Using Apple Silicon (M1) as a cloud engineer, two months in • Hacker News Board

Re: Using Apple Silicon (M1) as a cloud engineer, two months in

#41

Post by sys_64738 » Wed, Mar 03, 2021, 7:45 PM UTC

smoldesu wrote: post #15

Honestly, I'm starting to understand Louis Rossman's indifference towards these computers. In one of his most recent streams, someone asked him what he thought about the M1 Macs, and he simply responded "it's faster than the last computer Apple made", which summed up a lot of how I feel about it too. I'm saying this as my M1 Macbook Air sits on a shelf collecting dust a few feet away from me, which is definitely not…

Get a Display Link USB graphics dongle for USB port. This works seriously well.

Re: Using Apple Silicon (M1) as a cloud engineer, two months in

#42

Post by AmVess » Wed, Mar 03, 2021, 7:45 PM UTC

serverholic wrote: post #19

smoldesu wrote: post #15

Honestly, I'm starting to understand Louis Rossman's indifference towards these computers. In one of his most recent streams, someone asked him what he thought about the M1 Macs, and he simply responded "it's faster than the last computer Apple made", which summed up a lot of how I feel about it too. I'm saying this as my M1 Macbook Air sits on a shelf collecting dust a few feet away from me, which is definitely not…

Honest question, what made you think that a macbook air would replace a desktop computer?

My M1 MBA is faster than my 4790K desktop, and by a decent margin. It is fast enough that I'd be able to have it as a main computer if I needed it to be. My main PC is an 8 core Ryzen.

Re: Using Apple Silicon (M1) as a cloud engineer, two months in

#43

Post by smoldesu » Wed, Mar 03, 2021, 7:45 PM UTC

serverholic wrote: post #19

smoldesu wrote: post #15

Honestly, I'm starting to understand Louis Rossman's indifference towards these computers. In one of his most recent streams, someone asked him what he thought about the M1 Macs, and he simply responded "it's faster than the last computer Apple made", which summed up a lot of how I feel about it too. I'm saying this as my M1 Macbook Air sits on a shelf collecting dust a few feet away from me, which is definitely not…

Honest question, what made you think that a macbook air would replace a desktop computer?

I used a work-provided Thinkpad P51 that did replace my desktop, and it was a dream to use alongside the docking station. It's no longer in my possession though, and the specs on that machine were looking a little dated. I bought the M1 Air because it was cheap and supposedly replaced some people's desktops. Even still I don't think I took a loss on it. In a few months I could probably sell it for a cool $800 and not lose terribly much of my investment.

Re: Using Apple Silicon (M1) as a cloud engineer, two months in

#44

Post by smoldesu » Wed, Mar 03, 2021, 7:47 PM UTC

marricks wrote: post #22

smoldesu wrote: post #15

Honestly, I'm starting to understand Louis Rossman's indifference towards these computers. In one of his most recent streams, someone asked him what he thought about the M1 Macs, and he simply responded "it's faster than the last computer Apple made", which summed up a lot of how I feel about it too. I'm saying this as my M1 Macbook Air sits on a shelf collecting dust a few feet away from me, which is definitely not…

Apple launch M1 for their smallest cheapest computers first, if you want drive multiple screens you are not their target audience. I think it's understandable devs are confused a bit, it's a flashy new thing and we want to try it, but it's not for power users. Another confusing aspect, at least to me, is it's stand out feature is battery life! We're all stuck at home though, so when is a charger more than 4 feet away…

I can only hope. It would also be nice to see proper Linux support, but I guess that's wishful thinking from Apple.

Re: Using Apple Silicon (M1) as a cloud engineer, two months in

#45

Post by imbnwa » Wed, Mar 03, 2021, 7:47 PM UTC

rvz wrote: post #17

> I like bleeding-edge technology, and I had to use preview versions of some software, but had no major issues in my typical workflow. Those who are in the music production industry would say otherwise, especially those who like using Ableton Live. They got burned on the '64 bit-only' software move from Mojave to Catalina and now they are getting burned again for the hardware move to M1. Not surprised why I see them…

This is actually partly why I moved to Logic from Ableton. I plan on staying with Mac (I just can't do Windows unless I need Skyrim with all the f'n mods), so might as well use the software that will be highly available on it.

Re: Using Apple Silicon (M1) as a cloud engineer, two months in

#46

Post by perardi » Wed, Mar 03, 2021, 7:48 PM UTC

rattray wrote: post #35

least wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I bought the Macbook Air with the intention of using it to replace my aging desktop rig, but was pretty surprised to find that it couldn't drive both of my monitors. > I can't use my OS of choice on it, I can't use my software of choice on it, I can't upgrade or fix anything on it, and I can't trust the swap to not shred the SSD. Minimal due diligence would probably have helped you not waste 1000+ dollars on a lapt…

Speaking as another sad owner of a Macbook Air (pre-M1), I do wish Apple made it more clear that they can't drive monitors well, but I agree with your overall sentiment – OP probably would have been much, much happier with a higher-spec'd M1 MBP (though given the price and their OS preference, maybe still not happy enough).

I too agree that the display limitations are non-obvious.

I’m not sure if it’s a typical use case to run 2 displays on an Air, but that is a way more obvious set of affairs on a Mac mini, especially for a developer porting/testing software for the new architecture. You can run 2 displays on the Mac mini…but not the same way you used to.

https://thesweetsetup.com/running-multiple-monitors-on-an-m1...

(That is actually a clearer guide than Apple’s support docs.)

Re: Using Apple Silicon (M1) as a cloud engineer, two months in

#47

Post by woof » Wed, Mar 03, 2021, 7:48 PM UTC

djrogers wrote: post #25

> Battery life on the M1 is really really really good - half a day of Zoom meetings + email only took 20% of my battery. This may be the most compelling thing I've read about M1 Macs, and I've read a lot of compelling things...

After using the 8GB M1 MacBook Pro, my new job gave me a 16" 32GB MacBook Pro 2,6GHz i7 - and I actually miss my M1!

Battery life and fan is rather annoying now :(

Re: Using Apple Silicon (M1) as a cloud engineer, two months in

#48

Post by volta83 » Wed, Mar 03, 2021, 7:48 PM UTC

least wrote: post #24

smoldesu wrote: post #15

Honestly, I'm starting to understand Louis Rossman's indifference towards these computers. In one of his most recent streams, someone asked him what he thought about the M1 Macs, and he simply responded "it's faster than the last computer Apple made", which summed up a lot of how I feel about it too. I'm saying this as my M1 Macbook Air sits on a shelf collecting dust a few feet away from me, which is definitely not…

> I bought the Macbook Air with the intention of using it to replace my aging desktop rig, but was pretty surprised to find that it couldn't drive both of my monitors. > I can't use my OS of choice on it, I can't use my software of choice on it, I can't upgrade or fix anything on it, and I can't trust the swap to not shred the SSD. Minimal due diligence would probably have helped you not waste 1000+ dollars on a lapt…

+1 I'm in a similar situation as the op, but I didn't buy a new macbook air due to most of the reasons mentioned.

Everybody knew that Linux support was going to be broken on day 1 and require multiple months of work to get better.

TBH I was surprised at the lack of multi-monitor support, this is something that one just expects "it just works" on 2021. Only discovered it reading the comments here, completely missed it when watching the Keynote and looking at Apple's website.

Re: Using Apple Silicon (M1) as a cloud engineer, two months in

#49

Post by abc_lisper » Wed, Mar 03, 2021, 7:50 PM UTC

smoldesu wrote: post #15

Honestly, I'm starting to understand Louis Rossman's indifference towards these computers. In one of his most recent streams, someone asked him what he thought about the M1 Macs, and he simply responded "it's faster than the last computer Apple made", which summed up a lot of how I feel about it too. I'm saying this as my M1 Macbook Air sits on a shelf collecting dust a few feet away from me, which is definitely not…

Just as a counterpoint, I got a M1 just because, but actually love it as a dev machine. It is the first laptop I have that is absolutely silent, and the only one that doesn't try to burn my lap. If it is hotter than my skin below, I can't tell.

Re: Using Apple Silicon (M1) as a cloud engineer, two months in

#50

Post by smoldesu » Wed, Mar 03, 2021, 7:50 PM UTC

least wrote: post #24

smoldesu wrote: post #15

Honestly, I'm starting to understand Louis Rossman's indifference towards these computers. In one of his most recent streams, someone asked him what he thought about the M1 Macs, and he simply responded "it's faster than the last computer Apple made", which summed up a lot of how I feel about it too. I'm saying this as my M1 Macbook Air sits on a shelf collecting dust a few feet away from me, which is definitely not…

> I bought the Macbook Air with the intention of using it to replace my aging desktop rig, but was pretty surprised to find that it couldn't drive both of my monitors. > I can't use my OS of choice on it, I can't use my software of choice on it, I can't upgrade or fix anything on it, and I can't trust the swap to not shred the SSD. Minimal due diligence would probably have helped you not waste 1000+ dollars on a lapt…

I agree, and they were big mistakes on my behalf. I'm not particularly hostile towards Apple, and I exclusively used iPhones for the first half of the last decade. My assumption was that Apple would have these issues ironed out, especially on a product they were comfortable calling "Pro".