[dead]
Ask HN: Anyone still do work on Intel Macs?
21–30 of 36 posts
Re: Ask HN: Anyone still do work on Intel Macs?
#22There's absolutely no way I'm using a gas guzzling 2018 intel clunker with unsupported software issues. Maybe if i need the box to double as a space heater.
Basline mac mini is $800 and gets you into the M4 tier chips. Overkill for web dev and iOS apps. Enough power to carry you for 10+ years of dev work before your next upgrade. I'm still on the M1 mini and plan upgrade at the 10 year mark (2031) or if I need more power sooner (unlikey).
I feel the mini's are price competitive. They say "apple tax" but go on to some linux machine provider, select similar stats, and see the price tag rocket past the mini.
Re: Ask HN: Anyone still do work on Intel Macs?
#23I am typing this on an 2017 iMac Pro running Intel, which has been my main work and personal machine for the last 7 years. I do like 90% of my computing on it. Works fine, I kinda love it, and don't want to give it up any time soon.
The 27" 5K iMac form factor has become my favorite form factor, and I'm kind of unwilling to use anything else now.
The newer Apple silicon chips will spank this old Xeon in terms of performance and bang-for-buck. Buuuuut I just can't really bring myself to care and get excited about the newer machines.
It's running macOS 15.7.8 Sequoia, which is far as it will go, and I'm just fine with that. Newer Mac software releases won't support Intel at all. Haven't run in to any that I actually care about.
Virtualization is mediocre. Can't really run more that 2 VMs on it at the same time before it starts to bog down. And the VM experience on it is disappointing even if you're only running one, especially when it comes to UI responsiveness and graphics. But that's kind of a "power user" use case.
Homebrew will be dropping support for macOS 15 soon, if that's something you care about. That one actually will be a bummer.
Re: Ask HN: Anyone still do work on Intel Macs?
#24There's absolutely no way I'm using a gas guzzling 2018 intel clunker with unsupported software issues. Maybe if i need the box to double as a space heater. Basline mac mini is $800 and gets you into the M4 tier chips. Overkill for web dev and iOS apps. Enough power to carry you for 10+ years of dev work before your next upgrade. I'm still on the M1 mini and plan upgrade at the 10 year mark (2031) or if I need more p…
Keep in mind that the rest of the world does not even come close to US salaries. Buying a mac in most countries in the world means giving away multiple monthly salaries. Even in Germany, one of the richest countries in the world, a simple 16" Mac goes way way beyong the average salary.
Still going strong on a 2019 Intel MacBook, just for economic reasons.
Re: Ask HN: Anyone still do work on Intel Macs?
#25Not sure what year it was produced, but I am running Void Linux on an old Macbook Air. Resume from suspend is buggy, and Linux touchpad support is atrocious (I use synclient to help) but otherwise, I really dig it.
Re: Ask HN: Anyone still do work on Intel Macs?
#26I've got my old Intel MacBook in my workshop. It works great for Fusion 360 which is fairly intense. I don't code on it anymore though.
Having run massive code bases on average laptops before, I think you'd be fine. It might just take longer to index and compile.
Re: Ask HN: Anyone still do work on Intel Macs?
#27I still very actively use a Mac Pro 2013 (aka trashcan). It has 64 GB RAM, an 8 core Xeon cpu, and 1TB NVMe. I'm running macOS Monterey (12.7.6) on it. The hardware is still plenty powerful enough to be very useful. Supported software is getting to be more troublesome as the days go by. When the pain gets too great I'll look into installing Linux on it with the goal of continuing to use it.
I wonder how well a coding agent could be out Apple silicon programs to older Intel chips.
Re: Ask HN: Anyone still do work on Intel Macs?
#28There's absolutely no way I'm using a gas guzzling 2018 intel clunker with unsupported software issues. Maybe if i need the box to double as a space heater. Basline mac mini is $800 and gets you into the M4 tier chips. Overkill for web dev and iOS apps. Enough power to carry you for 10+ years of dev work before your next upgrade. I'm still on the M1 mini and plan upgrade at the 10 year mark (2031) or if I need more p…
Keep in mind that the rest of the world does not even come close to US salaries. Buying a mac in most countries in the world means giving away multiple monthly salaries. Even in Germany, one of the richest countries in the world, a simple 16" Mac goes way way beyong the average salary. Still going strong on a 2019 Intel MacBook, just for economic reasons.
The title question is about people doing work on Intel Macs. Working tools for most skilled professions should cost and mostly do cost a couple of monthly salaries. They should pay for themselves reasonably quickly. And people can always buy used. First generation M1 Macs are selling for $400 or below at the moment, and are very capable professional tools.
Re: Ask HN: Anyone still do work on Intel Macs?
#29Never had one, but I might pick one up on ebay if I ever need to support Intel Mac users.
Re: Ask HN: Anyone still do work on Intel Macs?
#30There's absolutely no way I'm using a gas guzzling 2018 intel clunker with unsupported software issues. Maybe if i need the box to double as a space heater. Basline mac mini is $800 and gets you into the M4 tier chips. Overkill for web dev and iOS apps. Enough power to carry you for 10+ years of dev work before your next upgrade. I'm still on the M1 mini and plan upgrade at the 10 year mark (2031) or if I need more p…
OCLP.