i don't think I'll be adding anything new to this thread, but then again there's no need to. It's pretty crazy for anyone to hope to use their shiny new MBA for anything other than the basics. That's the truth, and so the MBA may or may not be suited to you, depending on your needs. Personally I'm just a university student, so I only need a laptop for word-processing and internet, and maybe I bit of music playback when I'm bored. So the MBA is perfect for my needs. (Yes, I coulda bought a regular MB, but I also happen to be a rather stylish uni student.)
If you wanna do more with the MBA, stiff cheddar.
You'll have to find a better notebook (MBP or maybe a MB), or else a decent desktop.
I trust I will get flamed for this, but I'm not sure why everyone accepts tha fact that an MBA cannot be used as a primary system.
Coming from one of the original MBP 2.0 systems, the performance difference is not noticable, and in some ways the difference between the processors (core duo vs core2 duo) favors the MBA. Memory is the same, as is drive space.
I'm a technology consultant - primarily Microsoft technologies, and lots of network architecture. I run Omnigraffle when I can get away with it, but much of my work is in Visio via Fusion. I'm often forced to use Outlook for client email if I am stuck on their messaging system. I rely on Office 2007 in a VM for much of my documentation and documentation review. Natively in OS X I'm trying to determine if I can switch full over to NeoOffice, rather than dropping another copy of MSFT Office onboard. Not because I don't have the space, though - I currently have about 30GB of space free.
I don't play many games on it, and nothing graphically demanding if I do, during my downtime.
There are downsides to the MBA, such as lack of an integrated optical disk (I did grab the SuperDrive) as well as an ethernet port (Again, I bought the USB dongle) but really, what's the other disadvantage? It has one less USB port than the MBP? Sure, it's less convenient to have to use a USB broadband card, but that's not my model, so I don't care. And for an external mouse, I have a bluetooth one that works just fine.
At my office, I have a 20" display and USB hub that I run everything into. I rely on wireless there so it works fine.
Are there nits? Sure, I have less screen real estate on the road, but I expected to make that compromise for a lighter system. I had a Dell x300 so I understand about compromises in a subnotebook. In this case, the compromises - performance, display, keyboard - are significantly less than with other subnotebooks.
It's not a solution for everyone, but people who disregard it as a serious business system are missing the boat. It's limitations are those faced by every subnotebook, and less so in each case. In general you pay a price for scale, and that's the case here. That doesn't mean it won't work as a primary system for many people.
