Twitter Deploying Top-Spec MacBook Pros Across App Development Teams

[kingtj1971]

Meanwhile my dual SSD Dell launch teams in 30s, and it takes slightly longer on M1 Mac.

Ugh.... Why is MS Teams such a resource hog, for a glorified IM client? Seriously, I *really* miss the days working for a previous employer who used Slack for that stuff and only kept an O365 subscription so we could all use the desktop Office apps with local installations, plus Microsoft handling the Exchange mailboxes for Outlook.

Now, I'm with a place that's "all in" on practically everything MS offers -- so we have no more traditional "file servers / shares" to connect to on the network. It's all OneDrive synced to SharePoint sites people have to visit through the web initially and click the "Sync" button to add them to their OneDrive, and reports all done with "Power BI" and "Microsoft Flow" in the cloud, etc. etc. Every time MS has some small outage, our company gets affected and trouble tickets roll in (that you obviously can do nothing about).

And of course, they see zero purpose for a Mac anyplace in the business ... so for the first time in over a decade, I'm using nothing at work but Windows.

Bottom line though? Teams has awful performance on any platform you launch it on.

 

[BulkSlash]

Doing an app build in Xcode on my 16" i9 MBP makes it sound like a hairdryer. That Apple were able to build a CPU that can do that sort of heavy processing with minimal fan noise and power draw is extremely impressive.

 

[Kuckuckstein]

Deleted

 

[Kuckuckstein]

In looking at the specs, it seems like a MBP for iOS app development, at least for an app like Twitter, would be overkill. I would think a 16GB MBA would crush the tasks just as well, if not well enough for most to not notice.

Performance wise, even the MacBook Air would do a fantastic job. As others have pointed out, this is probably mainly due to the normal developer multi screen setup.

I am personally torn myself. Simplicity of the MacBook Air or multi screen support (but I know that I need the latter- though two screens would be perfect and therefore only the Pro model is needed)

 

[Psychicbob]

Ugh.... Why is MS Teams such a resource hog, for a glorified IM client? Seriously, I *really* miss the days working for a previous employer who used Slack for that stuff and only kept an O365 subscription so we could all use the desktop Office apps with local installations, plus Microsoft handling the Exchange mailboxes for Outlook.

Now, I'm with a place that's "all in" on practically everything MS offers -- so we have no more traditional "file servers / shares" to connect to on the network. It's all OneDrive synced to SharePoint sites people have to visit through the web initially and click the "Sync" button to add them to their OneDrive, and reports all done with "Power BI" and "Microsoft Flow" in the cloud, etc. etc. Every time MS has some small outage, our company gets affected and trouble tickets roll in (that you obviously can do nothing about).

And of course, they see zero purpose for a Mac anyplace in the business ... so for the first time in over a decade, I'm using nothing at work but Windows.

Bottom line though? Teams has awful performance on any platform you launch it on.

I use the Teams app on my iPad and avoid the desktop version as much as I can, short of having to desktop share sometimes. My headset connects to the iPad and I just join the same meeting on mute from the laptop if I need to.

 

[smulji]

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?

They don’t need the GPU. They need the 64GB RAM which can only be had with the M1 Max SoC.

 

[dannyyankou]

Big enterprise win for Apple

 

[GrumpyCoder]

Big enterprise win for Apple

How? They've already used MacBooks before, what else would an iOS developer use?

 

[MauiPa]

but, but, but....I have heard so many times you need windows. Is that not true? Seriously, I can see the iOS engineers developing using apple tools, I was not aware those same tools could be used for Android, or, I wonder what they are using.

 

[dannyyankou]

How? They've already used MacBooks before, what else would an iOS developer use?

But also for android development teams

 

[Unregistered 4U]

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!

Yeah, you see Apple uses Intel API’s that they’d NEVER be able to use with an ARM chip (or something like that). And the cisc can’t be risc and other words like that there.

 

[GrumpyCoder]

But also for android development teams

Also not new, they've done Android development on macOS before. Twitter isn't alone here. Facebook did the same. The only new thing is really updated hardware, from Intel based Macs to AS based. Nothing else changed. If you've ever been in the Google or Facebook offices, you will see tons of Macs there.

Most mobile development teams or companies doing iOS and Android development are on macOS, because you can develop for both systems with the same hardware. That is if you're doing native development, not talking stuff like Xamarin. Back when I was developing apps, I've always done native and not this cross-platform crap.

 

[manu chao]

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?

Doesn’t the M1 Max also have faster internal memory? That can help for some things.

 

[dumastudetto]

Everyone will soon recognise the same things that Twitter and Reddit have figured out.

Intel is dead.

 

[dannyyankou]

Also not new, they've done Android development on macOS before. Twitter isn't alone here. Facebook did the same. The only new thing is really updated hardware, from Intel based Macs to AS based. Nothing else changed. If you've ever been in the Google or Facebook offices, you will see tons of Macs there.

Most mobile development teams or companies doing iOS and Android development are on macOS, because you can develop for both systems with the same hardware. That is if you're doing native development, not talking stuff like Xamarin. Back when I was developing apps, I've always done native and not this cross-platform crap.

Ok fair. But it's a win for M1 at least.

 

[mannyvel]

Jameson, a staff engineer at Reddit, said that the new MacBook Pros have cut Reddit's app build time by 50%, yielding improved productivity for engineers.

I'm a big fan of the new MBP's and as a software engineer I too will enjoy faster build times. However, if your productivity is materially increased by faster build times on what was previously already very fast processors then there's something wrong with your development process.

Well, android studio is really slow on x86. It sounds like the native version is way faster.

 

[ponzicoinbro]

Twitter’s app is ****. It’s a **** so big nobody can come close. Crashing all the time on macOS and the one on iOS they added a terrible Clubhouse feature full of the worst spams and scams. Jack is just a terrible person and his mind has been bent out of shape by the libertarian extremist side of SV Culture.

 

[GrumpyCoder]

Well, android studio is really slow on x86. It sounds like the native version is way faster.

Android Studio is always slow, no matter how and where you run it.

Well, maybe that improved, but back in the day we ran it on Windows and it was painful.

 

[wilhoitm]

Android Studio is always slow, no matter how and where you run it.

Well, maybe that improved, but back in the day we ran it on Windows and it was painful.

You can develop Android Apps on a Mac? Do the Android developers feel like they are selling their soul to the devil?

 

[TheWatchfulOne]

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

Similar situation as me except I was issued an old Dell. I asked if I could bring my own and they said yes. So, I went and bought a Lenovo. Pretty nice for a Windows computer.

 

[omnichad]

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?

Two more high performance cores is another difference. However, they may need the GPU for iOS emulation since it's way faster to test an app on emulation than pushing it to a device.

 

[JMacHack]

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!

You know what, I was skeptical myself though I don’t think I ever disagreed with you directly. I was wrong!

 

[falainber]

Big enterprise win for Apple

Why? Twitter is replacing old Macs with new ones. It's not like they can use anything else for iOS app development.

 

[827538]

Mainly because Microsoft has not updated Teams for Apple Silicon yet - still an Intel App running under Rosetta.

It still opens and runs fast for me. Very eager for a non-electron M1 silicon based version which I'm sure is coming. M1 support for Onedrive would also be very welcome. It's some of the only software that is running under Rosetta for me.

 

[GrumpyCoder]

You can develop Android Apps on a Mac? Do the Android developers feel like they are selling their soul to the devil?

It's all about money. You're paid to develop software, no matter the system. I hated Android and Windows with a passion back in the day, but still developed software for both. It's all business in the end and Mac users have developed Android apps using macOS for ages. ?‍♂️