[alf]

I have a '10 MBA 13. It's really an almost ideal laptop.

Pros:

-It runs a Unix based OS, but one that I don't have to install and configure myself.

-It's thin and light

-Battery lasts 7 hours (although recently I've been getting ~5:30, which is not quite enough for "all day usage")

-The display is high res. Has the same res as many 15" displays.

Cons:

Limited storage and RAM with huge markups for upgrades.

edit: love is probably too strong a word for any machine, esp. one you didn't design & build yourself.

[IanDrake]

I have an mid '11 MBA 13' i7, running windows 7 and I develop with Visual Studio 2010. It runs great, never a lag.

The keyboard setup isn't ideal for Windows, but I adapted to it pretty quickly.

The SSD is the big deal. Whatever you get, get something with an SSD.

[ryanhuff]

If you don't mind me asking, what kind of development do you typically do on your MBA?

I have a 15" MBP, and considered a MBA, but I am worried that having available real estate a tad smaller would be a detriment, even with the high resolution.

[jimmyhwang]

I have a 15" MBP and I've played around with the 13" MBA and I will say that the real estate issue isn't noticeable. Unless you have difficultly in reading smaller icons and fonts, having the same resolution made very little difference to me.

I will also note that the keyboard feels better on the MBA and the weight is a SIZEABLE difference (~3lbs vs. 5.5lbs).

The downside of course is if for some reason you need better specs, the MBA is only an i5 and maxes out at 4GB of RAM.

[alf]

I do mostly C and Python in Emacs, but have recently switched to using Emacs in a full screen terminal (iTerm). It works pretty well, and is the only environment I can make consistent across every platform that I use. All I need is an terminal and an SSH client :)

[walrus]

Is MBA short for MacBook Air?

[jimmyhwang]

Yes it is