For the past three years, I've been using a ThinkPad X40 laptop. My primary computers are desktop machines, so the laptop is used primarily for meetings, communications, office applications, and presentations. For these purposes, the most important features are (in order of importance):
The X40 nails all three of those factors, even today with its "antique" Pentium M processor. So when the MacBook Air was announced this month, I got a kick out of the pundits who decided it was lacking essential features. For comparison, here are some facts about my usage of the X40:
For me, and for 99% of my colleagues with laptops, the MacBook Air is lacking only one thing: a built-in ethernet port. But since I only use ethernet at my office desk, a cheap USB hub with ethernet dongle will work just fine.
The MacBook Air looks perfect.
At about 3 times the price of a PC laptop. I have two laptops, one with XP and one with Vista. I took the Vista on my last trip and that's the last time I do that. It takes way too long to boot up. What I may do for a light travel computer is the ASUS eee pc. BTW, I have used my PCMCIA slot with a firewire card on both laptops, used two USB ports (one hooked up to an external drive), used both the ethernet and wireless, traveled with the extended life battery with the Compaq, and I have tried various Linux distro Live CDs with both and the latest PCLinuxOS actually works with the Broadcom wireless. And have watched movies on both. I figure I'll get a Mac when I get my Porsche.
Indeed, the Flash Drive version of the Air is priced just north of ridiculous, but the 80GB HD version is pretty much in-line with other comparable laptops.
Sounds like you carry a pretty heavy gear bag 
I've been playing with ZenWalk Linux on my ThinkPad, and I'm pretty happy with it. However, still can't find a decent replacement PIM for Outlook/Exchange, nor is Gnumeric or OpenOffice a good enough replacement for Excel. The intriguing thing about a Mac for me is the Unix-ish OS, with real MS Office.
Color me very tempted.
You raise several good points that hadn't occurred to me. I was dismissive of the Macbook Air as well, but I live on my laptop, it is a true desktop replacement for me. It sounds like it may be a winning design for you.
One thing you will lose, that you may not have thought of, is ruggedness. I carry a ThinkPad myself and the one thing that always strikes me about it is how well built it is. This is most consistently noticeable in the keyboard, but it is present everywhere. I doubt the Air will be quite as solid.
Very true about ThinkPad durability. Once, I slipped on a wet driveway and landed on smack on top of my ThinkPad. It survived without a single problem.
I do wonder how stiff the aluminum is on the Air. Will it survive a wet driveway tumble like the ThinkPad? I'm anxious to play with one at an Apple store.
