Good stuff.

The MBA was not meant to be the primary Mac for the house. The typical user is one who buys a iMac for the house, has a computer at work, and wants something very light and portable to carry in between. The MBA still fulfills that purpose weighing only 3 pounds vs. almost 5 pounds for the new MacBook and 4 1/2 pounds for the MacBook Pro. (Yes, the MacBook is actually heavier than the MacBook Pro). That 1 1/2 pounds makes a big difference when you carry it around all day on your shoulder.

So, there’s still a good market for the MBA. Why wasn’t it refreshed in the last two rounds? Because it already had a unibody construction, multi-touch trackpad, backlit screen, and all the other features that were recently added to the MacBook Pro line and the Mac Book.

However, if the MacBook Pro does get lighter and a bit thinner (and that WILL happen), the MBA will be dropped. I wouldn’t cry for it any more than I cried when Apple dropped the iBook because the MacBook’s price dropped and the iBook looked too much like the MacBook.

Like you, I am resigned to advertising in the realm of vendors hyping themselves. Yes, they all do it, and therefore it’s really necessary for businesses to succeed.

Microsoft does NOT lie about Apple’s products and the benefits they bring to consumers.

Apple lies constantly about Microsoft’s products, as I said above. This is NOT to consumers’ benefit; we are all hurt by it to an extent. Apple lies brilliantly well about its competitor Microsoft, and the ads are entertaining, but simply not true.

Microsoft’s “Laptop Hunter” ads? They address choices in the marketplace and pricing, and the basic point is accurate about Apple inc.

Recognize also that the media as a whole LOVES to hate Microsoft, and bashes on them constantly in subtle ways that it does not bash other companies. Remember the lead-up to the fake Iraq war by GW Bush? The media was biased in favor of the war generally, although skeptics like myself saw through it and knew what was really going on.

I ask that people be skeptical of the messages (including those from Microsoft) and recognize that Microsoft really does do a lot of good for consumers. For example, memory randomization at runtime is a great thing, and years after Microsoft shipped it with Vista, Apple is imitating it in their Snow Leopard OS.

I’m a user of Windows Home Server, from Microsoft of course. I’m thrilled with it, and would be happy if other vendor’s stepped up and competed. So far, though, Microsoft is the only one who has done something beyond dumb NAS for home users.

I think you’ve simply misunderstood my point. Please re-read my letter above, and be skeptical for a change about companies’ self-hype: t’aint necessarily so.

If you define “lie” as hyperbole, deliberate misstatements, highlighting strengths and ignoring weaknesses, fudging comparisons, sponsoring bogus reviews and analyses, using outdated data, and so on, Microsoft lies about their products constantly, as does every other vendor, with very few if any exceptions. Microsoft is by no means exempt, and historically, has been near the worst of the lot. If you can’t see that, you really haven’t been looking very hard.

Enough said.

Or, as you note, maybe the quality standards for patches have just gotten better. I know that Microsoft makes huge investments in testing patches, and the state-of-the-art has gotten much better.

Tuttle has raised the memory-randomization feature, which will ship with Snow Leopard. Good for Apple for imitating what Microsoft did years ago with Vista, and good for Apple consumers.

I have been in the software development industry since the late 90′s and recall vividly telling customers NOT to install a patch because it would break their enterprise software. It happened several times each year and quickly trained everyone that updates from Microsoft were a danger to their business. We weren’t allowed to install any updates until they’d been tested and approved for compatibility.

I expect Microsoft has cleaned up its act and stopped breaking things on a regular basis, but the damage has been done and a lot of IT people and ordinary users simply don’t trust updates from Redmond.

Getting back on topic I think the MacBook Air has a future as a niche product for those who are willing to sacrifice performance for minimal weight. The price will have to come down a little more and the battery life will have to improve, but they really don’t need to be much faster. Plus Snow Leopard will allow Apple to defer upgrading the RAM for at least another year.