my MBA experience

I don't know if this is the right place for this but I'd like to write a few sentences on my experience.

Some of you may recall I have been wondering whether to get a MB or the MBA. I decided on the latter and took delivery exactly 2 wk ago.

I got the 128g SSD.
I am using it to surf the 'net, log in remotely to my office (medical) and write using MS Word.
So far I couldn't be happier. It is very light and the screen and keyboards are just great. I bought the external CD drive to load all my software (for $100 I thought I would like the convenience and I must say it was worth it).

This machine is faster than my old iMacs at work and about as fast as my son's MBP he bought last year. It boots up quickly and opens programs as fast as I could want. My remote access is faster than my last desktop.

I don't store pictures or tunes on this machine and I installed Bootcamp with a 10gig partition for any MS programs I might need (like Publisher) and it has 7 gigs free so I don't see running out of room in either partition.

Installing Bootcamp required a couple of calls to Apple and the average wait time to get a technician was under 5 minutes and I found them very very helpful and easy to deal with.

This has been the best computer experience I've ever had. I love the machine, which I now carry around everywhere and I would highly recommend it to anyone.
The only problem (and it's a big one) is the price!

 

Early adopters (and MAC buyers) always pay a hefty price for the luxury. In a year or two I suspect there will be many light thin notebooks at a fraction of what we have to pay now...

 

Congratulations. I have used iMac's, MBP's, and MB's and a few months ago picked up a great deal on a MBA (1.6/80) and agree the MBA can be a GREAT machine for mainstream users that place high importance on portability. I travel a lot and the MBA has become my main machine.

Initially I had a bit of heartburn going from 250gb to 80. I had my iMac set up as a server I could access remotely so most stuff I did not use everday just moved there. I'm happy enough with the MBA's processor and memory but the HD is still a bit slow for my tastes.

The things I have learned to enhance my MBA experience (that I would not bother with on most other MAC's as the more powerful the machine the less difference these make)
a) Do a clean install of OSX excluding anything you don't use regularly. You can save many GB of space there and improve performance.
b) Use a utility like Xslimmer on your applications. More GB savings and noticeably faster loading applications.
c) If you bounce in and out of a lot of apps (including VM's), particularly MS apps [bloated, leaky] running a utility like iFreemem can help recover free memory late in the day when you have to load your VM yet again.
d) If you usually run a lot of active apps and occasionally notice cpu spikes that interfere with your current work, a utility like Bokeh is handy. This allows you to give priority to one app or freeze other apps to free up CPU cycles.
e) If you keep your disk relatively full (>80%) while often modifying large files an occasional (a few times a year at most) run of a utility like iDefrag can be helpful.
f) A weekly to monthly run of a utility like C.O.C.K.T.A.I.L (without periods) to keep logs, permisions, databases etc well maintained is good.
g) Do a weekly to monthly image backup to a USB drive with a utility like SuperDuper (no performance increase but great piece of mind)
h) Daily automated backups with a service like Mozy. The initial one is painfully long but after that its quick and you don't even notice them but know you always have a recient backup of important items.


Other than item F above, I don't bother with any of these on my other macs. but a MBA's performance limitations and its extreme portability might be enhanced for some folks using some of the above tips.

 

"Innovators" seems to be the exact world.