To all the M1 Macbook owners out there that use it for software development - do you regret your pick? If so, why (or what doesn't work)?

@sariel Haha benchmarking in "open tabs"

I've used the M1 for fun for a week. I hate OSX, and I hate laptops.

I'm using 2 overpowered workstations, one at the office and one at home —and will never go back to laptop hell.

If you're however someone who thinks OSX is nice and can't live without the mobility of a laptop, the M1 is a great choice.

I also have an XPS13 for writing documentation in the train, and even with just VSCode open it nearly overheats.

That is the advantage of an ARM CPU like the M1: it's very well suited for mobility because it doesn't use your battery & processor to attempt to melt your table.

But for "power user applications" I'd always use it as an auxiliary to a well-specced desktop.

@bittersweet

Desktops are undeniably practical when it comes to price or performance. But it's hard to argue against laptops in 2021 - the M1 Macs have leaped laptop performance ahead quite dramatically. Not only are they beefy, they're also ridiculously quiet for how much power they output. They are even a force to be reckoned with against mid-high tier desktops, simply because the ARM architecture is so efficient.

Sure, it's a bit of an apples to oranges comparison but if we put price and choice of OS on the sidelines for a moment, these laptops are capable of offering laptop mobility at desktop performance. That's a hard to argue package if we're considering workloads like software development or media creation.

I'm not a big fan of having multiple computers. It introduces extra config/maintenance work. I prefer to have everything I do, regardless if it's work or personal stuff on one machine that I can bring with me anywhere.

I got M1 2020 from my company, I was surprised that it didn't suffer any performance issues when opening lots of vscode windows. The thermal output is very low compared to Intel. I can use it on my bed with little to no heat. But I don't like MacOS.

Wish I could use Linux in M1 with the same performance.

@curiousjoe you can use virtual box