I am the kind of computer gearhead who’s not afraid to gut her Pismo to replace a broken screen, or gut her iBook to put in a bigger drive…. and believe you me, it’s a gutting. When there are more parts on the table than still attached to the machine, then you’ve successfully gutted the laptop.

But I also regularly troubleshoot computers for friends, family, co-workers, clients, just about anyone who finds out I have a Mac. And I don’t want these people, who obviously aren’t computer gearheads, worrying about how to replace their hard drive. And I sure as hell don’t want them asking me to do it, because if I mess it up, it costs everyone money. Let Apple take that chance, or their authorized tech people.

In the meantime, the Macbook Air, for the people interested in a computer for doing work looks like a very capable machine. The whole lack of an optical drive is still kind of weird, but on the other hand, so was the lack of a floppy drive when the iMac came out, and we all got over it. I’m willing to bet it’ll work out… and if it doesn’t work out for you, you gearhead you, don’t buy it.