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Twitter Deploying Top-Spec MacBook Pros Across App Development Teams

GuilleA said:
I can't fathom why they need so many employees. Do they do anything else than the Twitter app? why the **** would you need over 5,000 people?
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It's not just the Apps that needs to be built. The harder part is building a performant, scalable, highly available globally distributed back-end. That requires a huge number of staff to build, maintain, monitor and respond to production issues.

There's a few hundred million people using Twitter every day... that's a lot of data to move around.
 
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BootsWalking said:
You should look into other development processes. There is a better way to write software than what you're describing. It's not a new or unique problem.
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I wasn't talking about development processes but finding and fixing reported bugs.

This is probably the area where I have improved the most as a developer in the past decade. I still encounter weird bugs from time to time, but I don't remember the last time it took more than a day to determine the cause and fix it after receiving the data to reproduce the bug. Sometimes you just have to work more and think less, because thinking makes you stupid.
 
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contacos said:
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 :D
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Literally exact same situation here.
 
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Zdigital2015 said:
They wanted max CPU, regardless of whether or not the Max is really any better than the Pro in CPU tasks on a day to day basis. This also prevents excuses from developers that they really need the Max, that the Pro is why they’re not as productive as they “could” be.
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It’s not just about the CPU. Going from Pro > Max allows you to spec with 64GB. You also get a memory bandwidth increase from 200GB/s > 400GB/s. Anandtech showed that a maxed out M1 Pro/ Max can suck 243GB/s before you even use any GPU. There could be certain workflows where this would make a difference. But, it also allows longevity for future workloads as well as extra monitor options.
 
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leman said:
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?
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Yeah, I am wondering that too. Maybe they have desk environments with a lot of screens, which is not an entirely abnormal scenario, so need the Max instead of the Pro.

I also wonder if they really need the maxed out RAM, or if 16GB would actually be enough?

These questions are critical for me, as being a software dev who sometimes (but not currently) works from my own supplied machine, and am trying to work out which specs I actually need for upgrading my 2015 15" rMBP. Currently favouring M1 Pro 10/16 16GB 2TB. But really don't want to mess it up and wish I had 32GB, or a Max. But also don't want to pay the horrendous Apple Tax for that 32GB.
 
MikePulsifer said:
As I dig deeper, any attempt to go above 16GB RAM would mean a jump to $2K to start. No way I could sell my execs on that, even if I wanted to.
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You need to see how much employee time you can save, which also has the effect of increased productivity. Work out how much you will save per employee and what the return on investment time is. Then go to your boss with the numbers.

Turning up unprepared with “hey, can we have this shiny new laptop” probably won’t work out.
 
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Shirasaki said:
After five or so years Apple switchs to RISC-V, and all current ARM applications will be forced to update for native support again. The circle continues.
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Yep, or we’d all be stuck riding horses and lighting candles. What is the obsession with being stuck in the past?
 
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theotherphil said:
Yep, or we’d all be stuck riding horses and lighting candles. What is the obsession with being stuck in the past?
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Because tried and true, time-tested is absolutely crucial for many industries. But heck, what could go wrong? Just discontinue macOS support of the immediate last gen hardware so everyone would be forced to enjoy “latest and the greatest”, and all live in the bleeding edge beta testing every new stuff coming out. I’m sure nothing could go wrong.

Even better, just build new buildings every year cause 1-year-old building sucks, tons of defects etc.
 
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bigfatipod said:
It’s up over 25% in the last year though
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Which is lagging other tech companies. Apple stock is underperforming due to all the anti-trust cases hanging over its head. If they have to open up the app store to sideloading, or massively reduce the 15/30% Apple Tax, then that will hugely impact profits. The endless threat of that is stalling the stock price.
 
CrapShack said:
Excellent! Perhaps someday good news like this will be reflected in AAPL's stuck-in-the-mud stock price.
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Apple stock is underperforming due to all the anti-trust cases hanging over its head. If they have to open up the app store to sideloading, or massively reduce the 15/30% Apple Tax, then that will hugely impact profits. Keep in mind that the revenue from the App Store Tax is much greater than from Mac sales. The endless threat of the death of those profits is stalling the stock price. Otherwise, yes, you would think these machines would be launching the stock price.
 
i don't know how paying 6k for a machine will improve productivity of developers. that sounds more like ensuring people are busy all the time.
 
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sideshowuniqueuser said:
Yeah, I am wondering that too. Maybe they have desk environments with a lot of screens, which is not an entirely abnormal scenario, so need the Max instead of the Pro.

I also wonder if they really need the maxed out RAM, or if 16GB would actually be enough?

These questions are critical for me, as being a software dev who sometimes (but not currently) works from my own supplied machine, and am trying to work out which specs I actually need for upgrading my 2015 15" rMBP. Currently favouring M1 Pro 10/16 16GB 2TB. But really don't want to mess it up and wish I had 32GB, or a Max. But also don't want to pay the horrendous Apple Tax for that 32GB.
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I've been using the 16gb m1 MBA for a year, and it's not enough. IntelliJ, Chrome, Safari, Slack, VSCode, node, etc...all running is hitting swap and putting memory pressure in yellow. If I need to start one of my servers locally and also run Xcode plus the sim to test an iPhone issue (or Android emulator) then I'm really hammering swap.

I also don't like having to close things down into order to open LR and quickly import some pictures.

Finally, the RAM cannot be updated after the fact. Even if someone is at the edge of 16gb today, they should get 32gb. Heck, IMO everyone should get 64gb and as much ssd as they can possibly afford. Otherwise, the useful life of the machine is shortened.
 
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mdatwood said:
I've been using the 16gb m1 MBA for a year, and it's not enough. IntelliJ, Chrome, Safari, Slack, VSCode, node, etc...all running is hitting swap and putting memory pressure in yellow. If I need to start one of my servers locally and also run Xcode plus the sim to test an iPhone issue (or Android emulator) then I'm really hammering swap.

I also don't like having to close things down into order to open LR and quickly import some pictures.

Finally, the RAM cannot be updated after the fact. Even if someone is at the edge of 16gb today, they should get 32gb. Heck, IMO everyone should get 64gb and as much ssd as they can possibly afford. Otherwise, the useful life of the machine is shortened.
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Thank you so much for this answer. These are the experiences and user stories that I am looking for! Pure gold, thank you.

Do you have plans to upgrade to an M1 Pro/Max? Which specs will you get?
 
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sideshowuniqueuser said:
Apple stock is underperforming due to all the anti-trust cases hanging over its head. If they have to open up the app store to sideloading, or massively reduce the 15/30% Apple Tax, then that will hugely impact profits. Keep in mind that the revenue from the App Store Tax is much greater than from Mac sales. The endless threat of the death of those profits is stalling the stock price. Otherwise, yes, you would think these machines would be launching the stock price.
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Thank you for taking the time to explain. I see what you mean.
 
thats significant improvement, from 4 hours to 1 hour and from 4 days to 1 day. Those are 1990s improvement numbers!
 
newbmacuser2021 said:
I am building Android and iOS, and ChromeOS and macOS, on a MacBook Air 2017 1.8GHz with 8GB of RAM.
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I don't have your ability, but I still widely use my MacBook Air from 2017. It's still a great machine that runs Parallels and the fan barely ever sounds.
 
leman said:
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?
Click to expand...

Only the M1 Max config comes with 32GB of RAM. You can CTO the M1 Pro, but the lead time is a solid month, if not longer.
 
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