A Macbook Air Competitor?
engadget.com
engadget.com
Screen res is lower than the 13" MBA's screen (1440x900), which to me is a pretty big deal. I find the 1440x900 res on my 13" MBA just barely workable, I wouldn't want any less vertical resolution these days.
The other thing is that the Dell runds Windows. While this is totally a personal preference, I just do not like working in Windows. Had this machine been available for $500 with a higher-res screen when I got my MBA, I still would have opted for the Mac. I'm aware of the hackintosh projects as well, but I don't really enjoy fighting with my OS anymore.
Granted, I'm virtualizing Ubuntu right now for dev. It integrates seamlessly, and has been working beautifully so far.
There is no Final Cut, or even iMovie for linux.
Despite all the raves, I could never get the hang of Gimp and found it lacking for things like photo editing and cataloging ala Aperture.
Not to mention the countless times there some application I wanted to use and it seemed I could only find a binary or package for an linux varient that wasn't what I was using at the time. Chasing dependencies, etc.
When I used linux as my desktop, it just seemed that I was always fighting the OS if I wanted to have full support for my hardware features, decent applications, and up to date patches.
Now, for a server, I'll use almost nothing but linux.
The form factor and weight of the MacBook Air is its killer feature, not its CPU/GPU/RAM/SSD.
The tiny MBA is awesome to use and as needed I plug into a large monitor. I still occasionally use the MB Pro when I need a heavy weight Java IDE, large local data stores, etc., but for most of what I do for work (Ruby, Clojure, Common Lisp, and writing with Latex) the Air is fully capable and a great experience. I use the Air about 80% of the time, the Pro about 15% of the time, and the Toshiba about 5% of the time.
I swore off buying Dell laptops after the last XPS I bought burnt through two separate motherboards (it's still warm to the touch when idling). Previous Dell laptops had an array of different issues: hinges that became brittle and broke, fans that stopped working, etc. Their hardware just seems ridiculously error prone, which explains why they're able to price themselves so competitively.
Lots of gents around our office have Dells, and they tend to be built like brick shithouses, so to speak.
FWIW, I'd want to install Ubuntu on either one (anticipating that the MBA will be much more difficult in this regard.)
Any advice?
http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-U35JC-A1-13-3-Inch-Laptop-Silver/...
In particular, the 10h battery life is pretty neat, didn't saw the numbers for the Adamo.
The Adamo is also considerably heavier than the MBA at 1.8KG (and 1.64cm thick)
It's been great so far (had it for almost a year), and IMO what an ultralight really should be. The battery life really is phenomenal: 10 hrs vs. 7 hrs sounds like a moot difference, but after you look at "usable" numbers (8 and 5, in my experience), it boils down to pretty much a full day vs. not quite. As a student, I never have to worry about grabbing my power cord on the way out, compared to everyone else I know always having one on hand.
On the other hand, OS X really is a big selling point. Windows simply isn't natively compatible with what I need, and Ubuntu is a pain with consumer apps (Office, Adobe CS5, Mathematica, etc.) My cheap solution? Virtualize Ubuntu under Windows with VMWare Player and VMWare Unity (which is free). I do all my coding and dev work in Ubuntu, and everything else in Windows.