I landed a cybersec job and I'm allowed to choose a laptop. I would love to know what your experiences have been like so far.
Ask HN: Early M1 adopters in Cybersec, how has it been? is it mature enough?
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Re: Ask HN: Early M1 adopters in Cybersec, how has it been? is it mature enough?
#2It's freaking awesome. Silent and fast. But if you're doing cybersec, you're probably going to want an x64-based machine, for maximum compatibility with software and virtual machines.
There is virtualization software for the M1 and it works well, but it does not virtualize or emulate x86/x64 images, where things are the most available and stable.
Eg. there is Kali Linux for ARM, but its not as mature or compatible as on x64.
Additionally, several Python libs are still broken on ARM.
Re: Ask HN: Early M1 adopters in Cybersec, how has it been? is it mature enough?
#3It's freaking awesome. Silent and fast. But if you're doing cybersec, you're probably going to want an x64-based machine, for maximum compatibility with software and virtual machines. There is virtualization software for the M1 and it works well, but it does not virtualize or emulate x86/x64 images, where things are the most available and stable. Eg. there is Kali Linux for ARM, but its not as mature or compatible as…
thank you for your response, I feel like I'm at a crossroads. I would love to make use of all the benefits of the M1 Mac but, I want to safely do my job without being hindered by obscure bugs or outdated software.
have you been able to do all your work on your Mac albeit with some workarounds or did you have to resort to a backup x64.
I feel like most of these issues will be resolved with another year, but I have to choose in a few months.
Re: Ask HN: Early M1 adopters in Cybersec, how has it been? is it mature enough?
#4It's freaking awesome. Silent and fast. But if you're doing cybersec, you're probably going to want an x64-based machine, for maximum compatibility with software and virtual machines. There is virtualization software for the M1 and it works well, but it does not virtualize or emulate x86/x64 images, where things are the most available and stable. Eg. there is Kali Linux for ARM, but its not as mature or compatible as…
thank you for your response, I feel like I'm at a crossroads. I would love to make use of all the benefits of the M1 Mac but, I want to safely do my job without being hindered by obscure bugs or outdated software. have you been able to do all your work on your Mac albeit with some workarounds or did you have to resort to a backup x64. I feel like most of these issues will be resolved with another year, but I have to…
I have a backup x64 box, and various Linux x64 VMs.
Even with the current shortcomings of an M1 reality there's no way in hell I'd trade out my M1.
Re: Ask HN: Early M1 adopters in Cybersec, how has it been? is it mature enough?
#5It's freaking awesome. Silent and fast. But if you're doing cybersec, you're probably going to want an x64-based machine, for maximum compatibility with software and virtual machines. There is virtualization software for the M1 and it works well, but it does not virtualize or emulate x86/x64 images, where things are the most available and stable. Eg. there is Kali Linux for ARM, but its not as mature or compatible as…
thank you for your response, I feel like I'm at a crossroads. I would love to make use of all the benefits of the M1 Mac but, I want to safely do my job without being hindered by obscure bugs or outdated software. have you been able to do all your work on your Mac albeit with some workarounds or did you have to resort to a backup x64. I feel like most of these issues will be resolved with another year, but I have to…
> ...but I have to choose in a few months.
This all depends on the software you use everyday for work. If the software you require does not run on the laptop or is so unstable that it prevents you from doing your work then skip it.
What the M1 early adopters didn't tell you is that basic software like Java, Docker and Node required hacks and tons of workarounds before it was made stable. Some have strangely went 'all in' and encountered tons of issues which have costed them weeks or months to get started. Even after they finished setting up everything, the occasional issues still slow them down despite the machine being faster than everything on the market.
If an urgent issue was to arise and you are still unable to do your job because the software on your machine doesn't work or isn't mature, or occasionally crashes or reboots itself (even worse becomes bricked) then it is not worth the risk.
Re: Ask HN: Early M1 adopters in Cybersec, how has it been? is it mature enough?
#6Just be aware that if you rely on booting VMs (e.g., Virtualbox, VMware) you won't be able to do that in M1s.
VMware is working on it, but it's not ready yet. Virtualbox will not be ported, and Docker is about containers, not VMs.
Re: Ask HN: Early M1 adopters in Cybersec, how has it been? is it mature enough?
#7It's freaking awesome. Silent and fast. But if you're doing cybersec, you're probably going to want an x64-based machine, for maximum compatibility with software and virtual machines. There is virtualization software for the M1 and it works well, but it does not virtualize or emulate x86/x64 images, where things are the most available and stable. Eg. there is Kali Linux for ARM, but its not as mature or compatible as…
thank you for your response, I feel like I'm at a crossroads. I would love to make use of all the benefits of the M1 Mac but, I want to safely do my job without being hindered by obscure bugs or outdated software. have you been able to do all your work on your Mac albeit with some workarounds or did you have to resort to a backup x64. I feel like most of these issues will be resolved with another year, but I have to…
It’s a fantastic box. IMO most of the stuff that is problematic for someone in an infosec role are things probably not best done on your laptop anyway.
Personally, I moved most of my toys to VMs elsewhere a few years ago and everything left with just interia.
As other posters mentioned python libraries are a problem, but then python on Mac is a circus anyway!
Re: Ask HN: Early M1 adopters in Cybersec, how has it been? is it mature enough?
#8It's freaking awesome. Silent and fast. But if you're doing cybersec, you're probably going to want an x64-based machine, for maximum compatibility with software and virtual machines. There is virtualization software for the M1 and it works well, but it does not virtualize or emulate x86/x64 images, where things are the most available and stable. Eg. there is Kali Linux for ARM, but its not as mature or compatible as…
I was able to virtualize x86_64 well enough to run a Windows 7 VM under qemu. Its not fast (every instruction is emulated), and I would not want to use it as a daily driver, but it worked and it was "fast enough" for what I needed.