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The MacBook air is a so-so piece of hardware with a world class operating system. Dell can easily best the Air at hardware but definitely not at software (unles

by ajju 18y ago

The MacBook air is a so-so piece of hardware with a world class operating system. Dell can easily best the Air at hardware but definitely not at software (unless Apple frees Leopard)

jemmons 18y ago
Looking at its size, weight, construction, rigidity, manufacturing process, backlit keyboard, magnetic power connector, DisplayPort interface, etc. I'd have to conclude that every facet of the Air represents the cutting edge in industrial design. I also must admit that, while clearly subjective, the majority of my coworkers and I find it aesthetically pleasing to look at. I am curious, then, as to why you would rate it as "so-so" hardware. Because it doesn't have a removable battery? Seriously, what?
- ajju 18y ago
  Mostly because every other Macbook air owner I know experiences overheating and random shutdowns multiple times a week: http://blog.weatherby.net/2008/07/cool-air.html http://blog.weatherby.net/2008/07/cool-air.html http://paulstamatiou.com/2008/03/20/review-macbook-air http://paulstamatiou.com/2008/03/20/review-macbook-air
  - anatoli 18y ago
    I think we all know that people who are unhappy with something usually speak up louder than those who are happy; as such, claiming that "every other" MacBook Air is flawed is (likely) severely exaggerated. My girlfriend has a MacBook Air, it's the perfect laptop for her — it's light (she's a Uni student), well-designed, and runs fast enough to satisfy all her needs. No issues with it, so far.
  - jemmons 18y ago
    I'm trying not to resort to sarcasm, but honestly. If your evidence of "so-so" hardware is an anecdotal sampling of people who may well have defective units, that's some pretty weak tea.
    - ajju 18y ago
      Hundreds of posts on Apple's forums lead me to believe that it's more than a handful of users. To pick just two of those threads: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1387729&tstart=0 http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1387729&#3... http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1415343&tstart=0 http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1415343&#3...
      - jemmons 18y ago
        It would seem you don't have a very clear understanding of the definition of "anecdotal": not necessarily true or reliable, because based on personal accounts rather than facts or research Let me put it another way: Pick for us the very paradigm of what you consider to be fantastic hardware. I could find for you -- anecdotally -- a few hundred people who have had problems with it. Does that mean you're a) a bad judge of hardware or b) that there's bound to be some small percentage of problem cases when dealing with mass-produced electronics? Apple shipped 2 million Macintoshes last quarter alone. If even only a tenth of those were Air sales, "hundreds of posts" doesn't even add up to 1% of units sold that quarter. Any consumer electronics manufacturer (including Apple!) would kill for a defect rate of under 1%.
        ajju 18y ago
        I apologize. I should have requested Apple to grant me access to real time information on their actual hardware failure rates instead of basing my assumptions on the two sample universes I have access to. My bad. Put another way, when I encounter anecdotal information about a specific hardware failure I find unacceptable more than a threshold number of times, I tend to base my buy decisions on that. The converse is also true in terms of praise. That's how I bought my Macbook, that's why I am not buying this version of the Air.
noamsml 18y ago
Why not? Dell sells Ubuntu laptops.
- ajju 18y ago
  I use Ubuntu myself but I think it's still a year away from my grandma being able to use it.
  - jkmcf 18y ago
    I love Ubuntu on the server side, but on the desktop it always feels unfinished and I usually have to hack around to get something to work. I'm at the point in my life where futzing around to fix the basics isn't much fun. OS X is polished and works really well. Sure, I have issues with it and Apple's control fetish, but since leaving Windows and Red Hat/Gentoo/Ubuntu/Debian I've been very happy.
- unalone 18y ago
  Ubuntu is not world-class. I think Ubuntu might be close to competing with Windows, though it still lacks a lot of basic stuff. Both Ubuntu and Windows (up to and including Windows 7) are still years away from being on the same plane as OS X. (My policy is, until I see a text editor as good as TextEdit on another operating system, I won't even consider a comparison between the two.)
  - jpd 18y ago
    My policy is, until I see a text editor as good as TextEdit on another operating system, I won't even consider a comparison between the two. You forgot to mention your first axiom: 1) Nothing is as good as TextMate. Be realistic here: VI(M), Notepad++, and Emacs are all great text editors.
    - unalone 18y ago
      Sorry - I was referring to non code-focused editors. The great thing about TextEdit is that it looks like Notepad when I launch it, and yet it has incredible support for design, typography, layout, and positioning. I can write most school papers in it, but it still looks and feels ultrasimple. TextMate does some awesome stuff, from what I've heard, but it's much more focused on coding. TextEdit is more general-purpose, which is why it's my standard. Until another OS spends as much time making a kickass all-purpose editor, it probably hasn't got the level of detail that I want in my operating system.

by ajju 18y ago

The MacBook air is a so-so piece of hardware with a world class operating system. Dell can easily best the Air at hardware but definitely not at software (unless Apple frees Leopard)

jemmons 18y ago

Looking at its size, weight, construction, rigidity, manufacturing process, backlit keyboard, magnetic power connector, DisplayPort interface, etc. I'd have to conclude that every facet of the Air represents the cutting edge in industrial design. I also must admit that, while clearly subjective, the majority of my coworkers and I find it aesthetically pleasing to look at. I am curious, then, as to why you would rate it as "so-so" hardware. Because it doesn't have a removable battery? Seriously, what?

ajju 18y ago
Mostly because every other Macbook air owner I know experiences overheating and random shutdowns multiple times a week: http://blog.weatherby.net/2008/07/cool-air.html http://blog.weatherby.net/2008/07/cool-air.html http://paulstamatiou.com/2008/03/20/review-macbook-air http://paulstamatiou.com/2008/03/20/review-macbook-air
- anatoli 18y ago
  I think we all know that people who are unhappy with something usually speak up louder than those who are happy; as such, claiming that "every other" MacBook Air is flawed is (likely) severely exaggerated. My girlfriend has a MacBook Air, it's the perfect laptop for her — it's light (she's a Uni student), well-designed, and runs fast enough to satisfy all her needs. No issues with it, so far.
- jemmons 18y ago
  I'm trying not to resort to sarcasm, but honestly. If your evidence of "so-so" hardware is an anecdotal sampling of people who may well have defective units, that's some pretty weak tea.
  - ajju 18y ago
    Hundreds of posts on Apple's forums lead me to believe that it's more than a handful of users. To pick just two of those threads: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1387729&tstart=0 http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1387729&#3... http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1415343&tstart=0 http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1415343&#3...
    - jemmons 18y ago
      It would seem you don't have a very clear understanding of the definition of "anecdotal": not necessarily true or reliable, because based on personal accounts rather than facts or research Let me put it another way: Pick for us the very paradigm of what you consider to be fantastic hardware. I could find for you -- anecdotally -- a few hundred people who have had problems with it. Does that mean you're a) a bad judge of hardware or b) that there's bound to be some small percentage of problem cases when dealing with mass-produced electronics? Apple shipped 2 million Macintoshes last quarter alone. If even only a tenth of those were Air sales, "hundreds of posts" doesn't even add up to 1% of units sold that quarter. Any consumer electronics manufacturer (including Apple!) would kill for a defect rate of under 1%.
      - ajju 18y ago
        I apologize. I should have requested Apple to grant me access to real time information on their actual hardware failure rates instead of basing my assumptions on the two sample universes I have access to. My bad. Put another way, when I encounter anecdotal information about a specific hardware failure I find unacceptable more than a threshold number of times, I tend to base my buy decisions on that. The converse is also true in terms of praise. That's how I bought my Macbook, that's why I am not buying this version of the Air.

noamsml 18y ago

Why not? Dell sells Ubuntu laptops.

ajju 18y ago
I use Ubuntu myself but I think it's still a year away from my grandma being able to use it.
- jkmcf 18y ago
  I love Ubuntu on the server side, but on the desktop it always feels unfinished and I usually have to hack around to get something to work. I'm at the point in my life where futzing around to fix the basics isn't much fun. OS X is polished and works really well. Sure, I have issues with it and Apple's control fetish, but since leaving Windows and Red Hat/Gentoo/Ubuntu/Debian I've been very happy.
unalone 18y ago
Ubuntu is not world-class. I think Ubuntu might be close to competing with Windows, though it still lacks a lot of basic stuff. Both Ubuntu and Windows (up to and including Windows 7) are still years away from being on the same plane as OS X. (My policy is, until I see a text editor as good as TextEdit on another operating system, I won't even consider a comparison between the two.)
- jpd 18y ago
  My policy is, until I see a text editor as good as TextEdit on another operating system, I won't even consider a comparison between the two. You forgot to mention your first axiom: 1) Nothing is as good as TextMate. Be realistic here: VI(M), Notepad++, and Emacs are all great text editors.
  - unalone 18y ago
    Sorry - I was referring to non code-focused editors. The great thing about TextEdit is that it looks like Notepad when I launch it, and yet it has incredible support for design, typography, layout, and positioning. I can write most school papers in it, but it still looks and feels ultrasimple. TextMate does some awesome stuff, from what I've heard, but it's much more focused on coding. TextEdit is more general-purpose, which is why it's my standard. Until another OS spends as much time making a kickass all-purpose editor, it probably hasn't got the level of detail that I want in my operating system.