My current profession is that of an IT client engineer or end user computing engineer. Basically that entails being the dude who sets up and maintains the deployment systems (be they MDM or more...traditional) for the desktop support staff to use. On the side, I'm starting out as an Apple based IT consulting (Windows based IT consulting is kind of like the secret menu at In N Out burger; I'll do it, but I more commonly do it as part of an IT job, especially since there are already way too many Microsoft Gold partners out there that will always outclass me). Toward that end, I have an arsenal of five of the following:
MacBook Air (M1, 2020)
8 CPU Cores + 7 GPU Cores
8GB Unified Memory
256GB SSD
And two of the following:
Mac mini (M1, 2020)
8 CPU Cores + 8 GPU Cores
16GB Unified Memory
512GB SSD
(one of them has 10GbE; one of them does not)
These Macs are used for anything from helping a client resolve a problem to demoing services and solutions that I am able to offer to beta testing new macOS releases to trying out one of the myriad of open source tools designed to make JAMF Pro even more powerful than it is by default to offering Mac training for those that want or need it by giving them the comfort of messing around with a Mac that isn't their own. Testing software installations as part of also testing MDM based deployments is also something I'd do.
I'm pretty sure that, between these seven Macs, my bases are going to be well-covered until Apple introduces another kind of Apple Silicon Mac that changes the deployment process radically enough or until they drop support for the M1 (both of which seem to be a decent while away).
So, I recently managed to acquire a MacBook Air (Retina, 13-inch, 2019). It had a bad logic board, battery, and keyboard, but it had a couple months of AppleCare+ on it and was covered to get everything repaired for free. The only money I've spent on it is a Tech21 case (which I had an extra of), a cheap Amazon trackpad film cover, and a keyboard cover for the butterfly keyboard. Its specs are as follows:
1.6GHz Dual-Core 8th Generation (Amber Lake) Y-series Intel Core i5
Intel UHD Graphics 617
Apple T2 Security Chip
16GB of LPDDR3 RAM
512GB SSD
While I like that I have 16GB of RAM in this thing, it still feels way slower to run pretty much any third party app. The fan will ramp up over nothing. If I was to do anything OTHER than what I'm using the M1 Airs for, I would absolutely hate the experience. It feels like it will serve the same intended purposes as the M1 MacBook Airs and just fine (considering the needs are not very high).
I like the idea of having all of my consulting systems be Apple Silicon and not Intel. Though, much more than that, I absolutely HATE working with the T2 Security Chip outside of my personal arsenal (and even then, it's still annoying to deal with) and the non-T2 Intel systems seem to be on borrowed time at this point (and these things lose usefulness to me as an IT consultant if they can't run the latest macOS releases).
For a computer I paid virtually nothing for, I could do much worse. There's something to also be said about being able to test installers with both architectures if need absolutely be. I only know of few Intel-based installers that won't install on Apple Silicon Macs (and all stem from using Adobe's package creator for creative cloud and not selecting "Universal" under the target platform). I just don't know if that need would ever actually arise. Should I sell this MacBook Air (Retina, 13-inch, 2019)? Or is having an emergency Intel Mac in my consulting arsenal a wise idea?
MacBook Air (M1, 2020)
8 CPU Cores + 7 GPU Cores
8GB Unified Memory
256GB SSD
And two of the following:
Mac mini (M1, 2020)
8 CPU Cores + 8 GPU Cores
16GB Unified Memory
512GB SSD
(one of them has 10GbE; one of them does not)
These Macs are used for anything from helping a client resolve a problem to demoing services and solutions that I am able to offer to beta testing new macOS releases to trying out one of the myriad of open source tools designed to make JAMF Pro even more powerful than it is by default to offering Mac training for those that want or need it by giving them the comfort of messing around with a Mac that isn't their own. Testing software installations as part of also testing MDM based deployments is also something I'd do.
I'm pretty sure that, between these seven Macs, my bases are going to be well-covered until Apple introduces another kind of Apple Silicon Mac that changes the deployment process radically enough or until they drop support for the M1 (both of which seem to be a decent while away).
So, I recently managed to acquire a MacBook Air (Retina, 13-inch, 2019). It had a bad logic board, battery, and keyboard, but it had a couple months of AppleCare+ on it and was covered to get everything repaired for free. The only money I've spent on it is a Tech21 case (which I had an extra of), a cheap Amazon trackpad film cover, and a keyboard cover for the butterfly keyboard. Its specs are as follows:
1.6GHz Dual-Core 8th Generation (Amber Lake) Y-series Intel Core i5
Intel UHD Graphics 617
Apple T2 Security Chip
16GB of LPDDR3 RAM
512GB SSD
While I like that I have 16GB of RAM in this thing, it still feels way slower to run pretty much any third party app. The fan will ramp up over nothing. If I was to do anything OTHER than what I'm using the M1 Airs for, I would absolutely hate the experience. It feels like it will serve the same intended purposes as the M1 MacBook Airs and just fine (considering the needs are not very high).
I like the idea of having all of my consulting systems be Apple Silicon and not Intel. Though, much more than that, I absolutely HATE working with the T2 Security Chip outside of my personal arsenal (and even then, it's still annoying to deal with) and the non-T2 Intel systems seem to be on borrowed time at this point (and these things lose usefulness to me as an IT consultant if they can't run the latest macOS releases).
For a computer I paid virtually nothing for, I could do much worse. There's something to also be said about being able to test installers with both architectures if need absolutely be. I only know of few Intel-based installers that won't install on Apple Silicon Macs (and all stem from using Adobe's package creator for creative cloud and not selecting "Universal" under the target platform). I just don't know if that need would ever actually arise. Should I sell this MacBook Air (Retina, 13-inch, 2019)? Or is having an emergency Intel Mac in my consulting arsenal a wise idea?
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