As a rank Mac Newbie, coming from old Dell Win7 Laptop, this thread has been helpful to me:
1) My months-long indecision, neurosis over "what should I get, should I wait?", along with the accompanying hand-wringing and serial visits to the Apple Store seem to be less abnormal than I supposed. It seems many people go through that struggle. I finally feel free of my analysis paralysis.
2) I'm very happy with what I ordered, which is two fully loaded or "ultimate" (as I've seen it referred to here), MBA 13s, i7, 8, 512. These screaming fast little puppies are going to change how we work.
These are for business use for my wife and I. We generally get 3 to 5 years out of our computers, so I'm expecting that much from these. As a business expense, the additional marginal cost of getting the fully loaded versions was not a factor, so that's what I did.
I do understand the concept of "most expensive not necessarily the best". That's actually true in consumer appliances like dishwashers and fridges, for example. But, personally, I felt ok topping mine out, even though the business team person at the Mac store alluded to and even told me "you'd be fine with the i5 for what you and your wife do". Was it the "smartest" decision, and do I have the "best" system for me? I don't know, but I *feel* good about it.
Our old Dell i3 W7 systems are so slow, and my fan runs 100% of the time, and it takes 5 minutes to fully boot and load. From that context, it's just going to be so great having a fast machine. I'm comparing to what I'm leaving behind, not the slightly cheaper alternative.
Ayway, looking forward to learning how to use a MAC and reading more in the forums.
