
MacBook Air is enough for a work machine - bergie
http://brooksreview.net/2011/04/mba-qs/
======
achompas
_My MacBook Air was $1,799 and the equivalent MacBook Pro (top of the line
15″, because why would you buy the 13″?) would cost me just over $3,200
(adding 3rd party SSD, Apple 8GB RAM and the Hi-Res screen)._

Man, this is disingenuous. 8GB RAM? As if you can't get it cheaper (or the MBA
even _offered_ 8GB RAM as an option)? Or as if the 15" MBP doesn't blow the
Air out of the water in every other aspect? I bought a 13" Pro because (a)
it's smaller and lighter than the 15" and (b) I don't play PC games.

When we run THAT comparison, well:

13" MBP with 256GB Crucial SSD [0], 4GB RAM, 2.3GHz Core i5 -- $1699

13" MBA with 256GB SSD, 4GB RAM, 2.13 GHz C2D -- $1799

Sure, I don't have a Hi-Res screen (the one Pro feature I wanted on the 13"),
but I can actually upgrade my computer in 3 years when 4GB RAM becomes a
bottleneck. Now that's a low year-over-year computing cost.

The MacBook Air is an awesome machine, to be sure, but it's awesome because of
the built-in SSD--not because of the value it provides.

[0]
[http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148...](http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148349)

~~~
Cushman
Are you sure you want to _own_ your MacBook for 3 years?

The depreciation on Apple laptops is low enough that you can resell it and
trade up to the latest refresh once a year for the same cost as trading up
once every 3 years. If you're interested in the best bang-for-your-buck and
can put up with the hassle, you should definitely think about it.

~~~
masomenos
I'm at 3.5+ years on my current white macbook, and finally about ready to get
a new one. Use it most of the day, most days for web and misc development.

Thinking a macbook pro with SSD & 8GB has a chance of lasting even longer.

~~~
Cushman
Oh, without a doubt— I'm on the third year with this MBP, and I ran my old
iBook even longer than that. They're great machines, and they do last forever.

The point is more that rather than running one machine into the ground until
it's thoroughly obsolete (three years give or take) and then paying full price
for a new one, one could resell a year later when it's still worth nearly what
you paid for it and upgrade to the newest model. The price per year works out
to be more or less the same, but you have cutting-edge hardware year after
year rather than spending two years out of three in comparative obsolescence.

------
matthew-wegner
Not MBA-related, but for MBP machines you can use an OptiBay bracket to pull
out the optical drive and replace it with an SSD or HD. Couple notes on that:

\- The OptiBay is $80, but includes a USB enclosure for your SuperDrive to
turn it into an external drive: <http://www.mcetech.com/optibay/>

\- Cheap clone brackets are ~$20 on eBay, work just as well.

\- The original HD bay includes a sudden motion sensor to park the heads on a
drop. Ideal setup is to put an SSD in the optical bay and a HD in the
internal.

\- Battery life doesn't seem affected by two drives. I suspect
cpu/video/display power significantly outweighs power from an SSD.

\- The optical bay is 3 Gbps, the HD bay is 6 Gbps. Don't bother with the
extra cost of new 6 Gbps SSDs if you put it in the optical position.

\- If you do this on a new machine, do your boot camp install _before_ you
remove the drive. MacBook Pros have some kind of hard-wired device order that
makes it impossible to install Windows from an external USB/FireWire optical
drive.

I run a 250 GB SandForce SSD + 500 GB 7200rpm drive. SandForce does on-device
garbage collection, which helps since OS X has no general-use TRIM support,
and I do photo editing on the road so the faster HD is great.

~~~
rudiger
New MacBook Pro models are shipping with TRIM support for bundled Apple SSDs.

~~~
highwind81
Source please?

~~~
maximilian
According to Anandtech, at least the new 13",15",17" when ordered _with_ an
SSD builtin have TRIM support. 3rd party drives are not supported. I don't
know about the Airs though -- He alludes to it in another article, but I can't
find definitive proof. [http://www.anandtech.com/show/4205/the-macbook-pro-
review-13...](http://www.anandtech.com/show/4205/the-macbook-pro-
review-13-and-15-inch-2011-brings-sandy-bridge/6)

------
ben1040
I've owned the original 12" Powerbook G4, and the first-gen MacBook Air (no
SSD). With both of those I ended up with some buyers remorse about six months
later, feeling like I was making some huge performance tradeoffs for the
portability that ended up biting me later on. The 12" G4 was just plain slow,
while the first-gen Air was hamstrung with crappy GMA950 graphics and a really
slow disk. From what I've read the SSD on the original Air was on an IDE
interface and wouldn't have made much of a difference anyway.

I bought the new 13" Air the week after launch and absolutely love it for a
dev environment. XCode runs nice and smooth and it now seems to me that an SSD
is nearly essential to make Eclipse feel usable.

We're coming up to the 6 month point where with those older laptops I would
think "oh God why did I spend $1800 on _this_ ," and I still think this is the
best computer I've ever owned.

------
chime
I use MBA (4GB RAM upgrade, 128GB SSD) for doing a lot of XCode development.
XCode4 runs very smoothly and I've never had any speed issues with running the
iOS Simulator. It's light, doesn't heat up, and is very stable. I gave up my
<http://chir.ag/stuff/5lcd.jpg> setup for a single MBA and I couldn't be
happier (my electric bill went down by $125/month).

From personal experience I know that I'm more productive on 5 LCD than on 3
LCD or 2 LCD setup. However, I spend a lot more time working on my MBA than I
ever did on my desktop and though I work slower, the end result is that I'm
overall producing more.

~~~
bergie
I'm the only one in our company not using any external monitors. The added
screen real estate would be nice, but the downside is that then you have a
different setup in the office and on the road. I rather get used to a single
screen I always have with me.

~~~
shawndumas
Use an iPad as a touchable external monitor... <http://avatron.com/apps/air-
display>

~~~
alanfalcon
Holy shit, thank you for this!

edit: 5 minutes (and -$10) later, I now have a portable third monitor that I
can bring with me anywhere in the house. Plus I can easily test my iPhone app
in the simulator using real touch gestures, without building to a device (not
every gesture is working, but this is still awesome).

------
dasil003
Every time I get on a plane I wish I had an Air, but it's just not
justifiable. Not only do I have _and use_ my 8GB RAM (Photoshop, Parallels,
browsers, Rails + large test suite), but the peripheral ports are critical. I
don't think my Time Machine backup would ever get off the ground without the
initial Ethernet plugin, not to mention the times when the DSL goes out at the
office I can just plug into the hardline normally reserved for our Mac Pros.
Also Firewire is another thing that may not be needed every day, but hurts bad
when you don't have it (need to transfer a couple GBs between Macs quickly?
Compare to wifi to Firewire Target Disk Mode). Even the SD card reader is
quite handy. I'll leave the optical drive out because honestly that would be
fine as a peripheral (although I do salivate at the thought of a top-tier 64GB
SSD boot drive + 1TB data drive in optical drive bay).

I do have a bit of Air envy from time to time, but then I count my blessings
that I live in a time where I have a portable workstation that I can use as my
primary machine and carry from home to work every day. That is amazing in and
of itself.

~~~
phamilton
"(although I do salivate at the thought of a top-tier 64GB SSD boot drive +
1TB data drive in optical drive bay)."

SSDs are interesting in that they get faster as they grow in size. top-tier
64GB SSD drives are quite a bit slower (at least in write speeds) than their
128GB counterparts, which are slower than their 256GB counterparts. Write
speeds scale almost linearly with size.

I'd salivate for something a little quicker.

~~~
gamble
It's more correct to say that their speed scales with the number of flash
chips. The larger drives are faster because more of the controller's channels
are populated. A larger drive that has fewer flash chips because it uses a new
fabrication process can be slower than a smaller drive built using previous-
generation chips.

------
dadro
I concur with authors opinion of MBA. The 13in MBA is the best computer I've
ever owned. My current Mac Lineup consists of:

    
    
      * Latest gen 13in MBA
      * 17in MBP (~1yr) work paid for it
      * 13in Black Macbook (loved this one too!)
      * Mac Pro (totally pimped out) work paid for it
      * 3rd gen mac mini
    

The only machine I use now is the MBA. It is everything a Web Dev needs, great
resolution, fast, travels well. It even plays Minecraft quite well. The only
thing I'd ask for in the 3rd gen models is a back-lit keyboard. Love this
machine.

Edit:

Best accessory I've purchased <http://www.luxurylapdesk.com/index.php>

~~~
ernestipark
I don't understand this obsession for backlit keyboards I've been reading
about a lot lately on forums. It definitely looks nice but its just a battery
drain and I assume most HN people don't look at their keys. I always keep mine
off for the sake of my battery.

~~~
rowaway1
backlit keyboard aren't just for looking nice. they're for working at night in
dark rooms. before touch typing you need to glance quickly at your hand's
position above the keys, to make sure your hand position isn't transposed
slightly up, down, left, right--which happens easily when you're blinded by a
monitor in the dark, and the key bed is pitch black. yes, you can fold down
your monitor till the light illuminates the keys, squint while you orient your
hand, then raise the monitor to eye-level...but that is a distraction to
workflow when hacking at night. way too much effort just for checking hand
orientation. backlit keys solve that problem, which is one of the most serious
1st world problems facing rich people with nice computers today.

~~~
Shorel
No, no, no.

That's why the F and J keys have small bumps you can feel so you can position
your hands for touch typing. The 5 key in the numeric keyboard also has one of
these.

The backlight can be useful for the function keys or whatever, but touch
typing does not need any light.

~~~
wyclif
As a touch typist I've never understood the fetish for backlit keyboard
design, I don't need it and it only decreases battery power.

~~~
rowaway1
people who work in the dark, but have not achieved total union with the
keyboard, appreciate the backlight. forced battery drain isn't an issue: turn
off the light if you don't want.

------
ethank
I went from having a 17" Mac Book Pro core i5 and a Mac Pro 8 core, both with
maxed RAM to my MBA 13" top of line.

While I love the SSD, and I love the form factor, when working at a desk I
really really pine for more RAM and a faster chip. I push the machine super
hard on a normal day, not even when doing development.

Now as a portable, nothing can beat the thing, and when working on its 13"
screen, it forces you to edit your multitasking so you really don't push it as
bad. But when hooked at a 27" screen, you are tempted to multitask more and it
gets bogged down.

Next week when the new iMacs come out I'm going to probably get one of those
to use as a desktop machine and use the MBA as a portable. With Dropbox and
MobileMe and Google sync, this is an easy proposition.

------
dmauro
I'm using my MBA (no upgrades, lowest end model) for my daily routine as a
designer, and it's holding up perfectly well. I am mostly just running
Photoshop, Illustrator, Textmate, and a few browsers. Hell, I was even able to
play Portal 2 on this thing. It's definitely the best $1,000 I've ever spent
on tech, and I'm a Windows guy.

The only downsides are if I have a bunch of large files open in Photoshop and
Illustrator, I might have to save and close some to keep things running
smooth. When I'm plugged into a 27" display, some things are not quite as
smooth.

So yeah, I'd rather be working on a faster desktop system (though the benefits
would be minimal), but I can close this, bring it home, and continue working
with the same workspace.

And the monitor is better than my Dell 22" I have at home.

------
thenduks
'Enough'? Understatement. It's practically perfect. Sure it's not your gaming
rig or fit for Final Cut Pro, so that could change things if this sounds like
you... but as a developer it easily trumps every machine I've ever owned.

------
oemera
I think I'm really late into this and nobody will read my comment but I will
give it a try.

Six months ago I had a iMac 24" and a MacBook Pro 13" for studying and
portability. I noticed after I bought my MBP that I didn't use my iMac as I
thought to be using. Not because it was slow or bad or something. No it was
just horrible to synchronize both devices with my work and study related stuff
(Yeah I know now better that it is a charm with Dropbox).

While I was deciding if I should sell my iMac I decided to sell both iMac AND
my MBP. Why, you ask? My MBP was just fine but sometimes I had to carry a
heavy books plus MBP with me and this was why my back was hurting. So I
decided to switch to something lighter and faster (and yes my MBA is way
faster than my MBP ever was).

After selling both devices I bought a MBA with 128GB SSD and 4GB Ram and
happier than ever before. This was one of the best decisions I made in my
environment. And if anything happens to my MBA I will order a new one with
thinking a moment about it.

Pro's:

* It is very fast,

* it is light as nothing else,

* I have instant-on (something which is really important to me),

* I have 5-6 hours of battery life,

* Eclipse runs really really smooth,

* XCode runs even smother,

* and every other development related works just fine (and sometimes I think even better as on my MBP)

Con's:

* No glass display (I loved it cause it was way easier to clean than a "plastic" display)

* No keyboard backlight (while this was bothering me at the very beginning, I have to admit that I don't care anymore)

At the bottom-line I want to say that unless you are working on really high
computation stuff (like 3D rendering or something) a MBA will do it smoothly.
I never encountered anything which I had performance problems with. (If you
ask me I would wait a second longer in exchange to carry much less weight with
me)

Disclaimer: I don't play any games and try to escape Flash everywhere possible
(cause it lets the fan freak out).

~~~
alsocasey
All these pros, except weight, is really just down to the SSD - which you can
get in any MBP trivially.

1\. With an SSD, any current MBP would feel just as snappy. 2\. Can't get
around that - though I seldom feel my 4lb MBP is too heavy. 3\. I've always
had this, I call it Sleep. 4\. My 13" i5 gets me >7Hrs. 5\. Eclipse/XCode -
will run just as fast with an SSD. Compile times - no contest, i5 beats the
crap out of a 1.3-1.86Ghz C2D.

The i5 in the current 13" MBP is nearly twice as fast as the C2D in the model
it replaced - e.g. even faster when compared with the lower clocked MBA
processor. Most things in day to day operation are HDD limited. Anything CPU
limited will fly on a MBP compared to an MBA - I'm thinking compiling mostly
for developers... I suppose web dev doesn't require compiling much - except
when using GWT (which i what I use most often...)

~~~
oemera
You might be right and maybe a MBP just fits your needs even better than a MBA
could. I just wanted to demonstrate that a MBA is pretty good for development
too.

------
jimwise
Pretty much exactly my experience, except that I'm running a lot more compiles
and a lot less photoshop on this 13" MBA.

In particular, if you're upgrading from a machine without SSD, the speed
advantages you'll see for things like emacs or compiles of large projects --
things which access lots of small files -- are _huge_.

This machine replaced a MacBook Pro which was technically its equal in
processor speed, but it feels faster in every way (and is a heck of a lot more
usable on the train).

~~~
dedward
You could always just chuck an SSD into a macbook pro on your own - my aging
late-2009 macbook pro got a fantastic speed boost when I dropped an Intel x25m
G2 SSD in - a bit short on space compared to before (which forces me to keep
things backed up and synched, which is a good thing) and the speed difference
is night and day.

------
calebhicks
I use a 13" MBP with 8GB RAM and an Intel SSD. I could have gone with the MBA,
but didn't like the thought of another Core 2 Duo.

I have a 24" monitor at my office, and a 27" iMac (my wife's) that I use as a
second display for my MBP.

Best of both worlds. Speed, mobility, and big screens when I need 'em.

~~~
achompas
Which Intel SSD are you using? I'm about to make the same purchase myself.

~~~
calebhicks
X-25M. It's not the latest and greatest, but I got it for $170 after a sale
and mail-in rebate.

If you've got more cash to spend, you may want to look at the new 310, or 510.
There are other great SSD makers, but I chose Intel based on the price and
general high reviews.

~~~
achompas
Wow, that's apparently a great deal on the X-25M--they were retailing for $220
at NewEgg.

I'm waiting to see what comes out in the next few months, as apparently OCZ
and Intel are building drives with the new SandForce chipset. Don't know if
the improvements will be significant, though...

~~~
spicyj
The Intel 320 Series is very similar to the X25-M (just the next generation;
practically the same controller) and is cheaper as well.

------
_Fil_
The only thing that stops me from buying one is the 10/100 lan adapter.

I transfer every day large files between my mac and my pc or NAS and the
transfer rate would kill me.

~~~
baudehlo
This. In a corporate environment wifi just isn't allowed. We have it in our
office but it is stunted beyond reproach. You need to be plugged in to access
stuff.

~~~
bergie
Makes me happy not to work for a large corporation. Our company has been WiFi-
only since 2001

~~~
stuff4ben
Not all large corporations are like that. Here at Cisco most employees are
given only laptops (Thinkpad or MBP) and the wireless here is usually
fantastic as one would expect. Now if only I could get my hands on a Cius...

------
guictx
Frank Chimero, illustrator and designer, wrote about his experience using a
MBA as primary machine: <http://blog.frankchimero.com/post/2799470127/the-
setup>

------
ScottBurson
Interesting that I seem to be the only 17-inch fan here. I can see the
attraction of an MBA, but I prefer having a screen big enough that I can do
everything on it without an external monitor, and I don't mind lugging it
around at all.

~~~
icco
I travel between three offices every day on foot / bike. I tried the 13" MBP
on my back for a while, but in the end it caused more pain than it was worth.
I can only imagine the 17" being far worse.

For now I use a Lenovo x200, but it's about the same as the MBA 13". So while
sure I could "lug" the 17" around, I'd much rather loose some screen space and
save my back. But I will say, I am quite jealous when traveling of the screen
space the 17" provides.

~~~
MrFoof
The difference in weight is much more than it sounds.

Work had issued me a Lenovo Thinkpad T61p with a large extended battery pack
to make it last closer to 4 hours. It weighed about 7.5 pounds. After just 15
minutes, my shoulder would become sore from lugging my bag around.

I handed them their laptop back and bought a 15" MacBook Pro with my own
money. Just that 2 pound difference means that instead of my shoulder being
sore after 15 minutes, it takes about an hour for it to become sore.

If I didn't need the memory and the CPU (I do data warehousing work, and need
to run VMs almost all the time) I would certainly have gotten a 13" MacBook
Air to shave off another 2.5 pounds. Heck, I'd probably get an even smaller
bag just to shave off another 1/2 a pound. It's absolutely worth doing.

------
beck5
The bigest complement about my MBA is I love(d) my iPad, I took it everywhere,
but I gave it to my mum at the weekend because I don't use it anymore since I
getting a base 13" Air.

------
benologist
I use my maxed out 13" for all my work now with an external monitor.

It's an interesting change, the only problem I really have is I live in a hot
country so the laptop runs hot and kernal_task screws around trying to get the
temperature under control.

~~~
mcculley
I live in Florida and was amused when I got my most recent 15"MBP that the
technical specifications state the the max operating environment temperature
is 95F.

------
bergie
Also my personal notes on the same, running Ubuntu instead of OS X:
[http://bergie.iki.fi/blog/11-macbook_air-
the_best_computer_i...](http://bergie.iki.fi/blog/11-macbook_air-
the_best_computer_i-ve_ever_had/)

~~~
rufo
You say you get 3-4 hours in Linux, but the benchmarks you link to claim
easily 7 hours in OS X (though dramatically less if you max out the CPU).

Are you pretty much always at high CPU utilization, or is Ubuntu's power
management of Mac hardware that poor?

~~~
zcid
I get only about 2.5 hours when running Arch Linux compared to almost double
when I used to run OS X on my MBP 5,3. I rarely use my laptop unplugged though
so it doesn't make a huge difference to me.

I think a large part of the difference on my machine is that you are forced to
use the 9600GT for video as opposed to the more efficient 9600M that is
available in OS X.

~~~
rufo
Yeah, that's what I suspected - that's a huge deal to me.

------
nwomack
It's really too bad there is not a matte option for it. I agonized over the
MBA vs MBP decision for about a year, and finally got the High-End 15" 2011
MBP model with the matte screen upgrade. Couldn't be happier. Yeah, it's a big
hulking beast, but the extra real estate and matte screen are really nice. I
don't think I can go back to glossy ever again...

~~~
tortilla
I had a glossy 15" and now the semi-glossy 11". It's really not very glossy at
all. I barely ever notice my ugly mug staring back at me. Really, the best of
both worlds.

------
kenjackson
Computing power-wise there are few machines that can't do the job for _most_
people. I recently had a friend get the ASUS 1015B[1] for $289. For everything
he does (he's not a developer, rather a policy wonk) it works just fine. He
loves the form factor for travel, weight, everything.

But the problem with MBA, netbooks, and laptops in general is that they're
less productive for some classes of work. Generally due to the display
size/resolution. I find that even a 24" dislay is not adequate to really work
at full steam. I need at least 2x24" when doing serious dev work. I can work
on my laptop in a pinch, but its like writing a long email with T9. Sure, you
can do it, but its not the way you like to operate.

[1] <http://www.asus.com/Eee/Eee_PC/Eee_PC_1015B/>

------
tchock23
Not to sound like a fanboy (I believe I posted something about my Air a while
back on HN), but I'm a big fan of my 13" MacBook Air after a few months of
using it. I agree with the original poster that it is more than sufficient for
an everyday work machine.

As an aside, it's a pretty decent gaming machine as well... We recently
started playing Borderlands GOTY edition LAN games at the office and my MBA
ran the game much smoother than another a ~1.5 year old 17" Macbook Pro in the
office. He had to downgrade the video to get it working nicely, while my MBA
hummed along without much of a sweat.

------
quinndupont
Tangential question: I've got a MacBook Air and a first gen (of the current
design) white plastic MacBook that stores all my music/video (300GB music,
100GB video, with a bunch more video on external USB drive). My issue is that
it is very slow these days, and I feel like it is IO bound with my big, kinda
slow HD. I'm considering replacing the optical drive with the OWC SSD hack.
Then, the OS & apps can live on the SSD, music and video on slow HD. Thoughts
on performance? Anyone else try this?

------
JCB_K
_Playing back a 1080p h.264 video using the 24″ Cinema Display (in full
screen), the computer drops a lot of frames doing this._

That was the only thing that really surprised me.

~~~
dzuc
I've had it struggle quite a bit with fullscreen Netflix Instant or Hulu when
played back on an external monitor, as well.

------
kayoone
I got the early 2011 MBP 15" because i wanted a single machine i work on in
the office and at home. I am using it with an external screen though, mostly
for ergonomical reason. Working Laptop-only hurts you, dont do it all day!

But the most annoying thing currently is that its fans speed up so quickly
during work. Because of this i regret buying it and not going for a MBA11 +
iMac.

~~~
tvon
I've never attempted this myself, but you might want to google around for ways
to underclock your MBP to keep it cool. I'm guessing it's either impossible
due to firmware restrictions, or there are tools out there that make it crazy
simple.

------
dlaw
Recently I was looking for a new laptop. The new MacBook Airs arguably have
the best-designed hardware of any laptop on the market, but I object to
certain hacker-unfriendly steps Apple has taken: namely, the use of
pentalobular and triwing screws to make disassembly difficult. I cannot in
good faith buy a computer from a company that so actively dissuades tinkering.

I've decided to go with the ThinkPad X220 instead. Although it's not quite as
svelte as the Air, it is designed to be user serviceable. Hell, Lenovo
publishes a manual with instructions on how to replace the system board
(including details such as the torque each screw should be tightened to). And,
although the X220 has a removable battery, its battery life is just as good as
(if not better than) that of the Air.

(Oh, and the OS difference does not affect me because I will run Arch Linux
either way.)

~~~
pearle
I made the same choice last week after the aluminum bezel on my out of
warranty MBP cracked (Wtf!). Nothing in the current Macbook stable meets my
criteria. The Pros are all too heavy and the MBA is currently underpowered.
The X220 seemed like a much better fit for me and I have one on order as a
result.

The fact that my MBP has been the absolute worst laptop I have ever owned
didn't do Apple any favors.

------
JonLim
I've been slugging it out at work with my 5 year old Macbook at work with an
external display and I will continue to until it dies.

When it does go though, I intend to make a choice between a Macbook Air and a
Macbook Pro. I already have an iPad 2, but the lightness and mobility of the
MBA might make it the better machine for me.

------
sidwyn
I own a MBA as well. What can I say? I've never looked back.

------
tomlin
While the previous MBA might have felt like a compromise, I find the current
MBA a top-tier contender for development, personally.

I use a BookArc Air from TwelveSouth[1], LED Cinema[2] display. I find it
beats having 2 Macs. I love disconnecting my MBA, taking it to work and
opening it up at the exact place I was when I last used it. The BookArc makes
it aesthetically pleasing and organized and the MBA handles the Cinema display
without effort. I also like syncing my iTunes library with my iPhone on one
Mac.

[1]: <http://www.twelvesouth.com/products/BookArc_for_Air/>

[2]: <http://www.apple.com/displays/>

------
chopsueyar
I know MBA stand for MacBook Air, but reading some of these comments is a bit
difficult/funny.

------
tomwans
My 2008 (Core 2 Duo) MBP died last week and I figured I'd upgrade rather than
repair it (I felt the Core 2 Duo was aging fast). I borrowed my mother's low-
end MBA for the time being and Fell In Love. It was great for Xcode
development/tricked-out Emacs for remote dev. (pretty much all you need).

However, I ended up with a tricked-out MBP 15" w/ SSD & Hi-Res screen - the
reason is I need the peripherals &etc. for heavy apps like Logic. But let me
tell you, if you're going MBP 15" - cough up for an SSD, but also ... _get the
Hi-Res screen_. It's only $100 extra and you will feel as if you have an
absurd amount of screen real estate.

------
pdenya
MBAs look nice for on the go but I definitely wouldn't give up my 27" imac at
home (1 20" attached to the imac too) setup at home. I have a company MBP that
I use for whenever i'm out and about. I definitely don't haul it everywhere
but it's no trouble to take on even an afternoon trip if there's a chance I
could use it.

I'm also not sure what the problem is with switching to a different workflow
on a laptop vs a desktop. I'm fine alt-tabbing between chrome and coda or
xcode and ios sim but I'd prefer to not have to. All of my content stays in
sync with a combination of git and dropbox so no issues there either.

------
6ren
He mentions a useful life of three years - but within three years, I'd expect
ARM laptops to have largely replaced intel laptops, and be lighter, slimmer,
have longer battery life, etc.

Dual-core machines are out this year and are already fast enough for non-
intensive tasks. Quad-core are expected next year. As a guide, in three years
(2014) Tegra (Stark) is expected, which 100 times faster than Tegra 2. Apple's
internal cpu could well be faster. Three years is a long time.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nvidia_Tegra#Tegra_2_series>

------
japherwocky
Dell made a laptop with similar specs called the 'Adamo' for a while. It's
small, light and sexy, costs about half as much as an MBA, and Ubuntu worked
out of the box.

A good alternative if you'd like to avoid the Apple flavored kool-aid.

~~~
tomkinstinch
I couldn't find the "Adamo" listed on Dell's US website, but it is listed on
Amazon[1] for ~$1261. That's only a touch less than a MacBook Air. Where did
you find it for "half as much?"

1\. [http://www.amazon.com/Dell-Adamo-A13-6349PWH-13-4-Inch-
Lapto...](http://www.amazon.com/Dell-Adamo-A13-6349PWH-13-4-Inch-
Laptop/dp/B0030T17HS)

~~~
japherwocky
I bought mine last fall for $900, and I guess I'm not up on the latest MacBook
pricing. Sincerest apologies.

------
daimyoyo
I suppose if money were no object I'd probably get a MBA but the fact is that
the 13" MBP I ended up getting is more than enough for what I use it for and
was 25% cheaper. And when every dollar counts, that's important.

------
dr_
I've owned the 11.6" MBA for a couple of months now and it works great. It's
portability is fantastic because I have to take it with me to several
locations where I don't have a lot of work space. It's fast and the battery
life is decent enough so that during the day I really don't require a power
cord (but I don't go online much with it during the workday). The only time I
see it slow down a little is when I'm accessing my Yahoo email in Outlook.

------
xbryanx
I know it sounds trivial but the lack of a optical (CD/DVD) drive is my
biggest barrier. In my work place, I still get all kinds of files and media on
CDs and DVDs.

~~~
markkanof
That's an interesting data point. I recently got a Macbook Air and before
doing so I was thinking about the optical drive. I realized that for the way I
use a laptop, it's been 8+ years since I've used an optical drive on my
laptops for anything other than installing software. And now with more and
more software being distributed via download even that is becoming less of an
issue.

------
jorisw
The SSD. It's fast, fast, fast.

I use an 11.6" MBA for everything I do. At my desk, I hook up a 24" monitor.
At a client or a meeting, the 1366x768 resolution is just fine.

------
zmitri
I got the top of the line MacBook Air. It was my first Apple product ever.
After tax was 1900 ish, which I do admit is super expensive. It does
everything I need, and is SUPER portable -- I can carry it like a piece of
paper. Everything is super responsive, and compilation is fast enough. I run
Photoshop from time to time, and its not a problem whatsoever. Also tried out
Portal 2, no problems at all.

------
grandalf
I've been using an 11" macbook air for the past few months as a development
machine and it works just fine. I use emacs and ruby 1.9 mostly.

------
jrockway
As a developer, I can always use as much CPU time as I have available. A good
example is the Moose test suite: on my laptop, it takes 3 minutes (there are a
lot of tests). On my desktop with -j8, it takes 10 seconds.

(This setup was a lot less than $1799, and I have 6G of RAM, an SSD, and 3TB
of slower storage. But I am big on ergonomics, so a laptop doesn't work for me
anyway.)

------
mahyarm
I'm waiting until the MBA gets thunderbolt and solves it's biggest problem, a
lack of a fast data transfer method. Sandy Bridge CPUs and maybe maybe USB3
would be good bonuses. Otherwise I'm sticking with the Pro with gigabit
ethernet and firewire 800.

If the MBA could also get a 1080p screen like the sony vaio Z does, it would
get rid of the biggest reason I want to get a vaio Z.

------
stcredzero
I am currently using an original 2008 Macbook Unibody as my work machine. I
bought a 2011 i5 Macbook Pro last weekend, but I ended up returning it.
Instead, I bought a 2010 Macbook Pro. It will support my 256GB Crucial SSD and
two 1920x1080 27" monitors and will be my new work machine.

------
mark_l_watson
My MBA is my favorite computer also: for running IntelliJ, Emacs+Lisp, Rails
development, etc., it is great to use. I do still use a MBP for one customer's
work because I need a ton of services running during development.

------
MatthewB
I bought my MBA (top of the line) last week, it is amazing. It does everything
I need it to do. When I take out my MBP 15inch now...it feels like a huge
brick.

------
greg_gti
If you currently use a 13" MBP wait until the next revision of the MBA and buy
because right now, the differences don't justify the expense

------
Tycho
It's by far the most appealing laptop on the market I think. One question I
have though is can you get an anti-glare screen on it?

------
anr
MBAs have glossy displays too, right? That would be a turn off for me.

~~~
Glide
Glossy like the new MBPs? No, they don't. The glossy MBPs have a sheet of
glass and my current gen MBA doesn't have that.

Of course, I would recommend trying it out for yourself at an Apple Store
before deciding anything. Even if it wasn't glossy you still might not like
the screen.

------
highpass
In case anyone is wondering, Brooks uses the 2.13ghz model.

------
veidr
Workflows vary, of course. And yeah, for non-programmers, I think the Air is a
great machine--good enough to be the primary machine for most people.

But for full-time programming work, I think it is _absolutely_ _fucking_
_batshit_ _insane_ to use anything less than a modern 12-core Mac Pro with 32
GB RAM and an SSD RAID boot volume (at which point multiple 2560 x something
monitors are _de_ _rigueur_ ).

That's certainly true for [Obj-]C[++] development, where large compiles
_still_ take minutes, even on such hardware--and can take an entire lunch
break on the Air.

Obj-C coding is my primary background, so buying the fastest possible machine
every year has always made sense in that way; perhaps I have a leftover
cognitive bias toward buying the fastest possible machine. But, for the past
year or so, I've been working mainly with Ruby and Objective-J, which don't
have these burdensome compiles. Yet buying the fastest mainstream hardware
still makes tons of sense to me.

Running a few hundred unit tests, one second is way better than eight seconds.
Running a bunch of convoluted RSpec integration specs, 34 seconds is way, way
better than seven minutes. And although I mainly use simple editors like
MacVim and BBEdit, I also really like the psychotron-dynamic-heuristic
CodeSense-style introspection-based context-aware autocompletion features of
RubyMine--a heavyweight Java-based IDE that eats 800MB of RAM and can barely
even launch on a MacBook Air, and certainly isn't usable on it. And of course
the modern Pro can run Win7, WinXP, and Linux in VMWare in the background
without breaking a sweat (that's why 16GB RAM doesn't really suffice).

Don't get me wrong; I think the recent MacBook Air is awesome. I have one,
that I use for... well basically for word processing on airplanes (haha). And
whatever else on airplanes.

But for working programmers, I think computers are still not nearly 'powerful
enough'--there are still huge gains to be had by getting the fastest machine
that it is reasonably possible to buy.

For roughly the price of one decently tricked-out Mac Pro, you can buy ten
MacBook Airs. And for roughly the price of ten decently tricked-out Mac Pros,
you can hire one additional developer.

That notwithstanding, I still think it makes business sense.

Sometimes, in my dreams, an AI built by an alien race visits my house, from
the future in another galaxy, and explains to me the precise opportunity cost
of a dozen human developers waiting three or four extra seconds, a hundred
times a day for a year... and it's more than the ten grand that an
appropriately provisioned Mac Pro costs

P.S. A bootstrapped startup where money is really tight is the obvious
exception--the exception that proves the rule!

~~~
phamilton
On a separate note, does anyone know where one can buy a 12-core, 32GB RAM,
SSD RAID machine that's not made by apple? I've looked around and I can't find
any. Blade servers, sure, but desktop workstations?

I think it's interesting how apple has claimed the ultra high end user market
in addition to it's other markets.

~~~
m0nastic
All 3 of the main PC manufacturers (Dell, HP, and Lenovo) make such a system:

HP Z-series (I like the Z600[1]), or the Lenovo Thinkstations (C20[2] is
currently my favorite workstation, as it's tiny but still can have dual
Xeons).

[1] - [http://shopping1.hp.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/WFS/WW-
USS...](http://shopping1.hp.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/WFS/WW-
USSMBPublicStore-Site/en_US/-/USD/ViewStandardCatalog-
Browse;pgid=1ydA0Pk8CcFSR0MFoJ3jiJ0W000079OXckif;sid=353KuuDOAIvKuq13GGL12znBDZPyy0HQYcA=?CatalogCategoryID=5LsQ7EN6SggAAAEuzI84OQ28)

[2] -
[http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/web/LenovoPo...](http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/web/LenovoPortal/en_US/catalog.workflow:category.details?current-
catalog-id=12F0696583E04D86B9B79B0FEC01C087&current-category-
id=E246838574894A3EA27DB978D7EEFE67)

------
ascendant
I was seriously entertaining the idea of getting a top-end MBA earlier this
year (refurbed for $200 off) but then the new MBP's came out and I couldn't
justify a 13 inch screen and a Core 2 duo when for almost the same price I
could have the 15 inch screen and a Sandy Bridge Core I7. I got the MBP and
truly love it. I imagine the lightness of the air goes a long way towards what
makes it so popular but I don't really travel that much, I just carry my MBP
to coffee shops and tech events so it's not that big of a deal to me.

~~~
r00fus
Glad you like the MBP, but if you don't have an SSD you're missing out.

If you do, the prices are a lot more equivalent (ie, MBP+SSD is not cheap).

~~~
wyclif
IMO the SSD is what puts the MBA over the MBP when deciding between the two.
The big benefit is the battery life. The MBA is the first laptop I've ever
seen where a programmer can work for what amounts to a full day on a single
charge without any qualification.

------
wedtm
This changed my mind from a MBP to a MBA. Thank you.

------
lightoverhead
I'm really not a fun for Mac stuff. It's just a fashion thing, not for work.
For the money you spent on Mac, you can definitely buy a cheap powerful
machine with free reliable Linux system.

No matter to say its monopoly of market, even an adapter to projector need its
own. I have seen so many times someone using a Mac but forgot bringing that
stupid adapter for projector, she/he had to change to PC to do the
presentation.

Still don't understand why people like such pricey not comparably useful
machine.

~~~
laut
Macs "just work" for things where Linux doesn't. Photoshop doesn't run
natively on Linux, that's alone is enough for many to choose OS X over Linux.

For many people the price difference (if it's there) doesn't matter.

~~~
lightoverhead
that's the software not the machine. Can pc run photoshop?

~~~
laut
Mac OS X is the only unix based OS that runs Photoshop natively. Macs are the
only way to run Mac OS X except if you make a "hackintosh".

Linux is not as user friendly and integrated with the hardware as Macs. There
are certain apps that are only available for Mac. Those are some of the
reasons.

