back to mac
Well, that didn’t go all that well.
Many months ago I had this crazy plan. But, as most crazy plans end up, it wasn’t quite crazy enough to actually work.
The idea was to get rid of my totally nice Macbook “Pro” (it was the 13-inch silver version right before the pro moniker became standard), and split up my computing between my shiny new iPad and a soon to be purchased Windows laptop. The thinking behind this was I’d consume media and blog and have fun with the iPad, and have a powerful badass laptop to throw down UDK fire and experience games in a manner that wasn’t awful (as it was running Windows on my Macbook).
Two things quickly became apparent:
The iPad is awesome for absorbing the internets and reading comics, but creating content (whether it be words or visual items of interest) is cumbersome. Both by the manner of how text is imputed, and by the bloody slowness of the hardware. Having OmniGraffle on that device is awesome, but using it effectively is not.
No matter how fantastic a Windows 7 laptop you get, the overall experience still sucks - or, at the very least, is super lacking - compared to a mac. And I’m not just talking about software here - I got a Vaio Z for an insanely great deal, and it’s widely considered a Ferrari of sorts in terms of laptops. It’s insanely fast (i5, 330m and dual SSDs running raid), incredibly light (a hair over 3 pounds), sports a keyboard that is damn close to mac-like in quality (chicklets with backlight and almost no flex), and a screen that’s so vivid it hurts to look away. But it also feels plastic’y (a trade-off for the weight), the auto speed adjustment has tons of small software conflicts (you have to disable some sort of background process to effectively change it) and fuck, fuck, fuck that trackpad. Seriously. And then there’s the software. I love, love Windows 7 compared to anything Microsoft has released since DOS, but it still feels like I’m trying to run upstream in a shallow river constantly. I don’t like feeling like I’m fighting my OS, thanks.
So, problem(s) solved. And I did it by getting a new laptop. See, easy? Actually, the funny thing is, I did it be getting a relatively SUPER underpowered laptop compared to the Vaio. But one that’s so, so, so much more easy and…yes, fun / enjoyable / productive to use. Crazy world this is.
The 11-inch Macbook Air is the greatest computer I’ve ever used.
Yeah, sounds lame when I wrote it as well. But (and that’s a heavy but), by use I’m not talking about raw specs, I’m talking about an ultra light, ultra tough feeling, ultra fast machine that’s a pleasure to use for everything outside of gaming. It resumes from sleep in a blink and software loads so fast it’s more comparable to launching an iPad app; overall it feels way faster than the Vaio Z, despite its raid SSDs.
The screen is fantastic and it’s sturdy as sin. Love it.