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New MacBook Air

apple.com

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Re: New MacBook Air

#31

Post by solat »

rvanmil wrote: post #3

Anyone here who has experience working with JS/TS development tools (vscode, yarn, webpack, Node.js etc.) on a recent MacBook Air? I wonder if the performance is noticeably worse than a 13” MacBook Pro for this type of work.

While this MBA turned out really well, current Windows featuring WSL2 is quite impressive though. Having a full Ubuntu or Debian on your machine is priceless. Or you develop on a remote server, then you just need a good terminal. So currently both macOS and Windows are good for JS dev. It's a matter of taste and price.

Re: New MacBook Air

#33

Post by kasey_junk »

ehutch79 wrote: post #25
technotarek wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Up until late 2018, my MBA 2013 was doing ok with a stack transitioning to full js/ts. Now it’s close to unusable as our projects build multiple containers, load hundreds of node packages etc. Unfortunately, the 2019 MBA isn’t much better. I’m still wondering whether to hold until a new MBP 13/14”, or give this a try.

A typical JS developer is not building/rebuilding docker containers constantly.

It seems pretty typical for js backend systems to be heavily containerized such that I’d say it’s approaching the default deployment mechanism.

Re: New MacBook Air

#35

Post by sunir »

dev_tty01 wrote: post #27
cytzol wrote: post #19

The refined scissor mechanism with 1 mm of travel delivers a responsive, comfortable, and quiet typing experience. The inverted-T arrow keys help you fly through lines of code, spreadsheets, or game environments. This isn't progress. This is the baseline. Apple have gone from bad to OK, and they're celebrating as though they've achieved something amazing.

We all (most of us anyway) wanted them to go back to the scissor design. Are we going to now complain that they did what the community has been begging them to do? Was butterfly a mistake? Yes. Were they slow to correct the issue? Yes. Now that they fixed it we should be happy about it. As far as talking about it being amazing, its called marketing spin. This is how it works. However, those two sentences do not say a…

They deserve flak and they are getting it. It doesn’t have to be logical. It is emotional. They also created an emotional brand.

Somehow I think Apple can handle it. Anyone wasting energy complaining is only doing so because they are waiting to buy again.

It makes as much sense defending them as it does yelling at them about a keyboard.

Re: New MacBook Air

#36

Post by solat »

ehutch79 wrote: post #25
technotarek wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Up until late 2018, my MBA 2013 was doing ok with a stack transitioning to full js/ts. Now it’s close to unusable as our projects build multiple containers, load hundreds of node packages etc. Unfortunately, the 2019 MBA isn’t much better. I’m still wondering whether to hold until a new MBP 13/14”, or give this a try.

A typical JS developer is not building/rebuilding docker containers constantly.

Not really but when you try new config/Dockerfiles/docker-compose setups it's nice to have power + bandwidth. Thus, I develop on a remote server.

Re: New MacBook Air

#37

Post by snemvalts »

solat wrote: post #31
rvanmil wrote: post #3

Anyone here who has experience working with JS/TS development tools (vscode, yarn, webpack, Node.js etc.) on a recent MacBook Air? I wonder if the performance is noticeably worse than a 13” MacBook Pro for this type of work.

While this MBA turned out really well, current Windows featuring WSL2 is quite impressive though. Having a full Ubuntu or Debian on your machine is priceless. Or you develop on a remote server, then you just need a good terminal. So currently both macOS and Windows are good for JS dev. It's a matter of taste and price.

i think most people prefer to not sell their souls for advertising when it comes to their desktop environments.

Re: New MacBook Air

#38

Post by bjoli »

cytzol wrote: post #19

The refined scissor mechanism with 1 mm of travel delivers a responsive, comfortable, and quiet typing experience. The inverted-T arrow keys help you fly through lines of code, spreadsheets, or game environments. This isn't progress. This is the baseline. Apple have gone from bad to OK, and they're celebrating as though they've achieved something amazing.

Their (very) old keyboards are still amazing to type on. They went from high quality mechanical switches to bad rubber domes to okish rubber domes. The current magic keyboard is actually not bad, but I would still prefer the old alps switches.

Re: New MacBook Air

#39

Post by abrowne »

bluedino wrote: post #29
rvanmil wrote: post #3

Anyone here who has experience working with JS/TS development tools (vscode, yarn, webpack, Node.js etc.) on a recent MacBook Air? I wonder if the performance is noticeably worse than a 13” MacBook Pro for this type of work.

The current 13" Pro is a beast compared to the Air. It's as fast as the older 15" Pro, while the Air is a bit slower than the current 13" Pro.

Keep in mind the MBP 13 with 4 ports has a 28 W chip, while the one with 2 ports has a 15 W chip (IIRC).

Re: New MacBook Air

#40

Post by hmottestad »

chx wrote: post #23

Apple got some custom chips from Intel again. https://www.apple.com/macbook-air/specs/ ==== 1.1GHz dual-core Intel Core i3, Turbo Boost up to 3.2GHz, with 4MB L3 cache Configurable to 1.1GHz quad-core Intel Core i5, Turbo Boost up to 3.5GHz, with 6MB L3 cache; or 1.2GHz quad-core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 3.8GHz, with 8MB L3 cache 8GB of 3733MHz LPDDR4X onboard memory Intel Iris Plus Graphics ==== https://ark.…

LPDDR4X is one of the key features here.
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