4 ms·

$999 macbook air is perfectly usable?

Kye 3y ago
With a 256GB SSD? Please. Some of us use computers for creative work and don't want to pay absurd markups for soldered on SSDs and RAM.
- Twisell 3y ago
  Well frankly it all depend on your job. I got a win10 256GB HP laptop at work and never felt fooled. Most of the files I need are never permanently stored on my laptop so I'm pretty glad IT prioritized a good Graphic Card that support my 4k monitor + 1 ext 1080p display of my home config on top of the internal 1080p. While yeah on my 7 years old personal mac laptop though, the 256Gb now seems limited because of my personal Photo Library. (Which is by the way the standard MacOS/iOS Photo library which is both available offline/synced/backed up using actually useful and configureable OS provided basic tools as opposed to adversial adware)
- r00fus 3y ago
  Yes, for most people it's fine. Cloud storage is a thing, and so is cheap external storage.
  - Kye 3y ago
    Well, they didn't qualify it that way. So no, it's not "perfectly usable." It's perfectly usable for people who don't do much with it. If I need a modern mainframe terminal, it barely matters what laptop or OS I use. If I need to hold 2TB of samples and have room for 2TB of video I'm working on and prefer it onboard, I can't get that at any price on a MacBook Air, and a soldered on 2TB is hundreds more than plopping a 2TB in my laptop's spare slot. In fact, I can max it out with 8TB storage and 64GB RAM for the markup to get a 2TB SSD/16GB RAM Air. You see the problem. I'm not saying everyone needs it, but the broad claim that a $999 Air is perfectly usable has some large and varied edge cases. If a $999 Air were enough for me, then I would have put a new battery in my old laptop and put Linux on it instead of upgrading. Apple's lineup was considered and dismissed for the absurd markups on storage and RAM.
    - brewdad 3y ago
      Most people who have need for that much laptop really need a desktop instead.
- wing-_-nuts 3y ago
  Do what I did. Buy a xps 13 (dell has 'developer edition variants of these, so it fully supports linux). I actually bought the windows version because it was cheaper, instantly wiped it on boot and installed linux. I've upgraded to a 1tb ssd and might upgrade to a 2tb ssd given how cheap they are right now. Great experience though!
  - Kye 3y ago
    I need Serif (Affinity Suite), Ableton, Arturia, and Native Instruments to port everything to Linux or at least make it equally functional in Wine first. I could understand going to the trouble if I had anything remotely like the issues people say they have with Windows, but it's been an absolute breeze for me. Always has been. The few ad-ish things I see were trivial to remove. Staying on a local account was effortless. Updates need a reboot about as often as they did the last time I used Linux. There just...aren't any issues. I don't doubt that all these horror stories I hear are true for the individuals, but I just don't experience it.
    - bodge5000 3y ago
      I know its probably not what you're looking for, but Bitwig has a similar workflow to Ableton, and has first class Linux support. A few years ago I was in a similar situation, but decided in the end to not allow myself to be tethered to an operating system, and did away with all the software I couldn't use elsewhere.
      - deleted 3y ago
        [deleted]
      - lostgame 3y ago
        If the commenter can't open their existing Ableton files in Bitwig, and/or use the existing VSTs they've likely spent years with and collected or designed presets for, it makes somehow converting to an entirely new DAW far too daunting and complex a process for any serious producer. I myself use Logic Pro, and have files from Logic and GarageBand from over - (holy crap I'm getting old) - 17 years ago, that still open and play in Logic - (minus the occasional missing plug-in) - and I've used Logic for so long at this point that there is literally almost no barrier between my imagination in terms of composition, engineering and production and the actual software and hardware. To switch to a solution such as Bitwig not only removes access to the 17+ years of files I've got (who knows how many years of files the original commenter has) - it makes it so I can no longer, e.g. just send a Logic or Ableton file to a fellow producer - which I often do, and is often done; for collaborations - it removes access to the incredible library of software instruments included with Logic that I've slowly became a veritable genius with over more than a decade... Ultimately, unless you pretty much started with Bitwig, or Ardour, etc - I couldn't ever see a seasoned producer who has settled into their closed-source DAW of choice ever seriously considering this.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]

Kye 3y ago

With a 256GB SSD? Please. Some of us use computers for creative work and don't want to pay absurd markups for soldered on SSDs and RAM.

Twisell 3y ago
Well frankly it all depend on your job. I got a win10 256GB HP laptop at work and never felt fooled. Most of the files I need are never permanently stored on my laptop so I'm pretty glad IT prioritized a good Graphic Card that support my 4k monitor + 1 ext 1080p display of my home config on top of the internal 1080p. While yeah on my 7 years old personal mac laptop though, the 256Gb now seems limited because of my personal Photo Library. (Which is by the way the standard MacOS/iOS Photo library which is both available offline/synced/backed up using actually useful and configureable OS provided basic tools as opposed to adversial adware)
r00fus 3y ago
Yes, for most people it's fine. Cloud storage is a thing, and so is cheap external storage.
- Kye 3y ago
  Well, they didn't qualify it that way. So no, it's not "perfectly usable." It's perfectly usable for people who don't do much with it. If I need a modern mainframe terminal, it barely matters what laptop or OS I use. If I need to hold 2TB of samples and have room for 2TB of video I'm working on and prefer it onboard, I can't get that at any price on a MacBook Air, and a soldered on 2TB is hundreds more than plopping a 2TB in my laptop's spare slot. In fact, I can max it out with 8TB storage and 64GB RAM for the markup to get a 2TB SSD/16GB RAM Air. You see the problem. I'm not saying everyone needs it, but the broad claim that a $999 Air is perfectly usable has some large and varied edge cases. If a $999 Air were enough for me, then I would have put a new battery in my old laptop and put Linux on it instead of upgrading. Apple's lineup was considered and dismissed for the absurd markups on storage and RAM.
  - brewdad 3y ago
    Most people who have need for that much laptop really need a desktop instead.
wing-_-nuts 3y ago
Do what I did. Buy a xps 13 (dell has 'developer edition variants of these, so it fully supports linux). I actually bought the windows version because it was cheaper, instantly wiped it on boot and installed linux. I've upgraded to a 1tb ssd and might upgrade to a 2tb ssd given how cheap they are right now. Great experience though!
- Kye 3y ago
  I need Serif (Affinity Suite), Ableton, Arturia, and Native Instruments to port everything to Linux or at least make it equally functional in Wine first. I could understand going to the trouble if I had anything remotely like the issues people say they have with Windows, but it's been an absolute breeze for me. Always has been. The few ad-ish things I see were trivial to remove. Staying on a local account was effortless. Updates need a reboot about as often as they did the last time I used Linux. There just...aren't any issues. I don't doubt that all these horror stories I hear are true for the individuals, but I just don't experience it.
  - bodge5000 3y ago
    I know its probably not what you're looking for, but Bitwig has a similar workflow to Ableton, and has first class Linux support. A few years ago I was in a similar situation, but decided in the end to not allow myself to be tethered to an operating system, and did away with all the software I couldn't use elsewhere.
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
    - lostgame 3y ago
      If the commenter can't open their existing Ableton files in Bitwig, and/or use the existing VSTs they've likely spent years with and collected or designed presets for, it makes somehow converting to an entirely new DAW far too daunting and complex a process for any serious producer. I myself use Logic Pro, and have files from Logic and GarageBand from over - (holy crap I'm getting old) - 17 years ago, that still open and play in Logic - (minus the occasional missing plug-in) - and I've used Logic for so long at this point that there is literally almost no barrier between my imagination in terms of composition, engineering and production and the actual software and hardware. To switch to a solution such as Bitwig not only removes access to the 17+ years of files I've got (who knows how many years of files the original commenter has) - it makes it so I can no longer, e.g. just send a Logic or Ableton file to a fellow producer - which I often do, and is often done; for collaborations - it removes access to the incredible library of software instruments included with Logic that I've slowly became a veritable genius with over more than a decade... Ultimately, unless you pretty much started with Bitwig, or Ardour, etc - I couldn't ever see a seasoned producer who has settled into their closed-source DAW of choice ever seriously considering this.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]