New MacBook Air • Hacker News Board

Re: New MacBook Air

#431

Post by ben174 » Wed, Mar 18, 2020, 6:51 PM UTC

ctvo wrote: post #322

pyrophane wrote: post #266

Keep in mind that probably the most important spec when considering a new laptop is one that is often not directly stated: the processor series. I'm not talking about i3/i5/i7, but rather U/Y/H. This letter determines the TDP (thermal design power/point) them machine is designed to run at. The TDP will govern the setting for the base clock speed, and, just as importantly, the throttling behabior under load. Processor…

This is underestimating modern processors and overestimating programming compute resource usage. Your post may apply if we're working with 4K+ resolution video files, rendering and other activities, but the modern programmer, even compiling binaries, will be fine on a MacBook Air. How do I know? I use a 2 generation old Macbook as my primary personal development machine. I write Go, Rust, Java and TypeScript using th…

Generalizing "programming" is a fools errand at this point. For some, their IDE alone would warrant a pro-spec machine. Some people need to virtualize their development environments. Some people need to virtualize several environments interconnected. And for some people, programming is just a simple terminal session with tmux running - VIM on one screen, shell in another, tests in another.

Re: New MacBook Air

#432

Post by bredren » Wed, Mar 18, 2020, 6:51 PM UTC

luxuryballs wrote: post #357

pyrophane wrote: post #266

Keep in mind that probably the most important spec when considering a new laptop is one that is often not directly stated: the processor series. I'm not talking about i3/i5/i7, but rather U/Y/H. This letter determines the TDP (thermal design power/point) them machine is designed to run at. The TDP will govern the setting for the base clock speed, and, just as importantly, the throttling behabior under load. Processor…

I picked up the new 2018 Air right after the redesign, 16gb and 512 ssd model. I have had no problems with xcode doing iOS dev (even using simulator on occasion), vscode and nodejs/redis/mysql working fine, also no problems running windows in parallels desktop, it’s super fast and quiet! Great machine, only wish I had waited for the true tone and keyboard redesign but those are minor, have grown to love the keyboard.

I did the same but got 32GB. It is a fantastic machine, but it is even better with the blackmagic eGPU. Heavy recommend on that if considering a home dock setup.

Re: New MacBook Air

#433

Post by Eiriksmal » Wed, Mar 18, 2020, 6:56 PM UTC

marcus_holmes wrote: post #336

duiker101 wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am thinking of going to Dell from an 2014 MBP, what did not work with Dell on your last experiment? The latest XPSs look very nice.

I tried dual-booting an XPS15, which did not go well [0]. I understand the 13's are more Linux-compatible, but I got so badly annoyed by Dell Support I'm never buying Dell again. [0] the drive management software didn't like GRUB, and would complain that there was no drive if GRUB was installed. Repeated reboots later, it would suddenly say "oh look, a hard drive!" and boot into Windows, removing GRUB in the process.…

Typing this from Fedora 31 running on a dual-boot, 4-month old XPS 15 (LCD screen, not 4K OLED). The only configuration change that has to be made on a new XPS is switching the SATA mode to AHCI. Fedora signs the kernel correctly--you don't even have to disable secure boot.

Signing 3rd party kernel modules under secure boot isn't difficult, but documentation on it is sparse. So I've kept my notes for next time: https://lawler.io/scrivings/linux-cookbooks/

The Arch guys have a great compendium on the XPS and Linux: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dell_XPS_15_7590

Re: New MacBook Air

#434

Post by skrtskrt » Wed, Mar 18, 2020, 7:01 PM UTC

M5x7wI3CmbEem10 wrote: post #404

skrtskrt wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Definitely going from 2015 MacBook Air to this new one for my personal at-home coding laptop, as long as I like the keyboard when trying it out. I had really been wanting to upgrade for Retina & better processor but I knew they would upgrade the processor and fix the keyboard if I waited for 2020... no reason to wait now. I don't run any crazy fat Docker stacks for my own stuff at home, so this is perfect.

why not the pro for a few more hundred dollars? or wait for the upgraded version in the summer? you get a noticeable performance boost, dedicated graphics card, touch bar, and so on?

I really don't need that much extra memory or performance, I thoroughly dislike the touch bar, and I want a slimmer/lighter form factor.

My at-home hobby work is in Golang and Python, and not particularly compute-intensive stuff. Neither of those have huge heavy toolchains.

Really the main thing driving an upgrade from my minimum-spec 2015 Air is the Retina display.

Re: New MacBook Air

#435

Post by kllrnohj » Wed, Mar 18, 2020, 7:01 PM UTC

read_if_gay_ wrote: post #139

stagger87 wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is still a 1.2 GHz base clock.

Because wasting energy on a 4 GHz base clock is completely pointless (and so is your criticism) if you can adjust frequency as needed. 99% of the time 1GHz is sufficient. It’s only when you launch the browser that a faster CPU is useful, not when you’re reading through a website

> Because wasting energy on a 4 GHz base clock is completely pointless

That's not how base clock works. Base clock is not min clock. Base clock is what it's "guaranteed" to hit under sustained load if TDP is respected. It's the TDP clock. A 4ghz base clock CPU will still be far, far below that when idle.

Re: New MacBook Air

#436

Post by ghostpepper » Wed, Mar 18, 2020, 7:10 PM UTC

marcus_holmes wrote: post #331

aarongray wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think System76, Lenovo, or Tuxedo is a better choice than Dell XPS for Linux from a reliability standpoint. Additionally, if you plan to do full disk encryption, the XPS line has all sorts of issues. https://www.dell.com/community/Linux-Developer-Systems/XPS-1...

Adding Purism to this list. Slightly more pricey, but worth it. Typing this on one.

Once they offer a 4-core 13" option it will be a lot more compelling.

Re: New MacBook Air

#437

Post by iamben » Wed, Mar 18, 2020, 7:13 PM UTC

xemdetia wrote: post #407

iamben wrote: post #390

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can someone explain chip speed and relevance in a way I'd understand pretty please? I dialled out of this stuff years ago - at a point when bigger numbers just meant better, but now they just seem the same? I'm still using a 2013 MBA as my primary machine day to day. It has an i7 and 8gb of RAM. I've been waiting for the keyboard change before I upgraded, but today I see my options are i5 and i7 (as 2013). I'd get 16…

For Intel chips i3/i5/i7 have generally represented feature ranges, so to really identify the chip you have to find out their product code or at least processor generation. Once you have that you can use ARK to distinguish between them. Here's an example of an older 2017 era desktop processor of i5 and i7: https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/compare.html?pro... Complicating things recently is the introduction…

Thank you!

Re: New MacBook Air

#438

Post by microtonal » Wed, Mar 18, 2020, 7:31 PM UTC

rubber_duck wrote: post #374

pyrophane wrote: post #266

Keep in mind that probably the most important spec when considering a new laptop is one that is often not directly stated: the processor series. I'm not talking about i3/i5/i7, but rather U/Y/H. This letter determines the TDP (thermal design power/point) them machine is designed to run at. The TDP will govern the setting for the base clock speed, and, just as importantly, the throttling behabior under load. Processor…

>You can get away with this machine if your workflow primary involves a text editor and remote servers, but otherwise I would still opt for the pro. I bought a 2018 15 inch MBP with 6 core i9, 32 GB of ram and vega GPU with the idea that it would be my one stop development machine. The system is terrible, especially considering the outrageous price - it does have sufficient compute power but the thermals are insanely…

And the performance still isn't even close to a mid range desktop machine which would have cost 1/4 the price.

I'm seriously considering selling my MBP buying this Mac Book Air top config (I need an OSX machine to develop iOS/OSX apps, otherwise I would go for Lenovo X1 Carbon) and building a desktop which will be always on VPN for heavy lifting + it can replace my gaming console.

I have a MacBook Pro 2018 and Intel NUC running Linux with exactly the same CPU. In typical C/C++/Rust builds, the Linux NUC is perceptibly much faster than the MacBook.

Didn't dive much deeper, but I'd guess the difference is thermals (despite the NUC having a small enclosure) and much higher system call overhead in macOS.

That said, I still like having a Mac as well, since there are so many great applications that I use frequently. But a sweet spot (as you suggest) is a reasonably powerful MacBook for the things that macOS is good at and a powerful Linux workstation or server for compute.

Re: New MacBook Air

#439

Post by microtonal » Wed, Mar 18, 2020, 7:32 PM UTC

BattyMilk wrote: post #340

pyrophane wrote: post #266

Keep in mind that probably the most important spec when considering a new laptop is one that is often not directly stated: the processor series. I'm not talking about i3/i5/i7, but rather U/Y/H. This letter determines the TDP (thermal design power/point) them machine is designed to run at. The TDP will govern the setting for the base clock speed, and, just as importantly, the throttling behabior under load. Processor…

I'm a FE developer (Mainly React/Node/React Native Development) and I'm still using a 2012 13" Macbook air (8Gb) as my daily driver at home. There's a noticable difference between it and my work (granted still relatively old) 2017 MBP 17". Running builds and an entire test suite maybe take twice as long but it's overall very usable and I see no reason yet to upgrade.

but it's overall very usable and I see no reason yet to upgrade.

HiDPI. Once I had used a HiDPI screen for a while, I can't really tolerate LoDPI displays anymore.

Re: New MacBook Air

#440

Post by vbezhenar » Wed, Mar 18, 2020, 7:33 PM UTC

Silhouette wrote: post #215

MrBuddyCasino wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. I'm deciding between 32GB or even 64Gb, just to be on the safe side. Because nowadays you're running Slack, Spotify, several messengers, Firefox, Chrome, IntelliJ, Docker and Kubernetes on your local machine.

Which is kind of horrifying, if you stop and think about it. You're wondering whether you need another 32G of RAM to run a basic working environment, a glorified text editor, and some communications software. I used a BBC that could do that in 32K of RAM in the 1980s! Obviously I'm not really suggesting the functionality today is equivalent, but the idea that ultimately you're meeting the same basic needs yet it now…

Why does it matter when you can afford that RAM? Just buy and forget about it, it's cheap enough. We used to land to the moon with CPU less performant than Apple's HDMI adapter cable, it's fun comparison but not very useful, that's just the way things are and it's not going to change anytime soon.