Reply to: Bummer - went to the Apple shop after lunch ...

[Moscow Mule]

Why would you buy an ultra-thin netbook for video editing or DVD ripping?

Which was my point...

[scooterscot]

In contrast I bought my first Apple because I'd got sick of Windows, and Linux was still having difficulties with laptop support.

I was definitely impressed with the way that performance got better with each release of OS X - a direct contrast to bloatware stories elsewhere.

And OS X gave me a chance to learn Unix at my own pace. I also found that I didn't need to keep buying extra software to do stuff. When I was using Windows at home, there always seemed to be something extra I needed to buy.

WHS - This is about the same way I fell into using OS X, the hardware was not really all that much an interest to me at the time.

Productivity using OS X for day to day tasks is considerably noticeable

[DaveB]

It cost £1500, which even for Apple can't be a cheapie can it ?

Macbooks start at £867, you'd struggle to spec that up to £1500 unless you went for all the optional software as well. A fully specced Macbook will still only set you back a shade over £1000.

Pro's start at £999 and you can easily spec it well beyond £1500.

All depends on how old it was. A few years old and yes, you could have spent £1500 on a standard Macbook but they cut the range right back and now it's the budget Mac laptop and Pro's are the premium models with all the optional extras.

[shaunbhoy]

Sasguru is a Dull boy

FTFY

[doodab]

That was sasguru.

HTH

Sasguru is Dell boy?

[AtW]

(Must admit I had a fair bit of trouble with it, when one of the disks went AWOL. But Dell sent someone round to replace the disk.)

That was sasguru.

HTH

[OwlHoot]

Spot the poor boy who can't afford the best quality hardware.

Chortle - A few months ago I bought an Alienware M17X , with all top-spec parts, for over £3K. So put that in your pipe and smoke it, cowboy!

(Must admit I had a fair bit of trouble with it, when one of the disks went AWOL. But Dell sent someone round to replace the disk.)

[amcdonald]

I doubt it was really better specced. It rather depends what things you include in the spec... if you measure cars only on top speed, 0-60 and BHP then you get the same comparisons made.

I got a 2nd gen Quad core I7 with 8gig of ram and a 2 gig dedicated graphics card, and a 6 hour battery life for £600, show me a similarly priced Mac laptop that can beat that!

[amcdonald]

If it was white it wasn't a pro unless it was very old.

Pro's are all aluminium unibodies now. White plastic is for standard Macbooks only.

It cost £1500, which even for Apple can't be a cheapie can it ?

[doodab]

This from the man who is skint because by his own admission he spent his contract earnings on fripperies. I guess you must be an expert on shallowness and penury.

Er not exactly, I'm slightly indebted due to a combination of factors of which a taste for the finer things in life is just one, but I always sought quality and value in my spendthriftery and very little of it was frivolous.

To my mind £900 seems a lot for what is on offer, which coming from the owner of a £40 potato masher* ought to serve as quite a damning indictment. The iPad seems a much more sensible device, particularly as it offers built in 3G.


* I would like to point out it's the finest potato masher available at any price.

[doodab]

Yawn, you sound like my dad talking about "video games". Your flat-screen TV is a waste, so are clothes costing more than £20, blah blah blah.

Have I hit a nerve?

[sasguru]

It horses for courses really.

If you want to waste £900 on a shiny thing to give your empty life meaning, albeit only transitory, and impress your equally shallow friends then I'd agree the macbook air is in a class of it's own. If what you want or need is a mobile workstation that is still reasonably portable then Thinkpads are a better bet.

This from the man who is skint because by his own admission he spent his contract earnings on fripperies. I guess you must be an expert on shallowness and penury.
I ,on the other hand, have no experience with either, the MacAir suiting my purposes exactly in both form and function and being eminently affordable to me.

HTH

[d000hg]

If you want to waste £900 on a shiny thing.

Yawn, you sound like my dad talking about "video games". Your flat-screen TV is a waste, so are clothes costing more than £20, blah blah blah.

[Sysman]

I used to hate Apple because the Mac users were so smug and always dissed Windows. That changed when they released IPhone. IPhone is a neat invention and it forced all the mobile phone providers to up the game.

In contrast I bought my first Apple because I'd got sick of Windows, and Linux was still having difficulties with laptop support.

I was definitely impressed with the way that performance got better with each release of OS X - a direct contrast to bloatware stories elsewhere.

And OS X gave me a chance to learn Unix at my own pace. I also found that I didn't need to keep buying extra software to do stuff. When I was using Windows at home, there always seemed to be something extra I needed to buy.

[doodab]

It horses for courses really.

If you want to waste £900 on a shiny thing to give your empty life meaning, albeit only transitory, and impress your equally shallow friends then I'd agree the macbook air is in a class of it's own. If what you want or need is a mobile workstation that is still reasonably portable then Thinkpads are a better bet.