Sorry for taking a long while - I was interrupted while writing this email.
Anandtech argues waiting till at least second half of 2008 for "slightly better performance, better battery life and should keep your lap a lot cooler." Perhaps even a couple years, to reduce the various compromises.
Anandtech also recommends taking the $1000 solid-state harddrive upgrade, to keep down heat and because the inexpensive harddrive may be its weak point. In the end, they recommend the other mac notebooks for "the vast majority of people."
(Of course, they warn that they haven't yet gotten their hands on the MacBook Air, so it's all speculation.)
http://www.anandtech.com/printarticle.aspx?i=3203
http://www.anandtech.com/printarticle.aspx?i=3201
Personally, I think waiting a while is just good sense -- being Apple's betatester sucks. Last year I got an early model MacBook Pro (because it was refurbished) and basically most of it needed to be replaced. Because of insane heat problems that ruined everything, as well as annoying monitor spots where parts were clearly darker than others. Even the keyboard and fans had to be replaced.
Pro (comparison with older MacBook):
http://daringfireball.net/2008/01/macbook_air
Con:
http://apcmag.com/7839/macbook_air_top_10_things_wrong_with_it
> Having said that, man, Macs are more fun. Maybe I am
> guilty of the "branding" deceit and have been
> successful indoctrinated by Apple's marketing people.
> Like kids who prefer the same food in McDonald's
> wrappers that is put in plain brown wrappers.
Yeah, I think they're much more pleasant than other computers. Though I don't like the fact that Apple blocks people from running MacOS X in a virtual machine. Subconsciously, I think that makes me consider working in MacOS insecure.
Tayssir