My 11-inch MacBook Air is here.  

These are just first impressions, off the top of my head, based on almost no use. If you're a Mac fanboy, save yourself some grief and don't read this piece. You won't understand it and you won't like it. If you ignore this warning don't complain to me!  

1. There are tradeoffs.  

2. The screen is seriously small. No Ethernet. 

3. If I'm seriously expected to think of this as a netbook, I really resent that it costs almost $1000 more than the last netbook I bought.  

3a. That netbook cost a lot less, but did a lot more. Longer battery life. Larger disk capacity. Three USB's not two. Ethernet. SD card slot. I know why we need all those things. All of them. Why does Apple think it can ship so much less and charge so much more and not force product comparisons? They're depending on the Reality Distortion Field keeping from people from being even slightly pragmatic in reviewing this product.  

4. Haven't decided whether I should leave this guy hooked up to Dropbox. It's synching unbelievably slowly, over my fast FIOS connection. It says it'll be done in 59 days. Let's see where it is tomorrow morning. 

5. I'm going to DC on Saturday, overnight. I will take the Air. Should I also take my iPad? (Probably will. But to be fair if I travelled with my 13-inch MacBook Pro, I would have brought the iPad as well.) 

6. I'm thinking about returning it. Not sure if this is going to fit into my workflow.  

7. iTunes still sucks.  

8. The thing that really ticks me off is this -- why not, for all the extra money and missing basic features, push the envelope. That's what I used to like about Apple. They built in networking into every Mac in the 80s. It was something extra that the other guys didn't do, all to build a market. How about putting a Wimax modem in there. Make it a better netbook, instead of just taking features out and jacking up the price. 

I guess basically, at this point, I'm not thrilled with this purchase. But that's a first impression. Don't trust it, I don't. 

PS: I called it Hooterville.  

PPS: If you're wondering why I bought this even though the specs are out there, and I "should have known" it was an overpriced ripoff before I bought it, I have two answers. 1. Please read my previous piece. It explains, carefully, how Apple and Amazon team up to get over those objections. 2. I watched Jobs roll it out (only the second time they've broadcast a SteveNote) and was told it had magical properties you could only understand by possessing one. He held it with reverence. Said it would make me a better human being. (At least implied that.)  

PPPS: I want to outlaw Apple Fanboys the same way Apple is outlawing Flash.