Brad’s Switcher Setup

I was a hard-core PC user for a long, long time, but in early ’06 I decided to make the switch. I bought a 12″ G4 iBook that I used during undergrad and last semester of law school. I replaced it about a month ago with a MacBook Air. While it’s not perfect, I absolutely love it. I thought I’d share some of my experiences with it.

MacBook Air

Positives

  • It’s Ultra light weight, way more powerful than my iBook, and the screen is great.
  • Generally, I’ve had no problems running any applications (Office 2008, Acrobat 7 Pro, etc.), which lagged a little on the iBook.
  • The backlit keyboard is great.
  • The keyboard layout/size is perfect.

Negatives

  • It gets a little hot sometimes while watching videos.
  • The charger is a little awkward to attach, you essentially have to pick the thing up.
  • The USB port is a little hard to get to. My Corsair Voyager flash drive won’t fit, I have to use an extension cable.
  • The automatic keyboard backlight and screen brightness is a bit glitchy.
  • It doesn’t sit 100% level (need to take it to the Apple store for this).
  • Can’t use Boot Camp with a non-Apple external DVD/CD ROM.

Overall
I love it. I haven’t had any issues with the single USB port (save for the access issues), the battery life is great (4+ hrs), and no problems with the Airport.

My Hardware Setup

Up until now, I’ve been using my wifes PC laptop for tests at school (Softest), but hopefully I can get Boot Camp up and running soon for XP). I’m also running a Hackintosh desktop at home (Small form factor PC hacked to run Mac OS X) that I use at home so I can have a bigger screen. I use it for backups (it’s connected to a 300GB Western Digital MyBook for Time Machine) and for research when I need a bigger screen. I got all my info for it from osx86.com

My Software Setup