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MacBook Air is enough for a work machine

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Re: MacBook Air is enough for a work machine

#71

Post by dedward »

jimwise wrote: post #13

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…

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.

Re: MacBook Air is enough for a work machine

#73

Post by Tiomaidh »

japherwocky wrote: post #67

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.

Lenovo's about to release the ThinkPad X1, with relatively beefy specs and the MBA's form factor. Do want. It's freakishly expensive though (almost $3K).

http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/23/lenovo-thinkpad-x1-shows-...

Re: MacBook Air is enough for a work machine

#74

Post by 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.

Re: MacBook Air is enough for a work machine

#75

Post by bergie »

runjake wrote: post #60
bergie wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HDMI is almost the same size as the Mini DisplayPort. Apple just loves their own connectors, unfortunately. I was shocked when I noticed the VGA adapter wasn't included in the package. Luckily I realized this before my first conference presentation with the new computer ;-)

If by "almost" you mean "over twice as big", sure. (I happen to have an HDMI connector sitting next to my MBP's Thunderbolt (nee Mini-DisplayPort) port. Edit: They have "mini-HDMI" out, which is an entirely different beast than the mini-HDMI adapters included on many Android smartphones. A mini-HDMI port would require similar adapters to connect to anything useful. A normal "type-A" HDMI port is a sizeable connector,…

Several mobile phones have HDMI out. For me that is "small enough". I think HDMI would even make the ports on different sides more balanced, as the size is more similar to the magsafe adapter

Re: MacBook Air is enough for a work machine

#76

Post by callahad »

uggedal wrote: post #23
bergie wrote: post #2

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...

I'm also thrilled with my MacBook Air 11" running Debian. The installation and configuration took some time though. Since I manage it all in Puppet it's easy to reproduce. Here is the high level Puppet code to configure everything to my liking: http://paste.pocoo.org/show/379663/

Thank you -- if I may ask, what are in the network::interfaces::wireless and keyboard::apple classes? I'm strongly considering switching my MBA over to Debian in the near future.

Re: MacBook Air is enough for a work machine

#77

Post by 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/

Re: MacBook Air is enough for a work machine

#78

Post by bergie »

rufo wrote: post #48
bergie wrote: post #2

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...

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?

7 hours is for the 13" MBA. I have 11".

Re: MacBook Air is enough for a work machine

#79

Post by 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.)

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