Tech I Touch #2

Time for another installment of this section! This time it's the turn of my macbooks.

At the minute I am currently using 2 macbooks, one a 1st generation MacBook and the other is the latest version of the MacBook Pro.

Both are admirable performers in their own way, they both fulfill computing needs that I have.

The MacBook Pro was supplied by my employers (cheers for that if anyone is reading!) as my day-to-day office machine, the 15.4" screen makes it a bit more pleasing to use for longer periods. It's a fantastic piece of hardware, up to my usual exceptionally high engineering standards.

My MacBook (Black 2 GHz Core Duo) is my own machine, its a few years old now but is still my number one machine, I use it primarily at home as the smaller screen is a bit less intrusive, if I had to travel a lot, I would definitely have requested another one of these as the smaller size isn't noticeable in use but definitely when packing it or carrying it about.

Both have their individual merits, the backlit keyboard on the MBP but I prefer the feel of the keys on the MB, they remind me of the ZX spectrum I owned once upon a time. I find it more pleasant to type on but I am a very aggressive typist.

I always said to people that "personally I didn't see a use for the MacBook Air", but I think that I may have been taken out of context. I think it is a very capable machine but it just doesn't suit my computing style; that's not to say that I wouldn't want to have one to play about with. I like the compactness but would miss several of the features, a wired ethernet port being the most important. But there is definitely a market for it, as evidenced by the slew of ultraportables that have been released in direct competition for it.

If I had to choose an ultraportable it most likely would be the Air as the price is about right and it can run OS X (legally and without hackery) which is definitely my preferred operating system at the moment. A linux KDE system might overtake it but I'm not particularly taken by KDE 4 right at this present moment, 3.x was fine and I preferred it to Gnome and KDE 4 but I'm strongly tempted to go back to Gnome if 3.x becomes unavailable.

Oh dear, this has turned into a rant of some kind, and I don't want to start a browser/os/window manager war at all.