New MacBook Air [Thread Split]

[Assassin]

	Quote:	economisto
	Is it a good idea to get the new Air to run windows 7? Will it run well?

About as great an idea as buying a Porsche and putting Ford wheel rims on it....

[jdat]

yeah I'm one of those people.

No firewire port, not for me.

I realize I represent a minority here but that's my biggest must have.

When the original macbook air got announced I was waiting for it so bad because I needed something comparable to the old 12" laptop which was an awesome little machine in it's day.
Ended up getting a 15" mbp instead. bleh. Terrible battery life, big and heavy but actually useable for real graphic work out in the field.

	Quote:	Assassin
	About as great an idea as buying a Porsche and putting Ford wheel rims on it....

So it will function just as well but not look as nice?

[HashBrown]

	Quote:	Assassin
	About as great an idea as buying a Porsche and putting Ford wheel rims on it....

Actually OS X at present is quite behind the times.

Right then, taken the plunge, 1.6ghz, 4Gb RAM, 128Gb model ordered...I'm still betting this arrives before the games I ordered from play.com on the 9th!

	Quote:	HashBrown
	Actually OS X at present is quite behind the times.

and I think Windows 7 runs fairly well for what it's trying to do. Even after 5 years with it, I don't find Mac OS very intuitive, and only use it for web browsing and watching video.

[Assassin]

	Quote:	porsch1909
	So it will function just as well but not look as nice?

Well, you're emulating a Windows world by using Parallels software or Boot Camp and having a partition to run both OS types, but why oh why go to all the hassle? I'm not sure if partitioning on flash memory is either possible like a regular hard disk or if the rules change though.

	Quote:	Assassin
	Well, you're emulating a Windows world by using Parallels software or Boot Camp and having a partition to run both OS types, but why oh why go to all the hassle? I'm not sure if partitioning on flash memory is either possible like a regular hard disk or if the rules change though.

I'm just interpreting your analogy.

[HashBrown]

Yeah OS X is not useful for power users with many windows open. Windows is better, but most Linux desktops are best in this regard. I also found OS X not ideal for my usage and ironically required way more clicks than Windows or Linux. This will soon become a religious argument, so let's just accept different people have different requirements and tastes.

[Assassin]

	Quote:	HashBrown
	Actually OS X at present is quite behind the times.

Why do you say that? I'd say the major criteria with any OS should include:

Stability
Functionality
Future and retro compatibility
Widespread acceptance by programming community

I'd say that all those factors are superbly covered by Snow Leopard. No idea how much more they want to pack into Lion when that is released next summer.

[Gastro Gnome]

	Quote:	economisto
	and I think Windows 7 runs fairly well for what it's trying to do. Even after 5 years with it, I don't find Mac OS very intuitive, and only use it for web browsing and watching video.

Can you give some examples of the operations you don't find intuitive?

[Gastro Gnome]

	Quote:	HashBrown
	Actually OS X at present is quite behind the times.

Details please . . .

[Slaphead]

	Quote:	Assassin
	..I'm not sure if partitioning on flash memory is either possible like a regular hard disk or if the rules change though.

It is possible. The computer sees the flash memory as a hard disk and as such any configuration that you could do with a normal hard disk you can do with flash memory. Partitioning is not a problem. Besides if you're thinking of running Windows as a virtual machine then you don't need to partition, you only need to create a drive file for whatever virtual machine software you're using, and then install windows onto that.

If any of you are thinking of playing with a virtual machine then take a look at http://www.virtualbox.org/. It's not as well supported as parallels or VMware, but it is free, and works surprisingly well.

[jdat]

	Quote:	HashBrown
	Yeah OS X is not useful for power users with many windows open.

you have no ideas how many programs I have open an once. Os X is fine multi windowing, I much prefer the workflow of the OS in that aspect versus Windows where going from one program to another doesn't seem to "flow" as well.

Sometimes when I close Safari (yes rarely... and yeah I use that compared to firefox) it asks me confirmation if I want to close Safari and the 60 tabs I have opened

[Phil_MCR]

	Quote:	jdat
	yeah I'm one of those people. No firewire port, not for me.

what do you need firewire for?

[HashBrown]

	Quote:	Gastro Gnome
	Details please . . .

No app store. No limitations on what software can be installed. Support for Flash. Access to terminal.

	Quote:	Gastro Gnome
	Can you give some examples of the operations you don't find intuitive?

file/folder/organisational operations, networking/"talking", and generally breaking free of the horrible Jobs hold over my ipod (which I've now binned in frustration). The form factors of apple products are great, and when I can run android on an ipad, I'll buy one of those too.

[HashBrown]

	Quote:	jdat
	you have no ideas how many programs I have open an once. Os X is fine multi windowing, I much prefer the workflow of the OS in that aspect versus Windows where going from one program to another doesn't seem to "flow" as well. Sometimes when I close Safari (yes rarely... and yeah I use that compared to firefox) it asks me confirmation if I want to close Safari and the 60 tabs I have opened

As I said, it is preference. OS X window management has its genes going back to the old days of Mac OS, and is application centric. Windows and Linux are window centric. Different philosophy. Back on those days applications only had a single window. Or multiple windows embedded with the main window.

[Gastro Gnome]

	Quote:	HashBrown
	No app store. No limitations on what software can be installed. Support for Flash. Access to terminal.

Funnily enough support for Flash really is about to be removed by default in Lion.

I'll be glad to see it go. I've just spent the afternoon wrestling with the damage done to our Citrix farm by an email sent out with an embedded Flash video.

[HashBrown]

	Quote:	Gastro Gnome
	Funnily enough support for Flash really is about to be removed by default in Lion.

Yeah I knew that when making the comment.