Ask HN: Worth it to buy the Apple M1?
3 comments
I'm someone who went from using Linux, to macOS, to Linux again. Developing on macOS leaves a lot to be desired when coming from Linux, especially when it comes to using Linux containers.
While Linux may one day boot on the M1, there's no video drivers, and developing them without documentation is a monumental task that probably won't ever happen. Apple deprecates macOS support for Macs after 5 to 7 years, meaning that you probably won't be able to use Linux on the M1 after Apple stops supporting it.
For that reason, I won't be buying an M1 Mac.
While Linux may one day boot on the M1, there's no video drivers, and developing them without documentation is a monumental task that probably won't ever happen. Apple deprecates macOS support for Macs after 5 to 7 years, meaning that you probably won't be able to use Linux on the M1 after Apple stops supporting it.
For that reason, I won't be buying an M1 Mac.
A colleague ran some Postgres performance benchmarks on the Apple M1 and found the performance to be impressive:
https://info.crunchydata.com/blog/postgresql-benchmarks-appl...
https://info.crunchydata.com/blog/postgresql-benchmarks-appl...
I have an old Dell gaming laptop that I dual boot Pop!_OS. It works well but has an Nvidia GPU that makes it heavy and I’m getting tired of lugging it back and forth to work (yeah, back in the office now).
Before the M1, I was planning to get an Intel MacBook and dual boot Linux on it. But with the performance and battery life of the M1, I’m on the fence. I know Linux isn’t supported natively yet, but I spend most of my time SSH’d into a headless Linux server anyway, or in a local Docker container. I hear Docker isn’t perfect on the M1 yet either so I would probably go all in on the headless server. I also do some React Native dev and the idea of a faster Xcode build is intriguing indeed. Thoughts? Would I be better off with a native a Linux experience or are the perf/battery advantages of the M1 worth putting up with Apple’s telemetry, etc?
Curious what others have experienced so far who bought an M1. Was it worth the money, and do you have any regrets?