after 15 years.. got my first Mac yesterday..

Except that you will primarily be using it as a Windows machine. Why pay for something more when you can buy other products for a lower price that were designed to run Windows (whereas Macs have, and will always be designed around Mac OS). Yes, the hardware inside of Macs really isn't anything special. However, Mac OS is tailored to that hardware while the Windows drivers that Apple supplies (even ones from third parties) aren't as good as what Apple has running in Mac OS.

Although the MBA is a really good system, its benefits are defeated by mainly running Windows. Battery life is decreased, the trackpad doesn't function the same, the display brightness and keyboard backlight levels have to be manually adjusted (going back to the drivers), the SSD doesn't operate at full potential, firmware updates are obtained only through Mac OS, and the list can go on. Bootcamp and virtual machine clients allow Macs to run Windows as an added feature, not a primary OS.

 

Last I checked the MBA ran the same i5/i7 chipset as the other ultrabooks, so aside from some function keys not working out of the box, I'm not sure what the problem is.

I've actually seen many folks use W7 as their primary OS, as I would, relying on OSX for more browsing/entertainment stuff.

Seems like a 2-for-1 deal to me.

 

I guess the issues I previously mentioned don't factor in. There are several reasons why it is general not a good idea to run Windows as the primary OS on a Mac. I have listed a few but there are others scattered throughout the forums as this topic comes up a lot. Feel free to do what you want with your money, just know that you will be getting a suboptimal experience.

 

Performance-wise, the MBA appears to shine under W7-Pro x64 versus the other ultrabooks. And it looks like there are drivers for most of the MBA features, but I won't be too sore about missing some of the minor stuff (I'm a mouse guy, not a touchpad guy).

Can't wait to see W7-Pro x64 really get some good use on this :drool

 

Well yeah, you are comparing a $1500 ultra thing to $1000 ultrabooks. Ultrabooks that match the MBA's price will have very similar (if not the same) internal components and provide a better Windows experience due to full driver support. For example, a $1429 Toshiba Z830 comes with a dual-core Core i7 processor and 6GB of RAM beating out what the $1600 MBA offers except for the SSD (that is 256GB). Fall down to the $1200 Toshiba Z830 and it comes with everything the $1300 MBA has while providing full native Windows support. Both of those ultrabooks from Toshiba are able to compete with the MBA when it comes to specs and performance.

So what exactly is it about the more expensive MBA models with wonky driver support that provides a better experience? Again: why pay more to have a sub-optimal experience?

 

As mentioned in my last 2 posts, its like having 2 computers for the price of 1. I get to have a small 20GB OSX partition (good to futz around with), and my main Win7-Pro partition. Plus, most benchmarks show MBA excelling performance-wise.

While the Toshiba would be perfect, I need more than 128GB. ASUS has issues with all of the components (trackpad, wifi, no backlit), and the Lenovo is just uninspiring.

And just an FYI that these ultrabooks are all about $100 away from each other when similarly equipped. Sounds like a good 2-for-1 deal to me.

I'm glad you're so concerned about how I budget my laptop purchases though

 

The Air can run OSX & windows...
Toshiba can only run windows. I would pay $100 more to have OSX native and windows 7 as a secondary

 

I would take the thunderbolt port for HDMI, and when a thunderbolt hard drive comes out that will rock as well!

 

@elgordo:

Please let us know in a few weeks how your Win7 on MBA experience is.

 

you do make a point... Thinking more on your argument, I will agree...

 

That's so funny I forgot to laugh. Enjoy your purchase.

 

oooh, he went old school, he did!!

 

I'd rather have a thunderbolt port over HDMI, why? Thunderbolt can be easily adapted to HDMI, VGA, DL-DVI (and lessor), while it's also capable of being a native DP port. HDMI? HDMI, SL-DVI... and.... that's it!

 

Just installed Win7 Pro x64 and man it flies! The Apple driver pack works great- gestures, ambient light sensor, hot keys, etc all seem to work fine in Windows. did a 23gb (min allowed) partition for OSX and the rest (220gb+) to W7.

Next step is to start installing software

 

A thunderbolt hard drive like an external thunderbolt drive?

 

First software you should install on your proud new "Windows" machine is anti-virus.

 

Yes, installed Avira right off the bat on the "Windows" partition of the MBA. Took about 3 minutes and its free.

Also installed a ton of work applications (SQL Server, Visual Studio, etc) and pulled everything down from Dropbox so no media required.

Also starting to watch some OSX tutorials. I'm such an OSX noob I didn't even know how to access the file system and other basic tasks. It will be fun to switch between two OS's on a superior machine.

Also, since the install of Win7 is completely fresh, there is zero bloatware. Something I was increasingly getting sick of with ASUS hardware.

 

Read what I said carefully, I would take a thunderbolt port over HDMI...

 

Yes, 1 or 2 TB with Thunderbolt would rock.

You might want to invest in a good paid anti virus as I found the free ones like AVG really do suck.

 

I used avast and recently MSE (microsoft's AV) and it actually got a virus when it and mcafee were running together. Due to good choices for free AVs, you can find almost free mail-in-rebate antiviruses at sales.

 

The p90x workout schedule is an incredibly popular home-based, boot camp-style video exercise program that some fitness fanatics swear by. But does it do the job? A study of the system finds it does improve cardio respiratory function.
Insanity Workout Results

 

But can it blend?

 

Too funny...that post sounded about as cut and paste as can be

 

......aaannd?





Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

MSE is really the best non enterprise class anti virus. There is no competition.

 

??

Never had any issues with Avira, and always felt it performed a bit faster than MSE. I'm also not downloading torrents and other garbage, so it's not something I worry too much about.

 

as I said there is no competition, in terms of performance and affected performance.