We used to use desktop computers at our house. Now we all have laptops. The “study” in our house is just another room where we can read, work or play. but the computer is no longer tethered to that room.
The same thing is true at my office at Spark. I don’t have a desktop computer there either. I have a laptop connected to a large monitor.
I keep all the important data I need on that laptop and the rest of it is in the cloud – either backed up (jungledisk) or syncd (still issues but we’ve come a long way).
For years, I’ve used the 15" PowerBook and then MacBook Pro. It had everything i needed. But as I started traveling more and more the weight just got me down.
That led me to buy the first MacBook Air when it came out earlier this year. It’s super light and gorgeous. It became my main computer but very quickly I realized that it didn’t work for me. It felt underpowered, couldn’t swap the battery, the single oddly layed out USB port was a drag and the first model maxed out at 2 gigs of RAM.
I was thinking about going back to my old MacBook Pro and dumping the MacBook Air and getting a low cost netbook. My friend Dave Winer has been on the leading edge of netbooks for some time now. There is something very appealing about those devices. They are inexpensive, the battery lasts a long time and they are small & light.
I tried out an Eee PC in a store the other day. But I couldn’t see myself getting one as they are currently configured. Michael Arrington lists three problem with netbooks on his post today. I agree with them – poor screen, challenging keyboard and little horsepower. There is another issue at least for me and that is the software. Running Windows XP isn’t something I want to do.
So whats the answer for me? I recently picked up the latest 13" aluminum MacBook.
It’s the best laptop I ever owned. And I use it for everything.