Newbie - switch to Air and OS X?

[BongoBanger]

if youre going to run windows on a mac, just go buy a PC. its not worth spending the money on a mac if you arent going to take advantage of the mac os.

Pretty much.

Of course, it's up to the TC. If the "oh shiny" factor outweighs economics then he should get an Air. If it doesn't he should get the Dell.

Hey ho.

 

[Heavenkittykat]

what the hell are you talking about?

What on earth are you talking about? The MBA can handle the OP's needs perfectly.

I recommend the Air, its a wonderful Mac.

I totally agree. I own macbook air and its perfect for the needs of the OP. Some people would think that this cannot be your primary computer but if all you do is what the OP does, MBA is more than enough.

 

[Vista-Victim]

Thanks all! Here's what I've done...

Got the Air from the Mall preloaded with Parallels and the Superdrive. I got the Apple plan on sale because I have no idea how this thing is going to turn out... but, this thing rocks! Going from a desktop or notebook brick is amazing. So for my needs -

Web
email
iTunes
iPhoto
Some YouTube
Run Office, VPN, Quicken in windows xp

Its been great. Now to answer some questions/concerns-

Hard drive activity - not really.

Fan activity - maybe once, but some people made it out to be like a plane was landing overhead, I actually find it a comfortable type of 'white-noise'.

Does it get hot - kind of - more like a dog or cat sitting in your lap. No problems.

Miss the drive? NO - Superdrive is what I used to restore iTunes library, worked like a charm.

Trackpad - big thumbs up - love it - great for surfing. A must have feature for me going forward on tech devices.

Printer hookup, email hookup, nice.

XP update, 93 patches, no problems.

Battery time, nor replacement, not the greatest but can't beat the portability and connectivity (sans an iPhone).

Wobblely base - no.

Gaming machine - I don't know nor care, not a need. It can play cards and chess, works for me.

Time machine - on my to do list - probably during the basketball game Monday.

Basically, coming from the WinTel world, this has been a real treat. I mean the issues people have are valid but, in my situation, hasn't been a show stopper.

The engineering and progress in technology from the 80's is mind-boggling. Bottom line, the Apple just works. You think you have problems with Leopard, iMac, MacBook versus MBP, man its nothing compared to some of the hassles in WinTel land.

I showed my wife XP running in Parallels on OSX, the spreadsheet was smooth and fast - totally freaked her out. Apple isn't a toy, its a tool. My worst experience so far is that the Mall slapped an XP license onto the bottom of the Air, that's looks so tacky and so frickin' petty on Microsoft's part.

One happy camper so far, any further advice for a Newbie - web sites or software that make the Apple experience that much more enjoyable?

 

[BongoBanger]

Glad it's workign out for you. Let us know how it goes in future.

One thign though - if you're using XP on a Mac running an Intel processor then you're still in the WinTel world!