need versus what it costs. In my opinion, Apple is the best computer on the market. I couldn't conceive of owning any other brand. Microsoft produces the best Office applications. iLife is for amateurs and iWeb is a joke. .Net is pretty cool and Apple doesn't have a clue about how to be an Internet services company. .Mac is a disaster. These opinions are based on reason and forethought. I hope your choices are based on reason and forethought as well. Being an iSheep is similar to being a slave. Think for yourself. Think different.