Mostly a (long term) windows user, especially for work as the software I use is Win only but these days a lot of my time is spent on internet and mail so had been looking at the MacBook Air as a travel alternative, just back from the shop with an 11.6" 128Gb under my arm and what a cool little machine, very impressed, OSX quite intuitive as well and up and running on our dodgy Armenian internet services right quick, overall very impressed and am thinking for home/road duties this must be hard to beat?
Am a big fan of Sony Vaio which I use for my work laptop but nothing Sony was anywhere near as cool and functional as this.
Now as long as I can import my mail "pst" file we will be sweet................................
Re-post from H&D as am an idiot, good fun learning the new toy though, even copy n paste is a learning curve!
Interestingly, the Command Key+X, C or V ( for cut / copy / paste ) standard was introduced by Apple and later "adopted" by Microsoft, who substituted "Control" for "Command".Originally Posted by simonsev
If you're used to the "MS way" as many see it, once you've found the Command key, copy and paste is exactly the same on Mac.
Typing this on my wife's MacBook Air, it is indeed a fine machine. Have fun.
Paul
The current Sony Vaio Z series can give it a run for its money.
Yep just worked out copy n paste, if in doubt consult the instructions as they say, setting up my multiple mail addresses is pretty slick as well, in fact running win7 for work, Android on my phone and osx on the new toy is working out all very neatly, not so much as a difference between them all as I had feared.
The only thing really slowing me down is my net connection is woeful and osx wants it's upgrade which I am reluctant to do until I can get to decent wifi network, I am guessing it will be a relatively painless process?
The control-c (copy) / control-v (paste) paradigm pre-dated Apple, but Apple popularized it. "Control Key" for key mapping modifiers pre-dates Apple, pre-dates Microsoft, pre-dates microcomputers and certainly pre-dates Apple's renaming of it to "Command Key".
Best wishes,
Bob
Last edited by rfrazier; 6th January 2013 at 14:43.
It was close but as I already have the VAIO laptop for grunt work I thought I would see what all the apple fuss was about for an ultraportable, apple won as I thought it was a better made (and sexier looking) unit and also as in Yerevan prices were pretty much the same and of course with all new toys I needed it NOW and could not wait and shop around London for instance and even here apple prices are apple prices................
For your emails I used PST Converter Pro and it was very good, cost me $29 mind.
http://www.pstconverterpro.com/
This was prior to the App Store on the Macs though, maybe there is something is there free/cheaper.
Congrats on your choice. I couldn't be without mine - after 12 years swearing at Windows, I'm a happily Macolyte.
I have had a macbook for the last 3 years or so and will be looking to change to a MBAir later this year
I bought a Samsung series 9 for travel/work and much preferred it to the mac at the time. I hope things have moved on.
It's just a matter of time...
Was meant as an interesting bit of history and explanation of why copy/paste works the same on Mac as Windows ( and others ) based on the OPs experience of moving systems. I noted that Command-X/C/V for cut/copy/paste was introduced by Apple ( it was, in MacOS 1 launched in 1984 ). As opposed to modifier keys, which I believe you brought up
Some years later MS adopted the same ( was it in Windows 3.1 ? I started on Windows 2 but cannot remember ). If you know of earlier usage of those keys for those functions, it would be quite interesting.
Paul
I've just bought a MBA 11" to replace my seven year old 13" Macbook Pro, I was a bit concerned about the screen size before I purchased but, wow, the resolution is fantastic and it sits wonderfully on the lap. And of course with the flash drive it's super fast.
Yes, it's relatively expensive but you soon forget about the money once you're using it!
I bought an 11" as a replacement for a netbook just before Christmas - very happy with it, and not completely unreasonable via the refurb website.
I'm glad to hear the good feedback. I've got one incoming!
Well after playing all day and still going strong all is still good, as much as I need my win7 laptop and as powerful a tool as it is and will remain this cool little toy reminds me of how much fun it can all be, money was worth it for today alone.
I know that there were earlier systems that had interactive cut and paste functions, but they used different key combinations (the programs/editors I use still use different key combinations). No doubt you are right, and the use of those particular keys, Command-C for copy and Command-V for paste, is one of Apple's inventions. The use of those particular keys (substituting control for command) moved to Windows because the most important/popular early spreadsheet program, VisiCalc, was first on Apple systems and used those keys.Was meant as an interesting bit of history and explanation of why copy/paste works the same on Mac as Windows ( and others ) based on the OPs experience of moving systems. I noted that Command-X/C/V for cut/copy/paste was introduced by Apple ( it was, in MacOS 1 launched in 1984 ). As opposed to modifier keys, which I believe you brought up
Some years later MS adopted the same ( was it in Windows 3.1 ? I started on Windows 2 but cannot remember ). If you know of earlier usage of those keys for those functions, it would be quite interesting.
Paul
Best wishes,
Bob
Last edited by rfrazier; 6th January 2013 at 22:35.
No, I wouldn't say so. Apple hardware can be very unreliable, and although the window manager / user interface is slick, the implementation of Unix that is the underlying OS is the poorest I've ever worked with. Extremely easy to beat to be honest with you, especially for what you're likely to have paid.
Interesting comment from a real world programmer(?), what would you have chosen price no issue/price an issue?
Any hardware can be unreliable of course (broken transfer case on the gently used family Nissan Murano at 61,000 km anyone! while the work Prado Toyota takes extreme punishment every month and just keeps clocking up the miles) and yes it was not cheap but price was not a factor, the hardware is admittedly sexy, I am male and wanted a shiny toy and I really wanted to check all the Apple hype more than anything. Operating system was also not a biggie, could get it wiped easily and install some other system here locally, but have promised myself as a fair trial I install nothing but prates it wants and go with what is installed on the toy, mail client and safari it is then.................
Main thing I can see the attraction of is that for 90% of the population it all just works pretty easily, not what I want in win7 systems as mine are all heavily modified but with all my diligent backing up, careful email systems etc, etc this is basically a "pad" type thing with a nice keyboard. Have an Android pad which is great but miss the keyboard so I think I could travel with just this and a phone pretty easily.
Sorry for the somewhat rambling reply but am trying to organize thoughts I have been genuinely interested in the Apple/Microsoft debate for years and so far my (very) short introduction to Apple has made a surprisingly satisfied customer.
Update my Mac computers (home, office and travel computers) nearly every year or two. Over last 10 years never had hardware failure except wifes iPad. Apple replaced on the spot in a diff country, no questions asked.
Resale value of Apple stuff is great whilst PCs are worthless after 2 years
My old man bought a Vaio portable last year for slightly less then my Macbook Air and the plastic build etc is not comparable
Comparing a £500 "ultrabook" with a £800 Mac probably isn't a fair comparison, but I bought my wife an Acer around the same time I bought the Mac, and whilst it's perfectly good and attractively styled, it looks and feels as though it came out of a Christmas cracker compared to the Air.
The implementation isn't the best regarding the file system and maybe in terms of performance in general (you actually can read this and the opposite as well...)
But Apple achieved what not one could achieve before : build a UNIX system that is easy to use, easy to work with and (IMHO) very well organized. The way everything is set under the hood may be not perfect but it's brilliant and quite easy to handle.
I could'nt say so about any *BSD, Solaris, HP/UX, AIX and Linux distribution I've been working with.
By the way, on my MBA I installed a recent and fully fonctional Linux distribution : it's just fine. But the autonomy is poor, the trackpad management rather tricky to set up and so on. Every time I boot on Mac OS X, it's quite relaxing, even though I feel freer on Linux (which is the reason I bothered to install it).
OEM installs are almost always better. Try it the other way round, i.e., try installing Mac OS X on some random laptop and see how well it goes.
Whoops. I forgot that that is forbidden.
Best wishes,
Bob
You're perfectly right. The only issue (in my case) is that there isn't many companies providing good laptops (not to mention ultrabooks) with Linux (or anything the like) on it. Now there's DELL.
And it occurred to me that it's much easier to install properly Linux on a MBA than on an ACER Aspire or ASUS-something, at least at the time I needed a Linux-ultrabook with all the right drivers.
The MBA may also become a good Windows ultrabook, as well.
It is a nice bit of hardware. If someone gave me a MBA, I would probably take it. Of course, I would remove OS X and just run linux. I'm so used to running linux now (about 20 years) with my preferred interface, that anything else seems kludgy.
Best wishes,
Bob
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