[muglo] What makes a Mac?

Once upon a time this would have been an easy question. The burned-in
ROM that gave Macs their Mac-ness was relatively simple, or at least
could be simply described. These days, things have got so complicated ?
Macs becoming more like PCs, PCs getting more Mac-like every days ?
that when I happened to think about it this morning it occurred to me
that I no longer know the answer. 
I'm hoping one of the more technically minded members can re-enlighten
me. Now that we run on a Unix core, using Intel processors, etc., all
this convergence jazz, what's left in a Mac that's unique, apart from
the system software and bundled apps that come with it?
I.e., if you completely zeroed out a Mac hard drive (brrr!) could you
just install Vista on it and live happily ever after as a Microsoft
zombie. And contrariwise, what exactly prevents one from installing
Leopard on a dual-core Intel Dell, and firing up iWeb?
And how much is there of whatever it is?


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