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Comment by atmosx | Hacker News Reader

If you can live with 8GB RAM and a dual-core i5 at 1.8Ghz, I'd argue that the MBA is one of the best laptops to work with. The selling points for me are:

* OSX - still the best all around OS to work with.

* Lightweight, it is a laptop that weights ~ 3 pounds

* Battery life is decent

* Build quality is above average

I believe that it's an excellent choice for web development.

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I second this. If you're not into intensive video editing etc. it's probably the best laptop for the price. Battery life being "decent" is underselling it - it has the best battery life of any mainstream laptop, easily lasts 19-20 hours under light workload and 12-13 under intensive work. And for a laptop imo battery life is a very crucial factor.

I have 2 in the house, an 11 and a 13. Both have a weird issue where a few minutes after waking, they go to sleep. Happens probably 1 time in 10 or 20. That aside, they are great.

Are you serious about the 20 hours battery life? So far I haven't seen a laptop that would break 10+ hours on the login screen.

I can't confirm the 20 hours, but I can say that I've never, ever thought about battery life on my MBA. And I'm a lazy fuck who spends at least half-days on the couch with no power outlet regularly.

I have a 2012 model (8GB and Core i7), about 5 years old now, and it's still going strong. I've been thinking of upgrading to a MBP, but, I actually might get another Air again. Maybe?

I mostly use it for mobile, web and backend development.

Macs have good build quality but you really can't beat a ThinkPad keyboard.

I got the mid 2013 13" i7 as soon as it was released. I had to replace the battery just over a year ago but it's still my main development machine. I feel like buying another Apple machine in the current line up wouldn't even be an upgrade

.net/vs developer here, 8gb at that speed would frustrate me

After MBP retina screen, MBA 1440×900 will be like nightmare.

Just one opposing data point -- I frequently switch between a 13" MBP running at 1920×1200 and a 13" MBA running at 1440×900 and I can't really feel a difference, let alone feel it's a nightmare. I wouldn't enjoy squeezing back my IDE to the MBA screen, but that's about it.

This is true, but the parent specified the retina MBP, and that does make a difference (in my experience, and others I know who’ve tried). Retina displays will spoil you quickly. I live with HD/HD-ish laptops for battery longevity, but even the retina tablet display can be jarring.

Seconded. I used it for Java/web development for a year after switching from Linux and was delighted with the ergonomics of use. The multi-desktop swiping easily compensates for multiple monitors. The light weight and huge battery life let me work anywhere, from cafes to park benches to various spots around the office, for an entire workday. The performance was more than enough for 99% of the time. I valued the comfort od use much more than that remaining 1%.

I only switched to a new MBP when 8GB RAM became too tight for my work.

OSX is the worst OS to work with.

Besides the fact that it severely limits your hardware choices, it's got terrible window management, terrible file management and trying to operate it with just a keyboard is an exercise in futility.

I'll take Windows or Linux any day over OSX, thanks very much.

I suspect that you haven’t tried very hard to get by on macos using primarily the keyboard. It used to be troublesome, but I’ve been doing it for years with very few issues. Of course, if you have an OS that works for you, keep using it, by all means! For file management, I find it superior, but I prefer cli tools for file management anyway. I myself got into Mac OS X (as it was called at the time) because I needed both ready access to tools like MS Office, and a usable cli.

Open up some window from the Mac OS menu bar. Now use the keyboard to switch away from it. Try to switch back with it to it with the keyboard. It doesn't work unless you have some third-party window management tool to fix the problem.

I have tried and I can give you a whole catalog of features that don't work with the keyboard.

Unless your development work entails ever computing something, including building a project?

There are a fair number of people who do most of their builds on a dedicated build machine…

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