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M1 Macs with less than 16gb of ram are going to have a hard time running Tahoe with all the animations and visual graphics improvements. My M1 MacBook Pro with 32 GB sometimes crawls with Tahoe's interface.
I didn’t use Tahoe beta but even today my M1 MacBook Pro with 16GB of RAM cant really keep up with everything these days. I have no idea how many people claim they can get away with 8GB. I certainly can’t today and won’t be able to handle in the future, alongside surprisingly small 1TB of internal storage.
I guess if all you use is just a browser with very few apps running in the background you will be fine but not everyone can get away like that.
 
My wife and daughter each have a MBA M1, basic configuration of 8/256, both use them daily and for several hours at a time and both are still humming right along after nearly 5 years (uh, the M1s, not my wife and daughter). I think there’s too much emphasis on this forum on “power users” and “more RAM!” and other what I consider to be useless insights. Most, if not 95% or more of users don’t edit videos, mess with LLMs or edit photographs commercially. Most of us get along just fine with 8/256.

Apple knows that, as does Walmart.
The same attitude exists on all product forums. Car guys push 500 horsepower for urban commuters, Foodies push expensive kitchen appliances. Outdoors forums need very expensive new gear, tech forums same silliness. Many companies painfully learned their mistakes in product design and marketing because they thought these forums and other social media members were their base customers.
 
I personally hope the A18 based MacBook uses a smaller chassis than the M1 MBA. I just want a full fledged Mac laptop that I can comfortably use in a domestic coach seat - my 2015 13” MBP is a bit too big, and modern MBAs aren’t really that much shorter. Heck, my 12” PowerBook was practically the upper limit, and I last flew with that 15 years ago - and since then, I’m pretty sure seat pitch has shrunk and my belly’s gotten bigger.

Here’s hoping for a relaunch of the 12” MacBook, but with a working keyboard, MagSafe, and an extra USB port…
 
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By then, Asahi Linux should be polished enough to replace macOS.
That's the funniest thing I've ever heard. Apple has been working on a convergence between ios and macOS for years. I don't know which will prevail, but guessing your mac will look and work more like your iPhone in the future.
 
This is honestly not a good buy anymore, it’s just too old of a product…

I’m looking mainly at software support, in Tahoe, it’s the minimum supported MacBook Air!
Yes, but wouldn't this be a better computer when all one would be using it for was to replace an iPad Air 3 for use while watching TV and wanted to look up movie/TV info and sports stuff? And I'm to the age where typing on an iPad is a slow process.

This is $600 without tax and AppleCare. And a base iPad Air with Magic Keyboard is $868 without tax and AppleCare.

I'm asking not trying to argue.
 
I didn’t use Tahoe beta but even today my M1 MacBook Pro with 16GB of RAM cant really keep up with everything these days. I have no idea how many people claim they can get away with 8GB. I certainly can’t today and won’t be able to handle in the future, alongside surprisingly small 1TB of internal storage.
I guess if all you use is just a browser with very few apps running in the background you will be fine but not everyone can get away like that.
Both my 8/256 M2 Mac Mini and 8/256 M1 MBA are running Ventura. As I've mentioned in the past, I run VMs, video editing/encoding, audio processing, image editing, office productivity, (my Mac Mini is also my Plex and Tunarr servers) and everything else that I used to run on my MB Pros, just fine.

This is not to imply that you can too, but to say that there are use cases between yours and "just a browser" that entry level models of Apple computers can easily handle.
 
Both my 8/256 M2 Mac Mini and 8/256 M1 MBA are running Ventura. As I've mentioned in the past, I run VMs, video editing/encoding, audio processing, image editing, office productivity, (my Mac Mini is also my Plex and Tunarr servers) and everything else that I used to run on my MB Pros, just fine.

This is not to imply that you can too, but to say that there are use cases between yours and "just a browser" that entry level models of Apple computers can easily handle.
That’s good on you. I can’t even dare to run VM on my 16GB RAM Mac considering it has been hammered heavily already despite not doing any “heavy tasks”, just runs a bunch of programs. Very soon Imma gonna be forced to fork out big cash to get 32GB RAM and 8TB internal storage model. Yikes.
 
People will scoff at 8GB, but my wife just wrote her first book on with this same configuration. [...] Even with 'just' 8GB.
I think if you're not using advanced technology like Apple Intelligence then everything else can be done with the 8GB RAM stick. Apple says an 8GB Mac is just like a 16GB PC.
 
I think if you're not using advanced technology like Apple Intelligence then everything else can be done with the 8GB RAM stick. Apple says an 8GB Mac is just like a 16GB PC.

It's been a while since I really used a Windows PC for productivity, but I can say that the last 8GB laptop I had with Windows 10 on it was usable but used to get kind of annoying with heavy multitasking. 8GB with Apple silicon can get choppy but is never got unresponsive in my experience. I think this is what Apple means by 8GB Mac = 16GB PC. It's a bit of a stretch, but I kind of know what they mean. It's still misleading though.

The best thing about Apple intelligence so far is 16GB default machine specs. The actual product itself has been underwhelming. I'm sure this is going to improve over time, but a budget Mac laptop with 8GB will still be a capable machine for many even if it doesn't do well with Apple intelligence.
 
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