The MacBook Air Tugs at My Heartstrings | Hacker News Reader

The MacBook Air Tugs at My Heartstrings

macobserver.com

12 pointsjmartellaro12 comments

"If the Mac company were a separate company, and the iPad company were a separate company, what would the Mac company build to compete with the iPad? And I think the answer is the MacBook Air." - Steve Jobs

This seriously sums it up for me. I've recently moved a decent amount of my computing and my work to Apple hardware (Mac mini with a couple of hard drives as an iOS machine, Macbook Air as my usual laptop, iPad 2--still have the Windows demon-machine desktop, though). The Air was the last purchase; before that I had a Thinkpad X201, and briefly an X220 for test-driving purposes. And I found that I never actually wanted to use the laptop; it felt crippled and slow and all of these things when it really wasn't. But dragging the machine out, sitting down to focus on it--so many little factors started to add up, and I thought at the time that the iPad 2 was really a laptop killer.

Then I got an 11" Air with a 128GB SSD, and realized that wasn't the case. I was pretty skeptical at first: 4GB RAM? My Thinkpad had 8GB. 1.7GHz i5? My Thinkpad had a 2.5GHz i5. It was going to be lame--I wasn't going to get anything done on such an under-specced machine.

Turns out it really wasn't a problem. I run Windows and OS X on the Air, and everything I've got, from Photoshop and Illustrator to Visual Studio, works just fine on the machine. The only time I've even heard the fans was when I was building coretools from MacPorts (because the BSD tools aren't compatible with some scripts I've written and carted around for years on my Unix machines). The smaller size of the machine seems to be a benefit in ways other than portability, though I'm having trouble really expressing why; I find I focus very well and am surprisingly productive when working on the Air, on par with, if not better than, my desktop setup with three monitors and every bell, whistle, and gong I could want. (It's not a Windows/OS X thing, either--I find I'm more productive in either operating systme on the Air than on my previous laptops.)

OS X isn't perfect, and neither is iOS or the iPad 2, but Apple has demonstrated to me, even in a short period of time, why they're in the position they're in: the Air really is the "laptop competitor" to the iPad 2 referenced in the Jobs quote above, and I think it does so fantastically (and I think that's hardware more than software--as I've noted previously, I use Windows and OS X on it in roughly equal amounts). I would have expected that it'd shake out that the iPad 2 would stay home, but the weight of the iPad and the Air together is barely noticeable so both tend to live in my laptop bag. It's a slick arrangement, and the experience when using either of the products--or both in concert; there are apps to make the iPad a secondary monitor for the Air, for example--is really very rewarding and productive.

The one thing that prevents me from replacing my 13" MBPro with a new MBA is the 4Gb memory limit. I know it's only a matter of time before they up it to 8. When they do...I'm sold.

4gb seems sufficient for me, but i'm hoping there will be a 15" model

I recently got an 11" air, and honestly can't see the need for a 13 or a 15". The latter would, in my opinion, stop being an "Air" and be more of a "brick" in terms of weight and size. The beauty of the MBA (ok, one of the beauties) is its portability.

I have to admit, though, choosing the 11" didn't come easily. I knew I wanted it for its compactness, but I was convinced the screen would be too small.

Do yourself the favor and challenge your assumptions. Go play with it. Especially play with it using Lion and its full-screen mode for apps like Safari and Mail. This is where the Air really shines.

To me the only benefit to the 13" is the larger battery. Otherwise the 11" is perfect.

Contrasting opinion: I _despise_ Lion fullscreen for built-in applications. It's hard to describe, but I just find it to be a waste of time. I really find that full-screen applications become harder to use, not easier. That said, Mission Control is great on the Air; I tend to have one desktop with Adium, IRC, and my mail client, and others as-needed for other stuff. (Mission Control is emphatically terrible on a dual-monitor Mini at all, but the Air makes it work brilliantly. On the desktop, MC is so bad that I wish I still had Spaces for the Mini. Fullscreen on multi-monitor desktops is likewise putrid; it full-screens on one desktop and your others are left blank.)

The 11" screen isn't really a hindrance for me at all, IMO - either in Xcode or Photoshop or IntelliJ OS X or when in Visual Studio on Windows.

my reason is specifically for split view coding. you really feel comfortable in xcode with 11"? hmm.. i think i'll go to the mall now and try that out.

I spend relatively little time in Xcode, but it never really bothers me. I don't use split-view much if at all, though.

Why does one need 8 GB? Often, the answer is increased speed with multiple or complex applications. The MBA compensates with the flash HD, so that operations still feel faster, despite "only" 4 GB of RAM.

Try it. You might be surprised.

Parallels. Sure, I can Boot Camp into Windows, but I prefer OS X for my day-to-day tasks and only use Windows for Visual Studio.

Yup. If you run virtual machines, this one is a big one.

Why get the Macbook Air over the Pro? Are those of you that have the Air really traveling that much and using it on the road? I would think that for most developers and entrepreneurs they are in their office or setup somewhere at a desk, even if on the road. Seriously curious...

I have a MacBook Pro that is a few years old -- recently swapped out my 500GB regular hard drive for a 300GB flash drive. Biggest improvement of performance ever! Runs so much faster - bigger jump than when I have upgraded to a new MacBook in the past. If you do development, go out and get a flash drive NOW ... get and external HD for movies, photos, and music. Your apps will run SO much faster.

I recently switched from 13" mbp to 11" mba for: half the weight, smaller dimensions, better battery life, no un-needed legacy optical drive.

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