

MacBook Air Haters: Suck My Dick - __
http://wilshipley.com/blog/2008/01/macbook-air-haters-suck-my-dick.html

======
Zak
The author also mentions that he just had a supercharger installed on his
Lotus. He's not "normal people". He obviously has a lot of disposable income
and the desire to spend it on expensive toys. There's nothing wrong with that;
the MBA was designed with him in mind. If I had that kind of spare cash, I'd
get one too - right after the supercharged Lotus.

~~~
derefr
Expensive toys... like the iPod? Apple has never marketed to the kind of
"normal people" you're talking about.

They've marketed to people with designer homes, designer clothes, and designer
children; college students (working ridiculous hours at high-paying jobs but
with no high-charging commitments such as a mortgage); and schools (who have
large sums of government money and a strong desire to use it for anything
other than improving learning quality).

Additionally, the Mac v PC ads appeal to hipsters, the same people that buy
$300 pairs of jeans, and soccer moms, the same people that buy $30000
minivans.

The inexpensive Apple products are just things to buy for your children, your
relatives, or your spouse to integrate them into the Apple fold. When those
kids grow up, they'll buy [the expensive] Macs as well. It's a loss leader in
the same way that Adobe feigns interest in copy-protecting Photoshop--when the
people that crack it hone their skills and start actual graphic design
careers, where else will they turn for official, licensed on-the-job software?

~~~
jackbard
derefr, Unfortunately, you are either jealous and letting that affect your
judgment or you completely fail to understand that there are real-world
reasons to own a Mac. I bought a Mac because I wanted a system that is
designed rather than evolved, comes with software I actually want to use
(iMovie, Garageband, iPhoto), is secure, and not a target for viruses/spyware,
and can occasionally play my Windows video games and host my Windows
development environment.

The reason I switched my mom, inlaws, brother and sister to Macs is because I
got damned sick and tired of being their IT Helpdesk every other weekend --
diagnosing problems, rebuilding machines infected with spyware & viruses,
installing patches and fixes, etc. I've got better things to do with my life
such as making original content (music & video) with the computer. However,
some people just enjoy farting around with settings. That's not me.

Those commercials appeal to me: a 40-year-old guy wearing $17 Wrangler jeans
and a t-shirt from Target. You know why? Because they bring out the defensive
XP fanboys such as yourself. We laugh at the commercials, then we laugh at
you. Now run along. Don't you have some patches to install or something to
update?

\--Jack

~~~
derefr
I'm sorry for coming off as an "XP fanboy"--I didn't mean to sound _negative_
with anything I said. I fit into at least three of the groups I mentioned,
currently am on my third iPod, and am thinking of getting the very Macbook Air
I'm talking about. I love OS X, but that has nothing to do with my argument. I
know full-well that I'm in the upper-middle class, and you probably are too--
you've just chosen, like most enthusiasts, to spend your money on technology
rather than fashion.

The fact that Apple has a successfully viral strategy in using their more
inexpensive products (such as the Mac Mini) to guide people into buying
complementary products (such as the Apple TV, Cinema displays, and Airport
Express) and eventually fully integrate them into the "Mac lifestyle" is the
mark of a _smart_ company, and exactly what Microsoft wishes it had when it
refers to a lacking "consumer experience." They probably never will as long as
they don't control the hardware, though.

Of course, from the perspective of the consumer, Apple products are sometimes
the "pragmatic decision." However, in all of this, I was referring to Apple's
marketing department's intended market for their products and services, not
necessarily the "long tail" of economic and word-of-mouth users.

------
tlrobinson
For those not familiar with Wil Shipley, this is his style, so MacBook Air
haters: don't take it personally. :)

Some context: he founded The Omni Group software back when OS X was NEXTSTEP.
They became pretty successful when Apple bought NeXT and released Mac OS X. He
left and founded Delicious Monster, which makes one of the more successful
useless OS X applications, Delicious Library.

~~~
alaskamiller
they've sold more than 50,000 copies apparently. most of the employees he's
had at delicious monster have been poached by apple over the years. most
recently that of mike matas.

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elq
Will Shipley can be an ass... but this otherwise worthless blog post has one
nugget of useful info -

"My MacBook Air with 2GB of RAM and 1.8 GHz cores and the SSD compiles
Delicious Library 2 from scratch in 1:59.4. My MacBook Pro with 3GB of RAM and
2.3GHz cores and an HD compile it in... 2:04.3."

SSD may be worth the extra money.

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jawngee
Yay for him.

 _cough_ douche bag _cough_

~~~
pius
Yeah, that's certainly what he sounded like here (though I'm sure he's a great
guy -- we've all got our soapboxes). I stopped reading after this:

" _I have no fucking idea where the hard drive is in my MacBook Pro, and even
if you drew me a damn diagram with labels and numbers and gave me a
replacement drive I wouldn't open my machine even in exchange for a year with
Zooey Deschanel._ "

------
manvsmachine
"..what you think is cool is NOT what my mom thinks is cool, or what an
executive thinks is cool, or what a lawyer who just wants to write a
deposition on her laptop thinks is cool.."

I'm sure an executive doesn't think it's cool that the battery's going to die
on them before their plane touches down.

"But I understand my iPhone, and I don't have to learn it, because it's
learned me."

Your phone "learned" you? Really? Someone with an iPhone, please enlighten me.

"But let's admit amongst ourselves that the overwhelming majority of people
out there have never pulled the battery out of their existing laptops, and
didn't even know or care that it comes out."

Which means that they weren't complaining that it could come out. Don't fix it
if it ain't broke. By that logic, I guess Lotus should make it so that you
can't change your oil. Judging from your mechanical skills (it's called a
bolt-on because it bolts right on), you were gonna take it to the dealership
anyway, right?

That said, I don't think the Air is worthless, just worthless for people who
view their laptop as a tool rather than an accessory.

~~~
jamiequint
"I'm sure an executive doesn't think it's cool that the battery's going to die
on them before their plane touches down."

poor argument. 5 hours battery life on the MB air is more than most Dells
would last on 2 batteries.

"just worthless for people who view their laptop as a tool rather than an
accessory"

lets see, what have I plugged into my MB pro in the last 6 months....

1\. DVI 2\. Power 3\. Headphones 4\. USB Harddrive 5\. Digital camera

Basically nothing I couldn't have also plugged in on the MB Air. (never had to
plug in my camera and usb drive simultaneously). Also, I haven't put a CD in
my computer since I installed Leopard, so not having a CD drive is hardly much
of an inconvenience.

I liked this article because it called out all the FUD tactics that the
Macbook Air haters are raging on about for no reason.

~~~
manvsmachine
Read arstechnica's review, they didn't get even get 3 hours, much less 5. They
got worse battery life than from a regular Macbook and noted that it takes
twice as long for the battery to charge than to discharge. In fact, an entire
section of their review is titled "Battery Life, I Miss You". Does that sound
appealing?

When I say accessory, I mean that some people don't NEED to be able to pull
out their notebook at any given time to do something important. Not everybody
does, but those would be the people that view it as an "accessory". It's cool
that they have it, but I hope their ability to get work done is not solely
dependent on it.

Like I said, I like the Air, but it seems to only be perfect for people who
don't actually NEED it.

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ice5nake
I'd triple bury this story if I could. He's like a "patriot" saying you
shouldn't criticize the government.

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migpwr
How about a work safe edit on the title?

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zach
Ah, Wil Shipley -- the original Fake Steve Jobs.

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mooneater
This rather belongs on digg.

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lyime
just unnecessary

