Anyone bought MBA to replace their hackintosh netbooks?

[silverblack]

Before the October MBA release, I had a 13" MBP and a hackintosh netbook (Dell mini 10v). I didn't want to take the MBP back and forth between home and work everyday, and so I got the netbook to stay at work for note-taking at meetings and the occasional Powerpoint presentations.

The $300 netbook was a good, cheap solution. It ran Snow Leopard and installed all its updates without any problem. It's really ultraportable, and was good enough to handle what I needed. The only problem was connecting the VGA-out to projector. Even though it worked 90% of the time, it was still too much embarrassment to fail 10% of the time in front of a group of people.

Although it's much more expensive than the netbook, I was happy to replace it with a 11" MBA. Being my latest toy, I having been keeping it with me at both home and work, and it's replacing my MBP at home too. It's been a couple of weeks and I had not yet needed to fire up the MBP. Looks like I will be getting rid of both the netbook and MBP soon, but would probably wait until my honeymoon with MBA is over to see. I also have a 3G iPad which has been sitting in my drawer since the MBA. But I'll likely return to it once the 'new toy' effect wears off with my MBA

 

[GorData]

Just sold my Dell 10v on ebay to go and get a 11" or 13" cause my MBP 15" is so damn heavy to carry around all day. I like the 11" but may end up getting the 13" for more screen territory since it will most lightly replace my MBP all together.

 

[i7QuadCoreMania]

I did, still have a tricked out 10v in white with ssd and 2gb ram with the 1.8ghz. Wife was using it for her internet browsing and light school work, told her she can keep it, and got myself a 13" fully loaded, lol.

 

[MikePA]

Before the October MBA release, I had a 13" MBP and a hackintosh netbook (Dell mini 10v).

I have a Mini10v as well, dual boot Win7 and OSX and just got a MBA11. If the Mini10v would have supported Parallels, I would have had no need for the MBA11. I'm now running the MBA and Quicken2011 in Coherence mode. Still haven't decided what to do with the Mini10v...or the Mini9 running OSX I have.

 

[surroundfan]

I'm waiting for the Aussie Back to School promo to start, at which point I will grab a loaded 13" (unless the 11" gets the better of me; decisions, decisions).

It'll replace my Dell Mini 10V, ancient MBP and iPad. I had cause to lug my MBP to uni instead of the Dell the other day and loved having a full sized keyboard and trackpad, and lots of screen real estate (shame that the knackered battery only holds a 30 minute charge).

Given that the 13" weighs no more than the Dell, I may as well use a proper laptop...

 

[i7QuadCoreMania]

Given that the 13" weighs no more than the Dell, I may as well use a proper laptop...

I was just comparing the 2 today, and I told my wife, that the 13in mba feels slightly lighter than the 10v. If I could afford it, I'd sell the 10v and get her an 11in,

so far loving my 13in ultimate mba.

 

[Hankster]

I used a HP Mini 5200 for some time, it's been replaced by the MBA 11". But, sometimes during work I need to use a SSD card slot and I pull out the HP Mini. Sort of sad I have to use my other netbook to read a card. But, oh well. The screen size is fine for me, I don't mind the slightly smaller screen area.

 

[MikePA]

But, sometimes during work I need to use a SSD card slot and I pull out the HP Mini. Sort of sad I have to use my other netbook to read a card.

I have the same issue. My Mini10v has an SD slot, MBA11 does not. I bought two USB adapters, one for home and one I keep in my laptop bag.

 

[maflynn]

I have a dell mini 10v that's filling a need, but I do want to say that the 11" MBA is giving me some real temptation.

Overall, I'm happy with the mini 10v with one exception - its touchpad. Its always causing the pointer to fly off to a corner of the screen when I try to press the left button. Like the apple laptops it has an integrated touch pad/button setup. Unlike the apple's offering, its poorly implemented.

 

[fibrizo]

Sadly I had a hackintoshed netbook I almost never used... now I will never used it. So I wiped OSX off it... Got a top of the line 11.6inch now. The only 2 downsides now is A. my 13 inch macbook pro is neglected... and B. It only cost 1000 more than the netbook.

 

[MikePA]

I have a dell mini 10v that's filling a need, but I do want to say that the 11" MBA is giving me some real temptation.

Overall, I'm happy with the mini 10v with one exception - its touchpad. Its always causing the pointer to fly off to a corner of the screen when I try to press the left button. Like the apple laptops it has an integrated touch pad/button setup. Unlike the apple's offering, its poorly implemented.

The other difference is there's a lot more friction on the 10v touchpad compared to the MBA11.

 

[fps]

Indeed. Sold my Dell Mini 9 and a bunch of other stuff to finance a MBA 13" Ultimate. The hackintosh Dell Mini 9 was fun to play with though (except for the keyboard...)

 

[ReallyBigFeet]

I did the Hackintosh thing on my Dell Mini as a last-ditch effort to try and enjoy using the thing. I hated it with every ounce of my being as it became a daily reminder of how much I wanted an Air but was scared off by the complaints of the last-gen revision. I found the Dell Mini to be too small, tiny screen, weak processor.

Same reasons I didn't pick up the 11" netbook version of the MBA but went with the 13" MBP "Junior" model instead.

 

[jeznav]

Did exactly that. I had a 10" HP Mini 110 with Leopard 10.5.8. The thing about hackintoshes is that you have to rely so much on the hack community for OS updates, driver compatiblity issues. It didn't support Snow Leopard for my specific model of my HP Mini. So I gave up trying and decided to get a MBA 11".

The overall experience was night and day. The 1366x768 vs 1024x576 screen estate feels less cramped. Better keyboard, larger trackpad, a working microphone, Snow Leopard OS, way better GFX over Intel's GMA 950, and most of all is that it's FAST compared to the Atom processor.

The MBA is the best laptop that I actually enjoy using. I am a programmer/web developer and most of my time is in front of a desktop. Now I can work on my projects while I commute.

 

[GoCubsGo]

I used a HP Mini 5200 for some time, it's been replaced by the MBA 11". But, sometimes during work I need to use a SSD card slot and I pull out the HP Mini. Sort of sad I have to use my other netbook to read a card. But, oh well. The screen size is fine for me, I don't mind the slightly smaller screen area.

SSD slot huh? New tech on that HP huh?


I sold my Mini 10V, actually sold my Air rev B for a new MBP 13" but stopped when I thought an update was coming in 2 weeks. When it did not, I bought the Mini 10V. Once I had the iPad, the mini became unnecessary to me. Long story short, I would replace a Mini 10V for a 11" Air in a heartbeat even though price wise, you're talking apples and oranges.

 

[linkandzelda]

I have the MSI Wind U100 which I plan on replacing with a MBA 11" in the coming months. This Wind has 2GB RAM which is just not enough for me. I loaded it with Snow Leopard 10.6.4 and use it for college work. Shame it doesn't support Parallels as thats my #1 choice for a Virtual Windows XP. But VMWare Fusion 3.1 runs well enough to be usable with OS X and Windows XP running at the same time.

Of course the MBA will be able to use parallels when i get it. I'll probably upgrade it to 4GB ram and 1.6GHz which will give me 128GB SSD too. Although i'll probably just stick with the base model and give it 4GB ram as funds don't permit anything higher...

 

[silverblack]

Beside the SD card slot, another thing I missed from my Dell mini is the VGA out port. I always worry about forgetting to bring the adapter to my lectures.

 

[rrl]

You don't need an SD slot:

 

[aberrero]

Those USB/SD cards are impossible t ofind anywhere. THey are a great idea though, but I've never seen one that was a reasonable size and price.

Anyway, my MBA13 replaced my Dell Mini 9 which I had running Leopard for a while.

 

[barmann]

Replacing an MSI U100 with an 11" MBA .

 

[Whorehay]

I must be the minority here. I'm keeping my 10v

 

[fedup flyer]

As soon as the Air comes with 6gb RAM and a 320gb+ SSD, I will buy one.
My MBP is starting to get a little heavy, so Apple....hurry up.

 

[ReallyBigFeet]

Actually, from reading all the posts around here, you'd think that everyone was rushing to turn their MBA's into Windows devices.

 

[maflynn]

I must be the minority here. I'm keeping my 10v

Are you running windows/ubuntu/osx on your 10v?

I liked having ubuntu on it, Ubuntu demands a lot less resources so the 10V was a lot more snappy with ubuntu. The only issue I had with ubuntu was its inability to use gotomypc, and I was also having vnc issues connecting to work. Now using a 10" display is not advisable for long stretches of remotely connecting to my workstation, the text shrinks too small, but in a pinch I need the ability to connect to work via VNC or RDP.

I like OSX, I have more apps that I prefer, it just runs slower on the 10v in comparison to ubuntu