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New MacBook Air

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Re: New MacBook Air

#471

Post by dijit »

enraged_camel wrote: post #371
dijit wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The problem is that it ramps up by 250 Mhz increments Isn't this completely down to the cpu frequency governor in the OS? My impression was that this "stepping" is customisable, at least in linux, I regularly step my CPU manually even. I'm not sure what Apple has here, but maybe it's not what you expect.

I'm on Windows 10 and I'm not aware of a built-in method to change the CPU multiplier.

How windows does things and how other operating systems do things, in the wise words of Jayne Cobb "ain't exactly but similar".

Re: New MacBook Air

#472

Post by noir_lord »

geerlingguy wrote: post #332
ctvo wrote: post #322

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

You haven't been forced to deploy something that builds a local K8s cluster and builds and runs 10+ containers just to get a microservices app up and ready for development, I see... (only partially /s).

That's my work pretty much except not k8s but it does spin up between 4 and 8 containers (depending on which system) some of which require 4GB of RAM or more (don't ask..).

On the flip side standard issue laptops are now 16" Macbook Pro's with 32GB of RAM which is pretty hardware.

Re: New MacBook Air

#473

Post by ridiculous_fish »

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…

Unlike most other Y-series devices (including the MacBook), the MacBook Air has a fan. This allows it to dissipate more heat and sustain higher clock rates.

Re: New MacBook Air

#474

Post by dzhiurgis »

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…

Depends on what IDE you use. Webstorm pushes even my octacore pretty well. Sure, some people prefer to work like it's still 60s tho.

Re: New MacBook Air

#475

Post by oarsinsync »

emerongi wrote: post #416
baddox wrote: post #408

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't even take that much. Docker Desktop on MacOS is widely known to be terrible and have extremely poor performance. Running webpack-dev-server with filewatching through Docker nearly grinds my 2017 Macbook Pro to a halt. Obviously most node/webpack/JS stuff can run natively on Mac but it's not uncommon to see dev stacks that dockerize everything because that's how the production stack works.

I often have up to 10 VSCode editors, an IntelliJ window and two browser instances open. Add some server processes, UI watchers/builders, and my Thinkpad starts to freeze up. In an ideal world, I would have a low-latency remote desktop going, but even in 2020 it seems like a pipe dream.

I’ve been using paperspace cloud machines with parsec for low latency Remote Desktop. Originally used it for gaming. It’s remarkable how good it is for everything else too.

5ms encoding lag, 10ms network lag, totally workable.

Re: New MacBook Air

#476

Post by coryfklein »

chipotle_coyote wrote: post #231
Plyphon_ wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Volume adjustment is actually a great example of why I hate the touchbar. - I can't adjust the volume without looking at it. Because the touchbar is flat with no haptic feedback when I land on a button, it's hard to remember the exact position of the volume 'button' without looking. Sounds trivial - but combined with point 2.... - The way the volume control expands - it actually moves the 'volume down' button AWAY fr…

You can actually just tap the volume icon on the Touch Bar and slide your finger back and forth immediately and it works; you don't have to tap, then move your finger to the volume slider and move back and forth. (This is clever, but basically undiscoverable unless someone tells you in, for example, a comment on Hacker News, which is how I found out.)

This is assuming the touch bar isn't asleep and you can even see where the volume button is in the first place. Often I have to touch the bar once just to wake it up, then find the button and touch and hold and slide.... ech I hate it personally.

Re: New MacBook Air

#477

Post by rconti »

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.

Nope, that's exactly what I wanted to hear before buying. Rather than just saying they improved it, they explicitly pointed out it has the keyboard you want from the 16" MBP.

>MacBook Air now features the new Magic Keyboard, first seen on the 16-inch MacBook Pro.

That saved me from having to google "hey, is the 'new magic keyboard' the thing in the 16" MBP that I've been waiting for in the Air and 13" MBP, or is it something else entirely".

Re: New MacBook Air

#478

Post by ehsankia »

rootusrootus wrote: post #271
mFixman wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I honestly never understood the hate for the touchbar. It allows me to be much more granular with volume and brightness, and I never really used F-keys anyway.

I only hate that it replaced the top row of keys. If it were an addition instead of a replacement, I'd be okay with it. It has it's moments, but so do the keys it replaced.

I fully agree with ESC, as that's a universal key and used very often, but the other ones are more specific and having them be adaptable always made sense. Now that they returned the ESC key, that part is solved.

Re: New MacBook Air

#479

Post by viraptor »

VLM wrote: post #452
tommoor wrote: post #366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

programming != running a text editor. A lot of usecases involve running a replication of the server environment locally in resource intensive containers

I'm lucky to have development access to a small slice of a very large vmware cluster. I'm surprised no one else operates this way. The performance gains are immense.

There are other people who operate that way. But lots of them use AWS or some other provider for that instead of local resources.

Re: New MacBook Air

#480

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]
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