So tonight as I'm riding against a stiff headwind and my back is getting sore from my overstuffed messenger bag, I was thinking about ways to lighten the load.

I hadn't paid much attention to Apple's announcements earlier in the day but tonight I checked out the Macbook Air and associated discussion.

Nice and light.

Lots of drawbacks.

My work supplied Dell is on its last legs and I've been bringing my personal 12" powerbook into work for the last year now so I'm pretty sure I could get one. For my purposes, it would probably work OK. The biggest drawbacks would be the small hard drive and lack of a user replaceable battery. Apple will replace the battery for $130 but it takes 5 days. Five days is unacceptable for a business computer.

Then there's the less than stellar performance compared to other Mac notebooks, the lack of a built in optical drive and no Gigabit Ethernet.

Still, taking a pound and a half out of my messenger bag plus 1/2" less bulk would make my commutes a bit more pleasant, - and it's quite a bit faster than my old powerbook.

It's a business laptop - get a T-series or something decent. Gawd...

I've never understood how messenger bags are comfortable with only one strap to secure it to your person, but that's why there's vanilla and chocolate

I had the same issue and like my laptops BIG, so I just got a bigger backpack. I also tried the pannier thing and didn't like how it felt on my bike - would rather have it 'on' me.

Vanilla, chocolate and now Strawberry.

having a macbook currently i cant give them enough praise they are awesome.... the macbook air looks like the best thing ever, the lack of dvd drive makes it a bit of a pain but with wireless n and the ability to read from another computers optical drive at pretty much the same speed bring it on

MAC IS AWESOME

A T-Series, from what I understand, is going to be at least 5 lbs. It's both heavier and bulkier than what I have now, - doesn't solve my problem. Plus it can't run OS X.

I'm still waiting on those sci-fi thin as paper, roll out laptops/end terminals before I ever commit to a laptop.
One thing about macs... you have to add the 3yr mac care plan, which is another $320 on top. Why? because repairing macs is 3 times that with parts and labor.
How do I know? I worked with a guy who repairs macs.

No firewire, from what I can tell. Did I miss it, or is it USB only?

No Firewire. Not a killer for me, but disappointing.

I dunno I got robbed out of going to Macworld this year, but I was really hoping for a 12" macbook. I'm still rocking my 12" powerbook, too. It's still fast enough to where it doesn't bother me, or hinder my work or anything.

The MacbookAir just isn't the ultra portable I'm looking for heh. I'll probably just end up with a Macbook once the powerbook takes a crap.

I used to use a backpack. A few years ago I bought the biggest messenger bag I could find which was maybe my mistake because I stuff it full. There's only one shoulder strap but there's another strap that crosses your front to secure it so it doesn't shift. As far as comfort goes, I don't find the single shoulder strap to be a problem. When I'm riding, the weight is on my back and not on my shoulders.

The advantage over a backpack is that I can easily sling it over my head and shoulder and not worry about it falling off. You can carry a backpack with just one strap but you need to keep a hand on it. A messenger bag can be worn on the back, side, or slid around in front of me (without taking it off) if I'm sitting down on bus or train.

A 12" Macbook that was lighter and thinner than the old powerbook would have been huge. I suppose people would have complained that it wasn't innovative enough and just a rehash. I'd certainly prefer it to the Air.

My powerbook's performance is decent enough but I'd like to be able to run Windows and OS X on the same machine. The powerbook can't do that. I love the keyboard on the powerbook and I'm glad to see the Air comes with a good keyboard.

One thing you may not have thought about is durability, a notebook that thin is asking for trouble from bumps and knocks.

I'll give it a good six months before I buy one to see what issues come up. I'm more worried about flex than the shocks and vibrations it would be subject to on my commute. I've had a powerbook almost completely apart and the only component that I found to be protected from shocks is the hard drive. It's mounted using rubber grommets. The Macbook Air has an option for a solid state drive which would help in the durability department but it's small and expensive.

Mobile phones and iPods are pretty thin and probably subjected to more abuse than a typical notebook so while it's something to consider it may turn out to be just a durable as a Macbook Pro.

Not only will the Macbook Air lighten your load, it will do the same for your wallet. No optical drive, no firewire? Sheesh. And if a small HDD is a problem now...I doubt it's 80GB drive will do much for you.

As others have mentioned, methinks the better option is ditching the messenger bag. I used a bag for a few weeks, and as you're finding, you feel every gram. I'm more comfortable with 20lbs strapped to my rear rack than with 5 lbs in a bag.

I think your sarcasmometer is on the fritz...

I understand that (for a price) you can get a (smaller) flash drive instead of a hard drive which would increase durability (?). Weight the same?

I won't put a laptop directly on the bike, but an option might be to keep laptop in the messenger bag or backpack and then put everything else (lunch, clothes, paperwork) on the bike.

For me though, the macbook is still tempting. The cost isn't out of line with with what we (the company) spends on other laptops, in fact we have at least 3 in use that cost quite a bit more. Firewire isn't an issue for a computer I use for work and only of limited use at home. I have another computer with firewire that will take care of those needs.

The lack of an internal optical drive sucks but again in my work I use an optical drive maybe every few weeks. A portable drive is not ideal but would do the job. I would have much preferred a slightly thicker notebook with a built in drive but that's not what they made.

An 80 Gig drive is smaller than I'd like and that may be worth waiting on. There are bigger drives in the same form factor that for some reason Apple isn't offering yet. It is enough, however, for my work needs. Home Video is the space killer on my personal laptop and I wouldn't use a work laptop for that purpose.

Given it's thinness, I'm guessing there will soon be a hard, protective sleeve to put it in to protect it from flexing. But that will take away some, but probably not most, of the weight savings. The hard drive is, I think, pretty much the same as what's in my iPod, which I seldom bike without, and it's holding up fine, and it, unlike the laptop, has the hard drive spinning while in motion. That said, hard drive failure is one the primary ways to kill an iPod, and there's plenty that recommend not biking or running with a hard drive-based model, but then I think the point is largely moot if the hard drive isn't operational while you're traveling.

It does look sweet, but with the storage available, I don't see how it could be anything other than a secondary computer, and I might hesitate to buy a secondary computer for that price.

There's always the Asus EEE. Small, light, flash-based, and it can run OS X, although maybe not well. I wouldn't put it on par with the MacBook Air, but for the price, I'd be much less likely to complain about the features it was missing.

If you aren't loading it up with tons of music and videos, why is 80gb hd limiting? That $100 wireless optical drive looks like a decent buy if you really need an optical drive (I personally never use the optical drive on my laptop). If you need the large drive for some sort of video editing at work it would be silly to get it, but that is a beautiful machine if you can swing $1800 for a computer.

Personally, I only use word processing, email, web, spreadsheets, and light graphics at work. A $450 Eee +8mb SD card withFirefox, Open Office, and Xara installed will get me by at work.

I was looking at the EEEpc to replace my Palm and be more portable than my 12" PB (which my wife uses most of the time anyway). At the same time! But when it released at a higher price and with less stuff than originally advertised, I ended up with a new Palm. The TX with the infrared keyboard and all of the included software is just good enough. I know Palm is a dead-end platform and all.. but after 6 years, I found it hard to give up.

As to the MacBook Air... meh. I think our next "real" laptop might be a cheap PC laptop running Kubuntu.

lOOks pretty neat: the size of an inter-office envelope (13.3" screen). There does seem to be less need for a built-in DVD player

Eh...

I'm an anti-Mac zealot, so take this with a grain of salt, but I'd say there are a lot more versatile and cheap ultra-portables for a LOT less money. I personally never use CDs/DVDs any more, so I wouldn't miss that... but having only ONE USB port and no Ethernet is ridiculous. I often have a mouse, a flash drive, a wired network, a card reader... all plugged into my notebook at once. Having to carry a hub to do that seems to make the MacBook Air a whole lot less "ultra portable" than it should be.

Consider the 3 lb, 12" Dell Latitude D430: https://www.dell.com/content/products...tab=bundlestab. Similar to the MacBook Air, but with more USB and ethernet ports, replaceable battery, and all for about $1300 with specs comparable to the MacBook Air (and it includes an external optical drive in the price)

Or for $1100 and 3.5 lbs, you can get the Lenovo X61 that I have heard nothing but good reports about: https://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/c...E1A6952DF8E9DF

I guess if you consider 1/2 the RAM, smaller screen, poorer graphics card, and a slower processor as comparable specs you might have a point ;-)

It really depends on what your needs are doesn't it? More USB ports are always nice, but if I used a separate mouse (I don't), I'd use a bluetooth version anyway. Wireless networking is adequate in most cases. I'm never wired at home. In the office, I will be occasionally and it would be nice to use another USB device at the same time so I'd probably have a hub at the office and leave it there.

And of course a key feature of the Macbook Air is that it will run both OS X and Windows. Windows is OK, but I REALLY like OS X.

Almost anything with an X86 CPU can run OS X. It just isn't advertised to do so and Apple doesn't support it, and legally you're locked into Apple hardware. But you could run OS X on it if you wanted.

You've already said it's not a business computer... Quit using your personal computers for work -- for a number of different reasons.