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Any Software Engineers getting the new machines?

Happy to see so many software devs around here getting the new machines, it's refreshing after seeing so much talk around video production.

Do you also use any desktop Mac?
I am doing most of my work on a desktop Mac and on the fence whether to get a MBP to also enable work outside of my home office...
 
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Just got my 14" today (16GB, 1TB, 10-core), been slowly, deliberately adding things as I work on projects.

Overall my impression is one of awe and amazement. Perhaps I had gotten used to my 2016 MBP, and it's speed (or lack thereof). But Docker - docker - would take minutes to start up on my old machine, seconds on this one. Maybe cruft will build up in a few months.

I have what I consider to be a fairly tiny/simple next.js/flask web app - but starting those docker containers, running them was always a 45 second wait at least. Subjectively this started everything in 5-10 seconds.

I ran into some weird issues - Xcode failed to install, kept getting stuck after downloading. It blocked installation of other apps, so I stopped it, restarted a few times, finally it cleared.

Also installed node - first v16, then nvm, then v14. Used the package installer, nvm, then let nvm kick off the build process for node 14. That took a good 5 minutes or more. It appears to be running, but will know if there are issues with my lambda functions.

Overall, I'm liking this thing. Not sure if I should bring it in for repair - the dead area of pixels in the middle of the menubar - but my guess is it's intentional :D
 
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ururk said:
Just got my 14" today (16GB, 1TB, 10-core), been slowly, deliberately adding things as I work on projects.

Overall my impression is one of awe and amazement. Perhaps I had gotten used to my 2016 MBP, and it's speed (or lack thereof). But Docker - docker - would take minutes to start up on my old machine, seconds on this one. Maybe cruft will build up in a few months.

I have what I consider to be a fairly tiny/simple next.js/flask web app - but starting those docker containers, running them was always a 45 second wait at least. Subjectively this started everything in 5-10 seconds.

I ran into some weird issues - Xcode failed to install, kept getting stuck after downloading. It blocked installation of other apps, so I stopped it, restarted a few times, finally it cleared.

Also installed node - first v16, then nvm, then v14. Used the package installer, nvm, then let nvm kick off the build process for node 14. That took a good 5 minutes or more. It appears to be running, but will know if there are issues with my lambda functions.

Overall, I'm liking this thing. Not sure if I should bring it in for repair - the dead area of pixels in the middle of the menubar - but my guess is it's intentional :D
Click to expand...

How are you adjusting to the screen size? I saw someone on another thread say it feels close to their older 15" macbook pro.
 
applesed said:
How are you adjusting to the screen size? I saw someone on another thread say it feels close to their older 15" macbook pro.
Click to expand...
I came from a 13", and it feels like I have more room. My personal laptop is a 15" Retina, which I also do a bit of coding on (but not as much). It feels somewhere in-between the two, though I haven't tried to recreate the same setup on each - going to give that a try tomorrow.

Also... I have my display set to "More Space". When I first changed it I got the impression it was going to be too tiny, but now that I've been using it for a day I want to go another size smaller. In the past I'd use a 3rd party utility to use a non-standard resolution... I seem to recall running into issues... might give it a go with this new machine.

Finally, while the notch is ignorable, I am trying out TopNotch, which basically just adds a black rectangle to the wallpaper. I probably should force myself to get used to it.
 
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babyexercise said:
Simple question:
Why don't you just use Linux/Windows? (Except IOS app development)
Click to expand...
How is this question even relevant to this thread? It all comes down to personal preference and obviously you can do most of the work (except native iOS development) on other machines. This is more of a discussion for those who consider getting this machine.

Anyway, for what it's worth, here's a quick answer for me.
I personally used Windows for years until I tried Mac and immediately fell in love.
Without going too much into details because I have a lot to say, for me it's the build quality and design of the machines, look & feel of the OS, generally way more productive with it, other software support, stability and longevity. Since I switched to other Apple devices I also enjoy the "ecosystem" and wouldn't trade it for anything.
 
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I came from a 2018" 32GB MBP to a 16" Pro/32GB and the performance difference is mindblowing.
Compiling a massive Swift/(Modern)C++ project from scratch used to take 15 minutes on the 2018. It's now down to roughly 4 minutes, without the fans even spinning up.

I've mostly used an external 4K screen with these machines. On the 2018 alone, this caused throttling to kick in after a short amount of time. No issue with the M1 mac.

Spinning up a (ARM64) Linux VM via UTM is an instant feat (~10 seconds to desktop).So at least native virtualization is amazing on this device too.

Migrating my shell environment and getting all CLI tools through homebrew was also an easy feat and worked out of the box.
 
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babyexercise said:
Simple question:
Why don't you just use Linux/Windows? (Except IOS app development)
Click to expand...
Windows:
Because the Internet runs on POSIX based systems, and developing on Windows is a pain. Yes, I understand Microsoft now have this Linux-subsystem stuff specifically because of this issue, but why would I use windows and virtualise my actual work?

Linux:
I like Linux, I really do - over the years I’ve tried Gentoo (why?!), Red hat, Suse, Ubuntu, Debian (my favourite), and Mint. The problem with Linux is, that it’s just one extra job to keep it up and running that I don’t want.

Mac:
It just works. The hardware is beautiful, the software is great, it works flawlessly with all my other apple devices, homebrew for package management means it may as well be a Linux flavour once you peel back the GUI layer.

So my question honestly is (always) “why don’t you just use macOS?”
 
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babyexercise said:
Simple question:
Why don't you just use Linux/Windows? (Except IOS app development)
Click to expand...
  • Because I'm a *lazy* developer, and running Linux would require extra effort :D
  • Because most of my users are on Mac/Windows, and it's easier to test compatibility on a similar system
  • Because it offers the best of both worlds - unix+GUI and excellent toolchains, features
  • Because I used to be able to "natively" virtualize Windows for testing in IE. Since Edge now uses Chromium... and frankly my user base is 95%+ Chrome, I just do my testing on a Virtual Desktop, haven't opened VMware for a few years
  • Because the level of effort to use WSL / WSL 2 is an unnecessary burden on my already constrained time (ok, so I do find time to post here, but that's just because of the new machine :D)
  • Finally, every time I use Windows I initially think, "this isn't too bad", but the longer I use it (ie, 5 minutes, 10) I get frustrated at MS's choices, whether it's system settings, driver settings, printer settings - everything is scattered, varied, and inconsistent. One would think things would have gotten better with newer versions, but my most recent interaction is that they haven't.
But back to the original thread, I hope to move my primary docker web stack over today, it's nothing special (alpine web server, MySQL), but I've grown to accept its slowness on my old machine.
 
For those of you wondering why anyone would choose a Mac over Linux or Windows: aside from the iOS development, using a Mac means you open the laptop, you write code, you build, you deploy, you test, you close the lid.

No driver issues, no patches, no wifi issues, reliable battery, a solid terminal, no forced background updates, a simple UI. Building software is tough enough. Having to mess around with the OS is a headache no one needs.
 
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peter1984 said:
For those of you wondering why anyone would choose a Mac over Linux or Windows: aside from the iOS development, using a Mac means you open the laptop, you write code, you build, you deploy, you test, you close the lid.

No driver issues, no patches, no wifi issues, reliable battery, a solid terminal, no forced background updates, a simple UI. Building software is tough enough. Having to mess around with the OS is a headache no one needs.
Click to expand...
Not only that, but the integration across the apple ecosystem is amazing. My watch unlocks my computer when I sit down, I can reply to text messages using my keyboard, I get alerts from my homekit devices and cameras and I can do all this from the same machine I'm using for my work.
 
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peter1984 said:
For those of you wondering why anyone would choose a Mac over Linux or Windows: aside from the iOS development, using a Mac means you open the laptop, you write code, you build, you deploy, you test, you close the lid.

No driver issues, no patches, no wifi issues, reliable battery, a solid terminal, no forced background updates, a simple UI. Building software is tough enough. Having to mess around with the OS is a headache no one needs.
Click to expand...
I think this is the best summary for this question
 
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Scala developer here, also do a bit of audio recording - considering lowest spec 14" model.
 
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I went with the 14" M1 Max with 32-Core GPU, 32 GB RAM, and 2 TB SSD.

I do web, React Native, photography, and some video.
 
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