I find its not what Mac fanboys say, but what they don't say (namely any objective reason why they believe its better). A brother of a friend of mine is pretty heavily into Apple products, and emphatically believes them to be top notch hardware and software despite not knowing what any of the stuff inside it is.
Apple has a good Industrial Design on their products, great advertising and a penchant for predicting/creating market trends and looking like industry leaders in the process. Then add the poster child Steve Jobs to the mix and you have yourself one of the greatest companies of all time.
Personal feeling toward them, they simply cater to an audience that isnt me. I want flexibility with the devices I use, and dont like to be contained within a certain ecosystem like you are with Apple products. That means I have to work harder to get what I want, but what I get is a better result. If someone was looking for an easy and quick way to use and manage their technology, Apple has got them covered.
Also, who hasn't copied Unix? Its pretty legendary as far as OS' go, the Linux Kernel was basically just lifted straight from Unix (to my knowledge).