Believe it or not, I have my manager talked into buying a MacBook Air. She's found that she really really wants an ultraportable notebook PC and the MacBook Air looks to be just right for her. I'm still terribly disappointed there is no replaceable battery or built-in CD-ROM but I guess we can deal with that. My big concern is that the reviews have all mentioned that it gets terribly hot. Hopefully this won't be a problem.
We're getting the MacBook Air on a 30 day evaluation so I've got 30 days to prove to her that this thing does what she wants. I'm hoping we can pop Fusion on the thing and do everything she needs Windows-wise while giving her a tasteof the Mac OS that she's never had. It'll do a lot to champion my argument for a MacBook Pro at the end of the year. Fortunately, we have people we can send our rather new Thinkpads down to in the company that need replacements this year but timing is everything.
My big concern is that somehow this thing isn't going to work the way I want it to or she's going to have some issue to deal with that gets her frustrated and wanting to return the thing. If the MacBook Air blows this opportunity, I'll probably have to write off the Mac forever here at the company. Worse yet (I guess this is worse), it'll blow our chances to get iPhones here instead of Blackberry phones too. I realize they are two different beasts but some people tend to lump all these things together. She does like her iPod so that helps.
Any suggestions from those out in the field? I've not used Mac's in a very long time and normally I'd have a Mac first since I'm the one that usually noodles through all the experimental or trial stuff. I'll have no reference point. The plan is to load up Fusion and Windows XP under OS X, load Office/Outlook, VPN client, Citrix/Terminal Services client, and run with it. The killer for me will be the VPN client, if it doesn't work for some reason under Fusion, I'm dead meat.
Wish me luck!
3 comments:
Good luck, dude. I run Parallels, so if Fusion gives you any problems, you might have a plan B with that.
Though I'm not doing any heavy lifting with it, it's been great for me. I have installations of XP and Vista, often open simultaneously. It's great.
I do think the Air itself is a risky gateway mac. It's limited in ways that normally give lots of ammo to non-mac naysayers. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you. If I can help, let me know.
I'll agree with you that this is a risky starter Mac but unfortunately, the MacBook and MacBook Pro aren't significantly different enough to warrant a change. This is a radical departure from what she is used to both in form and OS so I'll just have to cross my fingers.
The biggest potential gripes I can see are probably going to be:
- No DVD built-in (so you end up carrying it around)
- It may be hot when running.
Ironically, the more I think about it, the battery may not be an issue. We've almost never replaced batteries in our other laptops and never buy spares so unless the thing has a problem, it shouldn't be a concern.
What started this was she saw a Lenovo Ideapad U110 which, oddly, is targeted at the home market for $1800 a pop and doesn't run Windows XP (a must). The X300 from Lenovo is a good competitor for the MacBook Air but is really expensive. Oddly enough, it may look a bit too regular too. There will be some bragging rights with the MacBook Air despite shortcomings on the port side.
I guess we'll see how it goes.
The MacBook Air is a perfect gateway Mac for people who need the lightest form factor and have fairly light demands on a machine.
I think she'll be thrilled with it.
Any follow-up yet?
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