Anyone Buying the MacBook Air Just For the Hardware?
Posted on 20 March 2008, at 4:35 am, by Mitchell Oke
By that I mean are you buying it just to load Windows on it? After showing my dad the review unit I have he was completely sold, and today upgraded from his old Dell XPS M1210 to a brand new 1.6Ghz MacBook Air.
First thing I did to it for him was strip Mac OS X off completely (yeah, such a shame…) and load up Windows XP Pro. I loaded XP onto my review unit to see how it performed as a Windows machine and I was very impressed. At last Apple have everything working properly in Boot Camp (eject key, keyboard backlighting, right-click, iSight, etc) so you can run a Mac just like any other PC these days (aka. with Windows). So, any of you doing this?
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7 Comments For This Post
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March 20th, 2008 at 6:27 am
No. Would never. If I bought a Mac, it would have Mac OS X on it only. I don’t need Windows….for almost anything now. Only one exception might be for map programs without internet access. There are no Mac programs that can do navigation anymore since Route 66 has gone away.
I know, some say to just buy a Tom Tom or a dedicated GPS, but the screens on those are so small. However, they do function well so I guess I don’t need Windows any more.:D
If I was hunting for a ultra portable, I would go with the Eee. The reason being is it can be put in a much smaller bag. It’s not thickness of the bag but the other dimensions. The Eee and others may have some drawbacks in the smaller screen and keyboard, but they are very functional for ultra portable use….what they say the MacBook Air is for.
To be honest, the bag you would use would probably be big enough for both the Air or a Regular MacBook. So I would spend less, get more and get a MacBook.
As sexy as the Air is, I would never plan to buy one. I’d opt for a Shift or a Samsung Q1P Ultra
March 20th, 2008 at 7:44 am
Waiting for the 9″ Eee to release..
March 20th, 2008 at 7:47 am
P.S. If ZaReason carries it, I’d definitely buy it from them. I didn’t reply in the other post but Cathy coming to GearDiary and commenting is very impressive!
March 20th, 2008 at 8:13 am
I’m on an MBPro (not an Air), primarily on OSX, but I run XP to support my WM devices. The Mac-based products out there don’t really support application installation very well. I used to need Windows for a lot of things, but those have become fewer and fewer over time. I really prefer working in the OS X eco-system (OS and apps). I don’t even use MS Office any more, I use Neo Office.
I do know people who bought Macs for the hardware and run them almost exclusively as a Windows box. I think that’s a pity, because I feel the bundled iLife apps add a lot of value to the mix. VMWare Fusion on the Mac runs better for me than VMWare on Windows. I even use iChat weekly to visit with my mom (1000 miles away) on video. It seems to me that most of the old barriers to operating primarily under OS X are gone nowadays and most of my old reasons for needing to run Windows have gone as well.
It’s kind of funny – at work I use an XP machine and IE. I have more problems at work with sites rendering incorrectly (under IE6) than I do under Safari at home. I never thought there’d be a time when that would happen, but here it is!
I don’t know what your dad uses his computer for, but I’d sure hate to have to go exclusively to Windows!
The Shift is an interesting device, but $1500 to run a slow PC just doesn’t appeal to me, I’d rather carry an HP 210 and/or a laptop and I can get both for under the $1500 price! The Shift has too many compromises that aren’t balanced by benefits for me. The HTC Advantage, at half the price, is much more compelling to me.
That’s been my experience, but, of course, your mileage may vary!
March 21st, 2008 at 4:46 am
This story gets me thinking if there is a way to buy a Mac without paying for MacOS. I remember some folks could get money back from Dell after they refused to use Windows shipped with the computer. I believe the same logic can be applied to Mac?
March 24th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
Hey Mitchell – take a look at this link — X-Bit labs proclaims the Air to be nearly a perfect Vista machine….
http://arstechnica.com/journal.....-for-vista
August 23rd, 2008 at 11:43 am
How exactly were you able to go past just partitioning, and completely strip off the entire OS?