Looking for a mini-laptop. Any advice?

[second exodous]

OK, many thanks everyone for your advices. I read a lot of reviews, tried some of my friends, and at the end I was becoming crazy with changing my mind every 2 hours for the one I was going to get.


In the end, almost on an impulse I went to the Mac store and got an Air 11 inches. 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD. The price was a bit difficult to swallow, but you only live once, right? And I'm glad I did. I picked it originally for the weight and form factor (the always perfect Apple look and feel), the first thing I did was slap Win 7 64b on it (using BootCamp), and then tried on some games. This thing rocks! I even tried on some of the most recent ones, just to benchmark it, and it did surprisingly good with them.


Only bad point so far, the HD space is a bit on the small size, but it's SSD, you can't have the cake and eat it too.


Again, thanks for all your advice.

Facepalm.

I think if any other company had branded stores they'd be a top option also but Apple is it, the only one, you pay a premium but that cash goes to building these stores all over the freaking place so it is easy for Apple owners to get help and fast repairs.


Notebooks I'll always go with apple because there are so many more things that can go wrong with a computer that small and they are not made of standard parts so fixing them your self is not an option most of the time. I'll never buy a desktop(imac or their tower) since a standard PC is made of standard size parts so I can fix my own computers, in fact I've never taken a desktop in anywhere to get it fixed, I've always managed it myself. Notebooks on the other hand need to be sent to the manufacturer to get fixed or you'll be ripped off by third party. Apple wins here because you can take it into any mac store and have it fixed and it is free if it is under warranty.


When considering notebooks Apple is a no-brainier for me.

 

[Austin25]

OK, many thanks everyone for your advices. I read a lot of reviews, tried some of my friends, and at the end I was becoming crazy with changing my mind every 2 hours for the one I was going to get.


In the end, almost on an impulse I went to the Mac store and got an Air 11 inches. 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD. The price was a bit difficult to swallow, but you only live once, right? And I'm glad I did. I picked it originally for the weight and form factor (the always perfect Apple look and feel), the first thing I did was slap Win 7 64b on it (using BootCamp), and then tried on some games. This thing rocks! I even tried on some of the most recent ones, just to benchmark it, and it did surprisingly good with them.


Only bad point so far, the HD space is a bit on the small size, but it's SSD, you can't have the cake and eat it too.


Again, thanks for all your advice.

Facepalm.

I think if any other company had branded stores they'd be a top option also but Apple is it, the only one, you pay a premium but that cash goes to building these stores all over the freaking place so it is easy for Apple owners to get help and fast repairs.


Notebooks I'll always go with apple because there are so many more things that can go wrong with a computer that small and they are not made of standard parts so fixing them your self is not an option most of the time. I'll never buy a desktop(imac or their tower) since a standard PC is made of standard size parts so I can fix my own computers, in fact I've never taken a desktop in anywhere to get it fixed, I've always managed it myself. Notebooks on the other hand need to be sent to the manufacturer to get fixed or you'll be ripped off by third party. Apple wins here because you can take it into any mac store and have it fixed and it is free if it is under warranty.


When considering notebooks Apple is a no-brainier for me.

Maybe, but why the Windows 7?

 

[Asiyura]

[...]


Maybe, but why the Windows 7?

Because there are a lot of softwares that don't run on OS X.


I own a small logic analyzer and signal generator, the maker plan on porting the software to linux and os x.


But as for now, I have to use it on windows.


Virtual machines are alright but when the software is a bit hardware intensive, it's not that comfortable.

 

[second exodous]

[...]


Maybe, but why the Windows 7?

Because there are a lot of softwares that don't run on OS X.


I own a small logic analyzer and signal generator, the maker plan on porting the software to linux and os x.


But as for now, I have to use it on windows.


Virtual machines are alright but when the software is a bit hardware intensive, it's not that comfortable.

I like OSX alright but I'd feel trapped if that is all I had. Then again I'd feel trapped if all I had was OSX and Windows 7. I myself would need Linux to have a usable system. Eh, I guess to each his own.


EDIT: Oh man, now I'm looking at the macbook air. I do NOT need a notebook right now, I have to make it work with my Pandora and my desktop.


And wow, it comes with a full size SD slot, I wish every device that was big enough for a full SD slot came with one, I don't get micro SD on anything larger than a cell phone.

 

[Austin25]

Because there are a lot of softwares that don't run on OS X.


I own a small logic analyzer and signal generator, the maker plan on porting the software to linux and os x.


But as for now, I have to use it on windows.


Virtual machines are alright but when the software is a bit hardware intensive, it's not that comfortable.

Well, alright I guess. Sorry if I come off as snobby, but I'm a pure Linux guy strongly apposed apposed to Microsoft and Apple's business practices. I just don't like being told what looks nice, how I want to use my stuff, or paying for repairs I'd prefer to perform for myself. You go ahead and buy what you want, though.

I like OSX alright but I'd feel trapped if that is all I had. Then again I'd feel trapped if all I had was OSX and Windows 7. I myself would need Linux to have a usable system. Eh, I guess to each his own.


EDIT: Oh man, now I'm looking at the macbook air. I do NOT need a notebook right now, I have to make it work with my Pandora and my desktop.


And wow, it comes with a full size SD slot, I wish every device that was big enough for a full SD slot came with one, I don't get micro SD on anything larger than a cell phone.

Exactly, OSX is a bit too locked down, yet insecure for my tastes.

 

[second exodous]

I like OSX alright but I'd feel trapped if that is all I had. Then again I'd feel trapped if all I had was OSX and Windows 7. I myself would need Linux to have a usable system. Eh, I guess to each his own.


EDIT: Oh man, now I'm looking at the macbook air. I do NOT need a notebook right now, I have to make it work with my Pandora and my desktop.


And wow, it comes with a full size SD slot, I wish every device that was big enough for a full SD slot came with one, I don't get micro SD on anything larger than a cell phone.

Exactly, OSX is a bit too locked down, yet insecure for my tastes.

Well, I didn't mean 'locked down' necessarily, they aren't nearly as locked down as phone OSs and such, I just meant you can't do as much under the hood in OSX and Widows as you can Linux. When things break in those two OSs they're broke, pray to Steve Jobs or Bill Gates for a fix, but Linux anyone can fix it and they usually do much faster than the other two.


Wait, is that the definition of locked down? Maybe not being able to fix it yourself is 'locked down'.

 

[- Theo -]

Well, alright I guess. Sorry if I come off as snobby, but I'm a pure Linux guy strongly apposed apposed to Microsoft and Apple's business practices. I just don't like being told what looks nice, how I want to use my stuff, or paying for repairs I'd prefer to perform for myself. You go ahead and buy what you want, though.

I agree with that, but I HAVE to use Windows for my work, so I make the best of it. I dual-boot Linux / Windows though (I should say trio-boot with MacOS as well, although I never use it).

 

[second exodous]

Well, alright I guess. Sorry if I come off as snobby, but I'm a pure Linux guy strongly apposed apposed to Microsoft and Apple's business practices. I just don't like being told what looks nice, how I want to use my stuff, or paying for repairs I'd prefer to perform for myself. You go ahead and buy what you want, though.

I agree with that, but I HAVE to use Windows for my work, so I make the best of it. I dual-boot Linux / Windows though (I should say trio-boot with MacOS as well, although I never use it).

What others have done is use Carbon Copy Cloner to make a mirror image on an external USB disk and then wipe the system and install Linux/Windows. This way you save space on OSX but the copy is still bootable, just hold down U for USB I believe when booting up and it boots from the external drive with the exact same functionality as it would booting off of the main drive. This way you can still use OSX to get bios updates and such but it isn't taking up space on the systems drive.


If you don't use OSX the only reason to even have it is to install firmware updates, there is no reason to have it taking up space. I know Linux can use Apples bios but you might have to do some research for windows, you might have to run windows through a VM in Linux, Windows might not boot on Apple hardware without boot camp.