41-50k Macbook Air V/S Windows Netbooks

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harshit143

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I am planning to buy a netbook. I own an asus netbook with windows 7. The one i am looking for an upgrade is macbook air because windows is really a mess for the slow netbook configs. Money is not an issue, the main issues are:

1) Do macbooks/ mac OS have all the softwares available which are required for basic operations on windows. eg. torrent clients etc?

2) Do mac OSes have a lot of paid apps unlike many available for windows?

3) Do mac OSes are not that open up and free to do as windows. Like the restrictions we have on ios for phones and ipods.

4) Do macbook air worth a buy for the purpose of lagfree surfing, hd movies, downloading, songs as well as multitasking among movies, songs, surfing, downloading.

5) Any other cons?
 
I use a Macbook air but I am a bit of a noob so take what I say with lots and lots of salt. :P

I use a 2011 mid Macbook Air so my reply is based on using that model.

1) More or less. But many mac softwares are not as good as windows equivalents. utorrent is available on mac and works fine.

2) Yes yes yes yes yes yes yes. Even basic soft wares like a half decent image viewer is paid. If you refuse to use *ahem* softwares do note that most free software I tried are pretty crappy and nowhere near as good as Windows equivalents. However I haven't tried a lot of software so I could be dead wrong about this.

3) Yes there are restrictions. The biggest is the limited support for NTFS drives. You can read NTFS drives only. Can't write data to them. I have installed a freeware app that works fine but at times fails if I connect more than 1 drive. If you format all your external hard disks in exFAT or some other supported format you don't have to worry about this then. Other than this issue I haven't really faced too many problems using the mac. I can access the root partition, install non Appstore software without any cracks or hacks and haven't hit a brick wall anywhere which bothered me much other than the general lack of good freeware apps. Even openoffice is pretty buggy on Mac.

4) Yes yes yes yes yes. Most netbooks and notebooks have sub par screens. Only on spending 75-85k you get some really good screens. However even a 2011 mac book air has a lovely screen. Great for almost anything. And yes mac OS is very smooth. For the purposes you have mentioned above it works great.

5) Accessories are very expensive. The Air has a display port. Buying an HDMI connector will cost you almost 3k for the original. Similarly replacing batteries, chargers are all expensive. Other than that the Air is a freaking work of art. It never fails to impress me every-time I switch it on. From the 11 second boot load to the aluminum chassis to the beautiful screen it never really fails to impress me.
 
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I have had a mac for almost a year now. Thats after spending a good 14 years with windows. That being said, i prefer a mac for daily usage with only some specific tasks being delegated to my windows device (which i might turn into a hackintosh). You can find my replies in bold below :)

harshit143 said:
I am planning to buy a netbook. I own an asus netbook with windows 7. The one i am looking for an upgrade is macbook air because windows is really a mess for the slow netbook configs. Money is not an issue, the main issues are:

1) Do macbooks/ mac OS have all the softwares available which are required for basic operations on windows. eg. torrent clients etc?
They have basic software. But generally talking, like Brendon said software on windows is easier to find and has WAY more variety

2) Do mac OSes have a lot of paid apps unlike many available for windows?
OS X does have a lot of free apps, provided you have the time to search for them.

3) Do mac OSes are not that open up and free to do as windows. Like the restrictions we have on ios for phones and ipods.
OS X is not very open, like windows. But for normal day to day usage, its something that one learns to deal with. Its way more open then iOS devices, but less than windows

4) Do macbook air worth a buy for the purpose of lagfree surfing, hd movies, downloading, songs as well as multitasking among movies, songs, surfing, downloading.
It is absolutely perfect for the purposes you have listed above. However, do note that youtube playback suffers a lot of the time since there is no Flash for OS X

5) Any other cons?
Nothing that i can think of, besides the expensive accessory list like Brendon mentions above
Click to expand...
 
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I loved my Air for the time I had it. I however never gave MacOS a chance because I was more than happy with Windows. I removed all traces of MacOS, installed Windows and used it happily till I realized I couldn't survive with just 256GB of space. I then sold it for 65k and got a Lenovo laptop for 36k and a 960GB SSD for 31k. What I miss is the extreme portability and battery life and not to forget the awesome touchpad.
If you can live with the small size of the SSD, then I would recommend the Air over all other ultrabooks even if using for Windows. The hardware is top notch and worth the money.
 
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My Air does everything for 'me' better than a Win based PC. I use Win only for Tally and other software like hospital management software which does not run on a Mac. I hate using windows now after 3 years on an Air.
 
After a few months of using a Mac I am still in love with the hardware but getting more out of love with Mac OS.

Something as simple as file search seems difficult to do and their continued lack of NTFS drive support is problematic for me as all my drives and friends drives are NTFS. I deal with photos on a regular basis and a free software like Irfanview is far far better than any image viewer that i have been able to find for a mac. Other than the hardware (which I really really love) I don't find Mac OS to have any real advantage over Windows. Windows 7 or 8 is now about as fast as Mac OS and almost as stable.
 
Brendon said:
After a few months of using a Mac I am still in love with the hardware but getting more out of love with Mac OS.

Something as simple as file search seems difficult to do and their continued lack of NTFS drive support is problematic for me as all my drives and friends drives are NTFS. I deal with photos on a regular basis and a free software like Irfanview is far far better than any image viewer that i have been able to find for a mac. Other than the hardware (which I really really love) I don't find Mac OS to have any real advantage over Windows. Windows 7 or 8 is now about as fast as Mac OS and almost as stable.
Click to expand...
If NTFS support is critical for you then try Transmac, i use it works flawlessly. It is a paid software.
 
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I have Paragon NTFS software. Works most of the time but a few times there are glitches. Nothing earth shattering but these small issues aren't there on Windows.
 
Macs are simpler then windows. You will fall in love with the trackpad one you start using it. But don't buy a mac to do torrenting. In fact don't buy any SSD based device for torrenting.

With a Macbook Air you get:

12-15 hours of usable battery life
Excellent multitouch trackpad
Backlit keyboard(For night owls)
Average Screen (still better then a lot of Windows based devices)
Really fast SSD
And last but not the least OS X Mavericks with a free upgrade to Yosemite once its out

For everything stated by you will love the mac over the windows eyes closed.
 
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I've used both and honestly I can get a lot more done on windows than Macs. OSX looks better, feels better, but its just not rigged for productivity unless you really make an effort. That and the fact that most apps are paid.

Worst part is that you'l find very few people that are able to help when your mac goes down or something like not being able to clear the trash begins to crop up. I'd say install both and use whatever you're in the mood for. You'l soon see that Windows just makes life a lot easier.
 
I am in a similar dilemma too. I am just looking for a device that simply works whenever I access it, unlike Windows devices that need a restart sooner or later because of the terrible lags. The impressive battery life too has me rooting for the Mac. Just not sure if getting one from the US is more prudent, rather than buy one here.
 
If you can manage one piece under the BTS scheme then great otherwise also i feel its priced really well here considering exchange price of $$$.
 
I own a 2011 macbook pro and it is the best purchase in my life.
Once you get used to touchpad on mac you wont be able to use other laptops. It is that good.
Mac OS is much more stable than windows. every windows OS starts lagging after a few months of usage.
No need for Antivirus / Firewall / Antispyware etc.
No need to clean registry / optimize system.
OSX runs with same flair as it used to on day 1 which was 3 years back.
I still get over 5 hours battery life. Mind you i use my mac extensively.
My macbook PRO has also fallen pretty badly few times and has dents all over but still works flawlessly.
Also once a beer can leaked in my bag drowning my mac (on standby), and i came to know about it 1hr later when i felt the smell.
Didn't switch on for a few days , didn't even charge, but started working automatically after a week without any issues.
 
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I have to second Gauviz. My Air is the best computer related thing that happened to me. Within a week of trying the Mac OS, I got an Air for my wife, and iMacs for my dad and daughter. My life is so much easier now that I dont get daily complaints from everyone in the house about some issue or the other.
 
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