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Ode to the M1

fabiensanglard.net

191–200 of 286 posts

Re: Ode to the M1

#191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Keep hoping, because it won’t happen. Practically no consumers care except for other software engineers complaining loudly on HN, and meanwhile companies save millions by not handcrafting their CRUD apps in assembly.

The arrogance to believe that their software is so well written already that the only way to improve their performance is by using handcrafted assembly. Just changing their high level data structures alone would yield 10x improvements, easily.

The naivete to believe that consumers driving company sales even realize that performance is something they need to care about.

Re: Ode to the M1

#192
post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This seems like a movement of the goalposts. I'm not that concerned about electronic waste, and I haven't seen any great arguments why anyone really should be. It's not replaceable in other brands, because approximately no one is making a laptop remotely equivalent to the M1/M2. Perhaps the Surface Pro, but even that isn't a good comparison. Remember when Apple made the first Air and it was so far ahead of every othe…

>I'm not concerned about electronic waste. Why not?

If you’re concerned about electronic waste specifically you’d never buy a new computer, only repair computers destined for the trash.

Concerned about it in general is appropriate for governments and large companies, of course; they can make a dent.

Re: Ode to the M1

#193
post #109
post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The main problem with devices like Apple's Mx series laptops is that everything works fine...until it doesn't. This device is non-repairable and non-upgradeable as far as CPU, RAM and disk are concerned. Now people may claim that Apple hardware is superior to other manufacturers and that it will last longer. So far I have found that to be false, I have more old non-Apple hardware that is still working fine and few Ap…

> The main problem with devices like Apple's Mx series laptops is that everything works fine...until it doesn't. This device is non-repairable and […] The sad unspoken truth is that most apple users are just rich enough to replace the whole thing when it breaks, and don’t really care much of the environmental issues if apple hardware.

I often recommend Apple refurbished to friends who are strapped for cash, the argument being that it’ll last longer and be cheaper over the long run. So far haven’t really run into an issue with this. Call it the Sam Vimes theory of computer upgrades.

Re: Ode to the M1

#194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This year I upgraded from MBP 2015 to M2. I am still bothered by the notch on the M2.

I use a completely black background, I forget the notch exists plus I save a bit of battery.

This is the way, or have an external monitor as your main monitor.

Or have four external monitors; the reason I had to wait for the M1 Pro.

Re: Ode to the M1

#195

Still running a M1 Air 13“, now into my third job since, and refusing to bother with company provided computers. Still feeling as great as 3 years ago… will only upgrade if the next gen is substantially better (read: not just %faster somewhere). Can comfortably develop on my lap for a full day if needed, only MS Teams draws power like crazy, but apart from that 8 hours+. Best computer I ever had I think.

>and refusing to bother with company provided computers To you and people that do this: Do you enroll your personal PC in the companies MDM like intune or Jamf? Do you install their endpoint protection/antivirus/EDR/MDR? or you just leave it unmanaged?

Was wondering the same thing - going through a tech audit at the moment for ISO and that certainly wouldn’t fly, unless we were able to prove that we effectively treated it like we owned it.

Re: Ode to the M1

#196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I'm not concerned about electronic waste. Why not?

If you’re concerned about electronic waste specifically you’d never buy a new computer, only repair computers destined for the trash. Concerned about it in general is appropriate for governments and large companies, of course; they can make a dent.

That's an insane thing to say. I am concerned about electronic waste. I am not concerned about it to the extent that I would never buy or use a new computer. I am concerned enough about it that I don't want to waste a perfectly good computer because it has been designed to be thrown away.

Would you say that someone concerned about food/food-related) waste should not ever buy any food? Of course not. But don't buy food that you don't intend to eat, and don't buy food that causes unnecessary waste like food that is unnecessarily individually-wrapped.

Re: Ode to the M1

#197
post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean still? They’re only a few years old at this point. It shouldn’t be impressive that a basically new computer still does everything that one would want to do.

Also am M1 user. I remember back in my Windows days the things would slow dramatically over a couple of years mainly due to software bloat.

That seems to have gotten better but I don’t know if it’s because I’m smarter on what I install, or if windows is better.

The problem I have is Microsoft keeps shoving windows 11 down my throat; that damn start menu needs to remain where it was in 1995!

Re: Ode to the M1

#198

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seems a lot of orgs work on cargo-cult knowledge https://twitter.com/SwiftOnSecurity/status/56891586200393318... (2015) https://twitter.com/SwiftOnSecurity/status/11917713453627965... (2019) i think swift had another post about it a bit more recently but i cannot find it now if you encrypt the disk at the os level, you only need to throw away the keys, ie: reformat the drive. no need to physically erase as what is st…

Thanks for the links. I wonder if it’s entirely that, or if management fears that staff might somehow gain a benefit by taking obsolete hardware.

There’s a temptation that is removed by destroying or selling to a liquidator - and it removes any chance of apparent favoritism: Steve got to take home that twelve CPU rack mount and I just got an old mouse.

But even more common in large companies is that it’s all on leases and goes back to the leasing company to be liquidated on eBay; you can always find miles of three or five year old gear there.

Re: Ode to the M1

#199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the fine article: "Remember when Photoshop opened in 1s on SSD?" I do remember. And it now takes A LOT longer on insanely fast CPUs and SSDs. And I hate it every time I have to wait for it.

So it’s not Electron that’s slow, but modern software?

Electron is an example of modern software that’s slow. And it’s common and exceptionally slow.

I think most software is designed to load once and never be quit; you’re probably just supposed to leave photosnot running in the background and let it swap to disk if needed.

But I have a hard time running like that, I quit programs when I’m done using them.

Re: Ode to the M1

#200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Keep hoping, because it won’t happen. Practically no consumers care except for other software engineers complaining loudly on HN, and meanwhile companies save millions by not handcrafting their CRUD apps in assembly.

The problem is having to target 5 operating systems. Extremely complicated web app runs on Linux, Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS. Carefully-crafted Native UI widgets only target one platform at a time. If you want to get rid of Electron, you personally have to volunteer to be responsible for 5x the work of anyone else, and accept bootcamp-graduate pay. Do you see why it's not happening?

Arguably the success of MacOS has caused the expansion of Electron, because developers are using macs and want to use macs even when programming tools for windows.
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