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The original question posed was, "any good Macbook Air alternatives?" To me, that implies lightweight, compact, and, yes, elegant. The Thinkpad doesn't appear

The original question posed was, "any good Macbook Air alternatives?" To me, that implies lightweight, compact, and, yes, elegant. The Thinkpad doesn't appear to be any of those.

pyre 15y ago
Elegant is subjective. It's better to talk about things like specs, issues, OS support, etc, and let people decide on the aesthetics themselves. Arguing over which design is more pleasing on the eye (or elegant) adds nothing to the discussion. The original post suggesting the X220 listed a bunch of specs that it had (and that the poster needed) that the MacBook Air didn't. A response of, "Disregard that the design sucks cocks," adds nothing to the discussion even if that it your personal opinion. If someone thinks that the external looks of the laptop are important, they are not going to just blindly make the purchase based a comment on HN without personally checking it out. The more important discussions are things like: * X is billed as (or looks to be in the surface) a replacement for Y, but once you get it out of the showroom you'll notice issues A, B and C. * X looks really cheap on the surface, but in my experience it's extremely durable. * X looks really good, but doesn't run Operating System Y. * X looks like it runs Operating System Y, until you need to use feature/hardware component Z.
- georgieporgie 15y ago
  Elegant is subjective. I think you would be hard pressed to find someone who honestly believes a Thinkpad to be more elegant than a Macbook Air. A response of, "Disregard that the design sucks cocks," Excuse me?
  - blinkingled 15y ago
    How much elegant is good enough or to what degree that is a concern is subjective. GP did not specify that elegance was the sole criteria which means he/she is probably ok with a fairly elegant machine within same ballpark of the Air - which the x220 is. The x220 certainly ain't ugly - it is thin, lightweight and durable. Many prefer the Thinkpad design. So even if for you personally elegance may be the first/only priority without override - many people are not that obsessive when it comes to choosing a work laptop. So the X220 is certainly a choice when you are thinking Macbook Air. The screen size falls nicely between the too small 11" and a bit too big 13.3", the CPUs are same gen, SSD is configurable etc.
    - georgieporgie 15y ago
      So even if for you personally elegance may be the first/only priority without override Okay, I'm genuinely curious here. What's with all the strange, reactionary posts in this thread, and mis-categorization of people? When did I say anything about elegance being my first priority? I was quite clear in my statement, yet you've skewed it in a bizarre manner. many people are not that obsessive when it comes to choosing a work laptop Obsessive? How about appreciative? In fact, how about any word which isn't loaded? Again, there is some strange, defensive stuff going on here.
      - puredemo 15y ago
        Indeed. I've been reading a lot of responses thinking the same thing.
      - blinkingled 15y ago
        Well nothing to be defensive about. I was responding to the question /why even bring up Think pad when it looks less elegant/. Only a somewhat obsessed person will completely ignore a laptop because it is not as good looking as the Air. Nothing wrong or loaded about that - just that it isn't what everyone will generally do. And so the response wasn't completely irrelevant, that's all.
        georgieporgie 15y ago
        Not defensive, but rather offended. Also, there is most certainly a lot of loaded text in your replies.
        deleted 15y ago
        [deleted]
  - pyre 15y ago
    > > A response of, "Disregard that the design sucks cocks," > > Excuse me? Sorry, my (previous) 4chan roots showing through: http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/disregard-that-i-suck-cocks#.TlsUASxPdg4 http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/disregard-that-i-suck-cocks#.T... My point was that the responder at the top of the thread was saying (in so many words): ignore all of that so-called 'content' in the parent post, my (subjective) ideas about the design should trump all of that
    - georgieporgie 15y ago
      I understand the 'meme' and don't see how it has any place here, whatsoever. As for your summary, I find it to be amazingly slanted toward a particular view. The X220 is truly nothing at all like the Macbook Air. I used a consumer grade Toshiba, so I have no horse in this race, but I can plainly see (from specs as well as design) that the X220 is in a significantly different category from the Air.
      - pyre 15y ago
        That's not what I was responding to. The original suggestion about the X220 was responded to by saying that the X220 isn't 'elegant' and has a design that harkens back to 2001 (which is implied to be a bad thing). The elegance of the design alone is not enough to place it in a different category. If the argument had been that it can't be classified in the same category as the MacBook Air (with a list of reasons other than "I think that it looks ugly"), then this thread would look a lot different.

The original question posed was, "any good Macbook Air alternatives?" To me, that implies lightweight, compact, and, yes, elegant. The Thinkpad doesn't appear to be any of those.

pyre 15y ago

Elegant is subjective. It's better to talk about things like specs, issues, OS support, etc, and let people decide on the aesthetics themselves. Arguing over which design is more pleasing on the eye (or elegant) adds nothing to the discussion. The original post suggesting the X220 listed a bunch of specs that it had (and that the poster needed) that the MacBook Air didn't. A response of, "Disregard that the design sucks cocks," adds nothing to the discussion even if that it your personal opinion. If someone thinks that the external looks of the laptop are important, they are not going to just blindly make the purchase based a comment on HN without personally checking it out. The more important discussions are things like: * X is billed as (or looks to be in the surface) a replacement for Y, but once you get it out of the showroom you'll notice issues A, B and C. * X looks really cheap on the surface, but in my experience it's extremely durable. * X looks really good, but doesn't run Operating System Y. * X looks like it runs Operating System Y, until you need to use feature/hardware component Z.

georgieporgie 15y ago
Elegant is subjective. I think you would be hard pressed to find someone who honestly believes a Thinkpad to be more elegant than a Macbook Air. A response of, "Disregard that the design sucks cocks," Excuse me?
- blinkingled 15y ago
  How much elegant is good enough or to what degree that is a concern is subjective. GP did not specify that elegance was the sole criteria which means he/she is probably ok with a fairly elegant machine within same ballpark of the Air - which the x220 is. The x220 certainly ain't ugly - it is thin, lightweight and durable. Many prefer the Thinkpad design. So even if for you personally elegance may be the first/only priority without override - many people are not that obsessive when it comes to choosing a work laptop. So the X220 is certainly a choice when you are thinking Macbook Air. The screen size falls nicely between the too small 11" and a bit too big 13.3", the CPUs are same gen, SSD is configurable etc.
  - georgieporgie 15y ago
    So even if for you personally elegance may be the first/only priority without override Okay, I'm genuinely curious here. What's with all the strange, reactionary posts in this thread, and mis-categorization of people? When did I say anything about elegance being my first priority? I was quite clear in my statement, yet you've skewed it in a bizarre manner. many people are not that obsessive when it comes to choosing a work laptop Obsessive? How about appreciative? In fact, how about any word which isn't loaded? Again, there is some strange, defensive stuff going on here.
    - puredemo 15y ago
      Indeed. I've been reading a lot of responses thinking the same thing.
    - blinkingled 15y ago
      Well nothing to be defensive about. I was responding to the question /why even bring up Think pad when it looks less elegant/. Only a somewhat obsessed person will completely ignore a laptop because it is not as good looking as the Air. Nothing wrong or loaded about that - just that it isn't what everyone will generally do. And so the response wasn't completely irrelevant, that's all.
      - georgieporgie 15y ago
        Not defensive, but rather offended. Also, there is most certainly a lot of loaded text in your replies.
        deleted 15y ago
        [deleted]
- pyre 15y ago
  > > A response of, "Disregard that the design sucks cocks," > > Excuse me? Sorry, my (previous) 4chan roots showing through: http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/disregard-that-i-suck-cocks#.TlsUASxPdg4 http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/disregard-that-i-suck-cocks#.T... My point was that the responder at the top of the thread was saying (in so many words): ignore all of that so-called 'content' in the parent post, my (subjective) ideas about the design should trump all of that
  - georgieporgie 15y ago
    I understand the 'meme' and don't see how it has any place here, whatsoever. As for your summary, I find it to be amazingly slanted toward a particular view. The X220 is truly nothing at all like the Macbook Air. I used a consumer grade Toshiba, so I have no horse in this race, but I can plainly see (from specs as well as design) that the X220 is in a significantly different category from the Air.
    - pyre 15y ago
      That's not what I was responding to. The original suggestion about the X220 was responded to by saying that the X220 isn't 'elegant' and has a design that harkens back to 2001 (which is implied to be a bad thing). The elegance of the design alone is not enough to place it in a different category. If the argument had been that it can't be classified in the same category as the MacBook Air (with a list of reasons other than "I think that it looks ugly"), then this thread would look a lot different.