Tosser, if you look at the big picture (popularity of the MB, raw speed no longer being the product separator it once was, the importance FW plays in a/v editing, Apple's explanation that consumers don't buy/use FW based cameras anymore yet the inclusion of FW in the rest of the revamped consumer line, Apple killing the 'too popular' 12" PB a few years ago, etc.,) I don't think it's a stretch at all to say that a primary motivation for Apple to remove FW from the new MBs is to put more separation between the MB and the MBP. Why you are so vehemently resistant to this idea I have no idea.
I am not vehemently against it, I'm saying that one should not make-believe it's the only separator – especially not considering that separator is non-existent for people who work with audio.
It's an argument much like Volvo saying: We want to separate our C30 from our X70 station wagons. Most normal consumers don't buy the hybrid version (they don't build any hybrid cars, this is just an example), thus we will only use hybrid engines on our big offroadish X70 station wagons. That way we will somehow prove that hybrid engines are a non-seller and only people with space and money for a big car buys them.
This thinking, of course, plays excellently into how their reasoning was with regards to the glossy screens (sigh), but it also shows the Erasmus thinking in that argument: That just because one thing is different between models, that doesn't mean that that is the only thing, and it certainly doesn't mean that that is the only thing consumers decide from ("after"?).
You and I both know that most consumers don't care one way or the other with regards to firewire. And most of the consumers who do like firewire only knows that FW800 is a faster connection than their USB2-connection.
IF they needed something to separate "pro" products (with Apple, that has become a joke) from non-pro products, perhaps they should have focused on something consumers know just a wee bit about. Hell, according to the Big Salesman (Jobs, that is), there really aren't many things that use FW, and now, with the useless Agere chipset, even less of the people needing firewire will use that port on Apple laptops, resulting in even less buying an Apple laptop with Firewire (why would they/we?).
In other words, it's an incorrect comparison, a logical fallacy, much like the Erasmus Montanus argument.
I do agree with you, though, that CPU GHz aren't the separator it used to be.
To me, that means, that this time around, I'm going from a 15" 2.33GHz Core2Duo to a 12.1" 1.86GHz LV Core2Duo. And you know what? It will still be a huge stepup:
1) Much better build quality
2) Much better keyboard (both better than the one I have, but even more so than the new Sony-copy keyboards which are all style, less function).
3)Lighter weight (much lighter – about half with the smallest weight)
4)Battery size can differ, depending what I want to do. Do I want to go ultralight, or ultralong? Take the battery that matches.
5) Same screen real estate (resolution), yet better looking letters et al (from smaller individual pixels)
6) Three year warranty as standard. It's Bring-it-in-yourself, but I will upgrade to three year warranty where they pick it up from home or work.
7) 3 USB slots – something I would have to buy a 17" luggable MacBook to get.
8)
No Firewire, but a WORKING expresscard slot where I don't have to install and boot into another os to make the FW-expresscard adaptor work
9)More than ten hours work on a 9-cell. Some report 12-13hours.
10) No illuminated Logo which advertises "Steal me" everywhere you work.
11) Did I mention better build quality? If not, let me do it again, and add that not only under the hood, even the casing itself is more rugged – contrary to what most from the iPod Crowd would have you believe.
12) Matte screen as standard and not that lowest-common-denominator piece of crappola glassy over glossy that Apple is selling to people who like oversaturated colours and only use their for school and at home in their dorm.
13)Much less working on, well, workarounds, to make it play nice with servers at work, not to mention Dalet (it's a broadcast workflow-suite).
14) The computer will come from a company who actually makes their own motherboards. How is that for a fresh new attitude?
15) Modem. Yes, I don't need to carry a USB dongle for this.
16) plays nice with Outlook/OWA.
17) 5-in-1 card reader. This is just a bonus. But it's great having the option.
18) Much less gimmicks.
18a) No touchpad. No, nothing. It has a trackpoint. No more tennis elbow inducing two finger scrolling and what not. Of course I could have bought something which had both, but I got lucky that the model I wanted excluded something like that.
Those are just things off the top of my head – most of the above categories have full explanations and very practical reasons why the X200s is a much better choice for me than buying into what has become The iPod/iPhone Company".
Now, as usual, some idjit from the iPhone Crowd will now go "All that is fine and well, but you won't have OS X on that thing". My reply, of course: No, thankfully, I will be working in an OS that actually works and not just pretend to work yet forcing me to spend my time focusing on workarounds. Unfortunately some of us have real needs and not just a need to pose with what amounts to a super sized netbook. Hell, several netbooks even have a
working expresscard slot.
