I suppose it's stretching the metaphor a bit, but Apple lives in a proprietary world. The way Jobs runs the company is the very opposite of a world where a liver from one person can go into another person. In the world of Apple software and Apple hardware you'd better hope you have a matching donor waiting in the wings.

IMO, the Jobs/liver situation is more analagous to Macs than to PCs. As with Macs, all humans have the same "designer" share the same design. It's that consistancy of design that allows transplants to function successfully. Swapping parts between PCs would be more like transplants from other species (like a pig or cow valve transplanted into a human heart). Some species are more alike than others. Might work, might not. Depends on the organ.

Plus, like humans, Macs are more highly evolved. I guess we all see the metaphor we want to see.

-maa (Mac user and heart valve transplant recipient)