If you're considering a Mac Air...

[velomoto]

Being a Mac/PC user I thot this review captured a lot of the differences (pro's, con's) of the Mac versus PC debate. It's definitely geared toward the tech weenie but points out a lot of the subtle differences in how one uses the Mac, or rather the PC habits which won't work. If you find there's too much detail there's a summary on the last page.

Linky - Computerworld

[Mike O]

We had a lively discussion about this here on BMWST about six months ago. In the end, it's like religion or politics. I commented at length in that thread and found good things about BOTH platforms along with an equal number of negatives. I have both and the Apple Macbook Pro I have has wonderful hardware design elements, and Mac OsX works as advertised. On the other hand it has some real quirks as well, as does the Windows/PC platform. It's kinda like Blackberry vs. iPhone debate as well.

 

YMMV...(and competition is GOOD for all of us)

 

Mike O

[Jerry Johnston]

Interesting article! Thanks

[velomoto]

Mike - thanks for the pointer. I agree with everything which was said!

 

Hopefully Microsoft's next OS (OS7) will turn out to be a better product than Vista. We, like many other companies, still have no plans to move to Vista. Any PC which arrives with Vista gets the OS wiped and is upgraded to XP!

[Selden]

I've been a Mac owner/enthusiast since May of 1984, but I just can't see $2500 for a laptop that has almost no usable ports. For $350, my Acer has a standard VGA port, 3 USB ports, a 7-format card reader and an SD card reader that can be used to extend SSD disk space. It also weighs a half pound less than the Mac Air, and has a replaceable battery that runs longer. Admittedly, the keyboard and screen are at the lower limits of usability (actually, the screen is just about the same size as the original Mac screen), but that's a tradeoff I'm willing to make for a machine that spends a lot of time on a motorcycle.

 

The "Living Free with Linux" article was more interesting to me than the Airbook article. Linux definitely has a steeper learning curve than either Mac OS or Windows (any flavor), and installing apps can be especially tricky. That said, I was able to tweak the UI so that it has some of the best features of MacOS and XP, and I have been very pleased. Apart from printer sharing (which worked without any configuration), networking isn't of interest to me, and the apps I have installed do everything that I need to do. Free software for life is pretty attractive, in addition to not having to worry about viruses.