Twitter Deploying Top-Spec MacBook Pros Across App Development Teams

[m4mario]

Intel’s biggest marketing play is that it is getting compared to Apple’s processors. That’s actually good for Intel. The day Intel is truly done is when people start talking about Apple VS AMD or Intel VS Snapdragon for computers. As long as we keep taking about Apple VS Intel, Intel is good.

 

[BootsWalking]

Yeah I thought that. If there was $100,000 to save from nine people's build times then maybe you should have a build server or something?

I was thinking more along the lines of engineers doing too many iterative builds (for debugging) and not enough time designing and thinking about their code.

 

[rjohnstone]

My company switched to MacBook Pros a few years back for all developers.
Only top spec models offered. M1 MacBooks are still being evaluated for in-house software compatibility.
We had a few M1 MB Airs, but they were only approved for PMs. Still had some performance issues with some of our software that will require rebuilding for native M1 support.
So for now, we still get maxed out Core i9 MBPs. I'm on my third one.
My first 2017 MBP had a swollen battery issue, looked like a ravioli. Apple really wanted that one back. My second 2017 ended up with a fried SSD. My current 2019 Core i9 MBP has been running fine, but it still gets toasty running big jobs.
Can't wait for M1 or M2 MBPs to get approved.

 

[Lukomaldini]

Lucky! I got a new crappy Dell form work, which is about to launch for Mars every time I open Teams for 5 Minutes and therefore I do all my work from my personal 14inch MBP

Get your company to sell the dell and use the money as a subsidy for your 14? Worth a shot!

 

[dogslobber]

These are just a couple of groups doing app development. No big deal. If it’s company wide then these Macs would majority be dumb terminals.

 

[GrumpyCoder]

Finally, it is empirical fact that MBP14/16 are extremely energy efficient and mostly silent machine with extended battery life and can run full speed on battery.

And that's what Apple should get credit for. For mobile use, they're fantastic systems and very energy efficient. Firing up a Razer Blade 15 Studio with RTX5000 is drawing more power, gets hotter, but performance wise runs circles around a MBP14/16.

And that's why it's important to specify the use case. I'm using my Apple systems for photo/video work. Wouldn't be smart to use anything else at this point in time. I'm using Linux for research work, because I need Nvidia software for it, no way around it. I'm pushing off heavy lifting work to a cluster with about 60k cores + GPUs and 500TB RAM drawing about 700kW (talk about generating heat). There isn't one system to do it all, pick what you need to get the job done.

 

[Stella]

Mac made great development machine before the Apple Silicon ( AS )introduction. Using a Mac Mini M1 for software development has been great, especially since a lot of tools are now converted to native AS. The new Macbook Pros are fantastic machines... especially since they support two external displays, unlike the first Gen Macbook Pros, which was a limiting factor.

 

[slineaudi]

The performance is impressive but the performance per watt is just amazing. Think how that could add up globally.

 

[mazz0]

I was thinking more along the lines of engineers doing too many iterative builds (for debugging) and not enough time designing and thinking about their code.

Yeah, that too

 

[Frantisekj]

Yep, and that's what this all is about. M1 Pro/Max builds software as quickly as a fully loaded enthusiast-class x86 desktop CPU drawing over 200W, so it's an incredible tool for software developers.

Although I am surprised Twitter would choose the M1 Max, what do they need the GPU for?

Monitor support can be one reason as mentioned but buss 400 GB/s speed and amount of memory for bigger builds can help build speed as I saw some tests. My guess.

 

[BWhaler]

Someone should tell them about the quality issues in Monterey.

 

[AltecX]

oh it does launch fast but 5 mins into a call the fan starts to go crazy or the laptop would suddenly heat up like an oven even though I am not currently using it at all. Even if I close the lid after working on it for a while, the laptop fan still runs crazy for 10+ minutes occasionally

It definatly sounds like soemthings wrong. I support a fleet of Dell XPS 15's at work and we don't have that issue on our Teems calls.

 

[GrumpyCoder]

Someone should tell them about the quality issues in Monterey.

That's the real reason they upgraded... they can blame Monterey for the quality of Twitter.

 

[Smooch]

Yep, and that's what this all is about. M1 Pro/Max builds software as quickly as a fully loaded enthusiast-class x86 desktop CPU drawing over 200W, so it's an incredible tool for software developers.

Although I am surprised Twitter would choose the M1 Max, what do they need the GPU for?

Hah, you must not use Xcode or iOS simulators...
While M1 and its stronger brothers are really great, Xcode as an IDE is VERY inefficient and sluggish...
Android Studio is alright, but the Android emulators are even worse...
You need that performance for large scale apps in my experience... It's the tool you work with, so high-end stuff seems valid.

 

[Techwatcher]

Good to hear. Love hearing real world enterprise based use cases.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

9 (nine!) MBPs?!? That's worth a story? What is everyone else using at Twitter? MR guys should stand in front of an Apple store and write a story for every single person leaving the store with a new Apple product. ?

Sounds like a description they’d use internally. If it’s well known that their average agile team size is 9, saying “A team of 9 can save $100,000 in the first year) is something the number crunchers understand better than a recitation of performance numbers.

 

[Brandon42]

Funny, one of the first comments I made on here in regards to Xcode on my M1 Pro, was that I hit compile and did my usual, I’m going to make coffee move. I didn’t even get out of the room before it finished. I may need to move my coffee machine closer, the alternative is unthinkable

I hear the 2022 MacBook Pro will have a built in coffee maker. You heard it here first.

 

[thejadedmonkey]

Hah, you must not use Xcode or iOS simulators...
While M1 and its stronger brothers are really great, Xcode as an IDE is VERY inefficient and sluggish...
Android Studio is alright, but the Android emulators are even worse...
You need that performance for large scale apps in my experience... It's the tool you work with, so high-end stuff seems valid.

I never understood how everything is so bad.

I remember developing for Windows Phone 7 back in 2011 or so, and Visual Studio with the WP7 Emulator was better than xcode and the iOS Simulator. I won't even touch how bad Android Studio with the Pixel Emulators are compared to what Microsoft had, a decade earlier.

 

[coolfactor]

Although I am surprised Twitter would choose the M1 Max, what do they need the GPU for?

The GPU is used for more than just graphics processing. A lot of compute-heavy tasks can be offloaded to the GPU.

 

[york2600]

Is this really news? I've been on a handful of dev teams and they all deploy top spec Macbook Pros and the big tech companies have always done this.

 

[Psychicbob]

My works laptop is an i7 with 8GB. It’s barely capable of running windows 10 and the AV software. Anything after that is a lottery

 

[project_2501]

Yep, and that's what this all is about. M1 Pro/Max builds software as quickly as a fully loaded enthusiast-class x86 desktop CPU drawing over 200W, so it's an incredible tool for software developers.

Although I am surprised Twitter would choose the M1 Max, what do they need the GPU for?

I think he answered this on twitter - 64GB RAM.

 

[JippaLippa]

The adoption of the M1 and the transition were going well enough in 2021, but we all knew the true push would have come with the new macbook pros.
I'm expecting the adoption of the apple silicon architecture to double during 2022.
Even Adobe, the slowest company ever with regards to updates, has almost completed its transition.
I can't believe the After Effects Beta works well, even better than the "stable" 22 release.
Now I just need to wait for plugins developers to update their tools for the apple silicon architecture.

 

[RogueWarrior65]

Here's another idea: give Twitter developers the bottom-of-the-line equipment, the least amount of RAM, and the least amount of storage space. This will encourage them to make their code more efficient.

 

[macduke]

All I can do is sit here and laugh about all the crap I’ve been catching for years on these forums saying that Apple will eventually replace Intel Macs with their own chips. I was one of the first people here saying that and so many people jumped on my ass about that.

I get the last laugh, haters. Hahahaha!