MacBook Air: Don't Hate Me Because I'm Beautiful

I got my first Mac just over 20 years ago, and I loved it. Some of the computer-obsessed people I knew then sniffed with disdain. It's not expandable, it's inconvenient to program for in some way (I really didn't understand what they were saying), and their final, crushing condemnation: They supposed that it was fine for people who just wanted to use the computer to, you know, do work and stuff.

Well, plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose—the more things change, the more things stay the same. Jobs stands on stage and pulls a computer out of a manila envelope, the thinnest computer ever, three pounds, and a thing of beauty, and the chorus of naysayers start up. It doesn't have this, it doesn't have that, blah blah blah. Geekazoids pore over the list of technical specs, demonstrating their prowess by pointing out the limitations you'll suffer because of some subtle way the computer isn't as powerful as other, fatter, heavier computers. Or they complain because the MacBook Air lacks a capacity that no laptop currently has.

Well, gee whiz. As I complained privately to friends, this is getting a little silly. Lots of us have a laptop because we need to do stuff—simple, everyday, 21st-century work stuff—away from our desktops. We don't need an ultracapable computer, we just need a good, solid performer. And since we don't have native bearers to carry our stuff, we like to travel light. Until I started dealing with digital photos and web applications, I didn't carry a laptop at all, I carried a PDA and a keyboard. Very, very light. When you carry things all day, they get heavier as the day goes on. So you people, just please stop hatin' on the MacBook Air, OK? If you don't like it, for Christ's sake don't buy it. Some of us just want to have a good, moderately capable computer that won't put a kink in our clavicles after a two-day business trip. And if it looks good (well, gorgeous, actually), so much the better. I know it's shameful to admit, but I just want to do work stuff with my computers. You may wonder what I know, which isn't much, you may say I'm a bedazzled fanboy, but I suspect that underneath the coolness and cachet, that's what the Macintosh has been about all along.