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Big data on the cheapest MacBook

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Re: Big data on the cheapest MacBook

#122

[flagged]

Yeah, but then MacBook is going to run smoother and faster than the Windows one (and I don’t want to spend even one extra minute on dealing with drivers on Linux). There’re just objective benchmarks for that.

And MacBooks also have a better display and build quality. Like, touchpad is still hit or miss on any non-Apple device.

Re: Big data on the cheapest MacBook

#123

[flagged]

> And I have a hard time believing people who tell me stories about low power consumption, because no one had cared about that until Apple pretended people cared about it. That’s because battery life was pretty mediocre across the board, with Apple occasionally squeaking out a bit of an upper hand on the Air. Most laptops were in the same boat, aside from gaming and workstation laptops but battery life has never been…

To be honest I never had Issues with Battery Life on my ThinkPad. I've gotten out 10-12 hours with the 96Wh Battery and never felt the need for much more.

I think most people who are so wowed by Macs bought just a garbage Windows Machine (e.g. almost everything from Asus and Acer) before and then splurged the money for a nice one, so obviously it's so much better in comparison.

Re: Big data on the cheapest MacBook

#124
post #64

I’ve been tempted to buy one and do “real dev work” on it just to show people it’s not this handicapped little machine. I built multiple iOS apps and went through two start up acquisitions with my M1 MBA as my primary computer, as a developer. And the neo is better than the M1 MBA. I edited my 30-45 min long 4k race videos in FCP on that air just fine.

It will do real work fine. But slack and a browser will bring it to its knees.

I’m sick to death of this. It’s so devoid from reality in 2026 that I see it as a lowest common denominator populist political catchphrase more than any legitimate contributor to any conversation. My min spec MacBook Pro from 6 years ago doesn’t flinch at this, and it barely flinches at a whole lot more.

Can we please just move on? Maybe get your hardware checked if you’re legitimately still having these issues.

Re: Big data on the cheapest MacBook

#125

I’ve been tempted to buy one and do “real dev work” on it just to show people it’s not this handicapped little machine. I built multiple iOS apps and went through two start up acquisitions with my M1 MBA as my primary computer, as a developer. And the neo is better than the M1 MBA. I edited my 30-45 min long 4k race videos in FCP on that air just fine.

[flagged]

Re: Big data on the cheapest MacBook

#126
post #104
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's starting to show its age, but I've been using a 2019 MacBook Pro with the Intel chip and 16GB of memory. Still handles multiple terminal sessions with Claude Code and Codex simultaneously, building in Xcode, running Docker in the background, etc. (Maybe the fans sometimes sound like they're a jet engine taking off…) Finally just put an order in for a new 16" MBP M5 Max with 48GB memory only because it looks like…

Well, Claude Cod and Codex should be doing most of their heavy lifting in the cloud?

Sort of, they have no "hands", LLMs can only respond that they want to execute a tool/command. So they do that a lot to: read files, search for things, compile projects, run tests, run other arbitrary commands, fetch stuff from the internet etc.

Obviously the LLM inference is super heavy, but the actual work / task at hand is being executed on the device.

Re: Big data on the cheapest MacBook

#127

This is awesome. I wish more companies would do showcases like this of what kind of load you can expect from commodity-ish hardware.

[flagged]

I never met someone using Apple laptops professionally who thought it was a status symbol. I only keep hearing this from non-Apple users.

Re: Big data on the cheapest MacBook

#128
post #104
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's starting to show its age, but I've been using a 2019 MacBook Pro with the Intel chip and 16GB of memory. Still handles multiple terminal sessions with Claude Code and Codex simultaneously, building in Xcode, running Docker in the background, etc. (Maybe the fans sometimes sound like they're a jet engine taking off…) Finally just put an order in for a new 16" MBP M5 Max with 48GB memory only because it looks like…

Well, Claude Cod and Codex should be doing most of their heavy lifting in the cloud?

yeah I run Claude code on a 2013 Mac book air that refuses to die, I don't think it's very compute heavy.
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