Apple Macbook Air M1 yay or nay?

Stiflers Mom

Stiflers Mom

Banned
Since my trusty old Macbook Pro gave up yesterday, I need a new laptop.

The Air looks quite nice and I would dig that battery run time, but it's first generation hardware, and what I heard about the latest spyware shit that Apple planted into the OS lets me think about if I should not switch over to Windows again after 10 years.

What are your thoughts about this, GAFfots?
 
well if your mac is dead and you need one then yeah it's a great computer to get as a replacement.

wait hold on....you want to go to WINDOWS because Apple has "planted" spyware? are you serious? lol. Windows has way more telemetry ("spying") than Apple.
 
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I bought my first MacBook Pro last week after a lifetime of using Windows and I am deeply in love with it. Not because of Mac OS which doesn't really seem that much different from Windows except the menu bar always parks on the top of the screen and your status icons and clock are up there instead of down below in the taskbar.

No, I love how blindingly fast it is because M1 runs circles around Intel's laptop parts, I love the battery life which is measured in days not hours, I love the screen which has DCI-P3 gamut and a nice "in-between" 2560x1600 resolution between the common "coarse" 1080p and "overkill" 4K resolutions on Windows laptops, and I love how the fan never seems to kick on or the laptop really heat up even while actually using it unlike any Windows laptop where looking at it funny in Chrome causes the fan to start running and the laptop heating up enough to boil water and the battery life instantly melting.

I'm surprised by just how many apps I used daily on Windows which are available on Mac. This is clearly not the same Mac of yesteryear in terms of native apps, although I am still baffled as to how Mac users are somehow able to get by with pretty much only VLC as their video player. I keep thinking playing video back is important so what's the deal with this. Besides that, I was too lazy to actually find and get a Microsoft Office license for Mac so I've been tooling around with the included Mail and Pages apps and they seem pretty decent for bundled apps.

As far as first generation hardware goes, the current M1 MacBooks use the exact same chassis and look exactly the same as the Intel ones. The difference is the Apple Silicon and this first generation is amazing unless you're trying to use Adobe Premiere Pro or something and that will come down to Adobe maybe deciding they should release native ARM versions of Creative Suite apps someday.
 
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I would never buy a Macbook, nor a thin and light laptop. Wtf would I do with a 13.3" screen? Do I need it to fit in my satchel?

If I am spending $999+ on a laptop, I am going to get a gaming laptop.
 
What are you going to be using it for?

If you're concerned about privacy and security, and are comfortable enough with basic Linux (or learning the basics), you can buy a nice Windows laptop and install Linux on it. Or dual-boot Windows and Linux. The Dell XPS 13" 9310 (October 2020 release) is supposed to be good. Or something like a 14" Lenovo X1 Carbon.

I still need Windows for work apps myself. I'd love a Mac, but I don't want to buy beta hardware. Also wtf @ macOS phoning home now, that's some bullshit considering Apple's public stance on privacy. Gotta look into that more.
 
mango drank said:
What are you going to be using it for?
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Coding, watching videos, browsing GAF and FB, a bit of work in GIMP for my retro game dev stuff, etc.
I could do all of this on my eleven year old Macbook Pro with no problems (upgraded it to 8GB and an SSD, though). It's a shame that thing finally went down now.
On the other side, eleven years of daily heavy duty. What a soldier that Macbook Pro was.

mango drank said:
If you're concerned about privacy and security, and are comfortable enough with basic Linux (or learning the basics),
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Nah, not so concerned. But that thing I posted above sounded quite scary.
 
the MacBook Air definitely is a good choice. i'd have bought one myself if i didn't have a PC. i can't justify dropping £1,500 on a secondary computer. if anything happens to my PC then i'm going back to Mac. i had one between 2008-2012 and i loved it.
 
lyra-ixi said:
the MacBook Air definitely is a good choice. i'd have bought one myself if i didn't have a PC. i can't justify dropping £1,500 on a secondary computer. if anything happens to my PC then i'm going back to Mac. i had one between 2008-2012 and i loved it.
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Coming from the Amiga back in the day, I never really felt at home with Windows.
When I got my Mac in 2010, it felt like coming home, OS wise.

Tried Linux as well a couple of times with several distros, but somehow it never clicked with me.

So, yeah, I'd love to stay on MacOS...
 
Stiflers Mom said:
Since my trusty old Macbook Pro gave up yesterday, I need a new laptop.

The Air looks quite nice and I would dig that battery run time, but it's first generation hardware, and what I heard about the latest spyware shit that Apple planted into the OS lets me think about if I should not switch over to Windows again after 10 years.

What are your thoughts about this, GAFfots?
Click to expand...

I would not get an Apple computer now, as they are on the verge of changing architectures again. I got burned really hard once they dropped Rosetta Stone after Snow Leopard. Never again. I have an older Mac Book running Fedora as my daily driver besides my gaming PC.

I would heartily recommend getting any other brand - they're cheaper anyways - and, if you want, installing Windows 10 LTSC - no telemmetry whatsoever. Everything works. It's nice. Or join us at the Linux shack.
 
Komatsu said:
I would not get an Apple computer now, as they are on the verge of changing architectures again. I got burned really hard once they dropped Rosetta Stone after Snow Leopard. Never again. I have an older Mac Book running Fedora as my daily driver besides my gaming PC.

I would heartily recommend getting any other brand - they're cheaper anyways - and, if you want, installing Windows 10 LTSC - no telemmetry whatsoever. Everything works. It's nice. Or join us at the Linux shack.
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Not on the verge, they have changed for these MacBooks
 
The new M1 Air is an incredibly good deal. My wife has one. While initially it was disappointing that they didn't change the industrial design, overall it's a fantastic laptop.

Absolutely runs circles around my year old, maxed out 16 inch MBP. Battery lasts forever. Unlocks in a split second. Very small and light, but screen is still decent.

I am surprised by how much I like it. I am waiting for the big MBP to refresh with Apple Silicon, need the big screen for design work.
 
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I bought the MacBook Pro M1 and, while its a solid machine, its far from the game-changer Apple led people to believe. The battery life is good but nowhere near what they claimed.
 
belmarduk said:
I bought the MacBook Pro M1 and, while its a solid machine, its far from the game-changer Apple led people to believe. The battery life is good but nowhere near what they claimed.
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Well, that was my experience with every Macbook I used (also the later ones I used at work).
They said 6 hours, I was happy to get two hours out of it.
And not even doing heavy stuff with it. Just a bit of browsing and listening to music on the train.

How much time do you get out of the M1?
 
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