As a developer, what will I miss on a Macbook Air? [MBA vs MBP] [closed]

Solution 1:

You'll do just fine with a MacBook Air, at least, that's what I'd go for (and I'm in love with the Air as well :))

I will miss the DVD drive, and upgrade ability if I am choosing a Macbook Air over Macbook Pro or a Thinkpad Machine?

Who uses a drive more then 2 times a year these days? I don't and I think most of the Mac users don't. And if you really need one, you can try Apple's USB Superdrive or if you don't want to pay, you can try the DVD and CD sharing within Mac OS X.

Is the form factor and backup time, worth the choice?

It's the smallest notebook of the two (MacBook Air vs. MacBook Pro), so form factor will do just fine. About the back-up time, I'm not sure what you mean, but as it's all Flash storage inside, reading and writing to the hard drive will go extremely fast.

Is it good for iPhone/Android Development?

Yep. It's full size keyboard and gorgeous screen will allow you to do everything you can on a MacBook Pro, but you'll have a lighter and smaller notebook.

Will I be able to run my favorite Open Source tools from Ubuntu, like GIMP/Blender etc.,? If not will I be able to dual boot Ubuntu? (I know I can do Windows)

You'll be able to dual boot Ubuntu without any hassle. Here is a good tutorial how to install it using a Flash drive

Solution 2:

Why choose the Macbook Air?

Fast flash memory. (short boot time, support for Power Nap¹,...)
Slightly higher pixel density: 127 ppi vs² 113 ppi
Less weight, smaller dimensions.

Why not?

Better color space coverage³ of the Macbook Pro display panel (78%-100% vs 56%-79%).

I personally made the switch from a 15" MBP (2011) to a 13" MBA (2012) and I find the difference quite significant. Overall the colors on the Air are more whitish which I could not 'fix' using a custom color profile. The black on the MBP is darker. Both of my MBP and my MBA have (had) a LG display panel.
Setting up install USBs for Linux distros is still troublesome on Macs.

In fact, I've experienced that the official Ubuntu guidelines⁴ don't work for most people. The optical drive will avoid much pain when setting up Linux distros.
More disk space, which is also user serviceable.
Weaker CPU.
Weaker graphics.

Yes, both the 13" MBA and 13" MBP run on Intel HD 4000 graphics, but in the MBP these run at higher clocks: 350-1150 MHz on a 1440x900 display vs 650-1250 MHz on a 1280x800 display.
Less RAM for the same price.

The high-end option of the MBP provides 8GB of RAM at the same price. You can even upgrade the RAM to more than 8GB which MBA can't.
Ports and other things...

Ethernet port, Audio with subwoofer, Kensington lock slot, SDXC card slot, Firewire
(I know, most people don't need all of these...)

A personal suggestion...

In case you are willing to spend $1,499, you could get the $1,199 Macbook Pro 13" and upgrade to a SSD with the money that you got left - you can get one that's faster than the Macbook Air OEM SSD.

Such a solution could be just as costly as similar configured the 13" Macbook Air, but you get a faster CPU to take advantage of the SSD and more powerful graphics.