The M1 MacBook Air is the best computer I've ever owned

I am no Apple fanatic. I&#x27;m a die-hard Linux user and open source proponent. I wouldn&#x27;t touch the M1 with a thirty-nine and a half foot pole.<p>But with all that said... I kind of like articles like these. I enjoy seeing people happy with good tech because <i>I</i> like good tech. It pleases me that there are people getting this much enjoyment out of innovative and (I&#x27;ll admit it) quite impressive hardware. So rock on, Apple fans. But when there&#x27;s a Linux computer that is even a bit better, I hope you can tolerate me shouting from the rooftops, because you bet I will be!

I&#x27;m reluctant to buy it because of ports, and tiny amount of drive space. Waiting for the 14 inch, hoping for more ports, larger base hard drive, and new design for similar cost of upgrading the air.

The most interesting thing about this to me was the bit at the end about Windows and Games. I&#x27;ve heard of Windows emulation on Mac before but this is the first time I&#x27;ve heard of Parallels.<p>&gt; Now you can download Steam and basically install anything and it will probably work. Microsoft really did some amazing magic in getting both 32-bit and 64-bit x86 programs running on arm64.<p>The author makes it sound like you can run basically all Windows software on Mac without issues with Parallel, including more demanding software like games you&#x27;d find on Steam.<p>Does anyone here have experience with Parallels? How does performance compare? My assumption with this kind of emulation was always that performance would typically suffer too much for it to be worth it.

I love my M1 MBP, but I use my 16&quot; MBP more day to day. The larger screen seems to be more important to me than the noisiness and shorter battery life. Definitely looking forward to bigger arm macs.

tldr; I got a Macbook Pro M1 for $975 in mint-condition at a Best Buy and already put the return label on it.<p>While Geekbench showed great results, actual usage of the machine and headaches ensued were contrasting.<p>To put it bluntly - M1 machines are currently unstable. There are numerous Bluetooth issues [1], formatting issues [2], Wifi 6 issues [3], VPN issues [4], firewall issues [5], and shocking security issues in general with Big Sur and Apple&#x27;s silicon [6].<p>I&#x27;m a power user and this is way too experimental for actual use. At the least get the 16 GB variant if you want to get anything done and not experience freeze&#x2F;lockup (but for that much money you&#x27;re better off with Librem 14&quot; or System76 w&#x2F;AMD Threadripper).<p>[1]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.reddit.com&#x2F;r&#x2F;mac&#x2F;comments&#x2F;kpu2hy&#x2F;mouse_lag_when_using_bluetooth_mouse_on_m1_mac&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.reddit.com&#x2F;r&#x2F;mac&#x2F;comments&#x2F;kpu2hy&#x2F;mouse_lag_when_...</a><p>[2]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;mrmacintosh.com&#x2F;reinstalling-big-sur-on-apple-silicon-macs-with-11-0-20a2411-error&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;mrmacintosh.com&#x2F;reinstalling-big-sur-on-apple-silico...</a><p>[3]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.reddit.com&#x2F;r&#x2F;mac&#x2F;comments&#x2F;jy3yc7&#x2F;is_anyone_else_experiencing_issues_with_wifi_on&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.reddit.com&#x2F;r&#x2F;mac&#x2F;comments&#x2F;jy3yc7&#x2F;is_anyone_else_...</a><p>[4]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;mullvad.net&#x2F;en&#x2F;blog&#x2F;2020&#x2F;11&#x2F;16&#x2F;big-no-big-sur-mullvad-disallows-apple-apps-bypass-firewall&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;mullvad.net&#x2F;en&#x2F;blog&#x2F;2020&#x2F;11&#x2F;16&#x2F;big-no-big-sur-mullva...</a><p>[5]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;objective-see&#x2F;LuLu&#x2F;issues&#x2F;208" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;objective-see&#x2F;LuLu&#x2F;issues&#x2F;208</a><p>[6]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;sneak.berlin&#x2F;20201204&#x2F;on-trusting-macintosh-hardware&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;sneak.berlin&#x2F;20201204&#x2F;on-trusting-macintosh-hardware...</a>

In my experience, the latest computer I buy is always &quot;the best computer I&#x27;ve ever owned&quot;. They get better every year, why is this still surprising?

This post says how unpredictable it is.<p>Come on, you can run a linux distribution on a non-apple hardware and not even worry if any of those software will run on it. Plus any of the 40 other top TIOBE tools.

I think we really need a break from people submitting more M1 Mac unboxing articles, unless there&#x27;s significant original technical content. This is turning into fanboyism.

Since getting my M1, I can now barely tolerate using my 2019 high-spec&#x27;ed iMac. Nearly all interactions with the UI appear to be instantaneous. I can&#x27;t describe what a positive experience that is. It&#x27;s cognitively very rewarding to use.

Yeah, the combination of features at the right quality level makes it the best laptop I&#x27;ve ever owned.

The comparison to Microsoft&#x27;s more expensive 2020 Surface Pro X is especially stark.<p>Windows runs at less than half the speed on Microsoft&#x27;s own flagship ARM hardware.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=OhESSZIXvCA" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=OhESSZIXvCA</a>

Not to invalidate the author&#x27;s enjoyment of his own purchase, but it would be nice if he clarified which computers he had owned in the past

Been using MacBooks since 2014 for hobby development&#x2F;work<p>I bought a new macbook pro m1 in December. Returned 2 days later after realizing that it only supports one external monitor and even found articles stating that ultra wide monitors were not supported on initial release. &quot;Just use display link adaptor?&quot; No thanks I don&#x27;t want a 150$ adaptor that may or may not work with my current setup. Even with display link I&#x27;ve heard of displays flickering on initial startup or not starting at all in clamshell.<p>People saying the MacBook pro 16&quot; might solve the issue but tbh I think this is apples way of pigeonholing users to either their desktop version or their laptop.

surely this is the case for any new computer anyone buys technically speaking. If you go out now and buy a new computer it replaces one less good and at that point in time is the best computer you have ever owned...

Yeah, right - if you choose to ignore the following:<p>You can&#x27;t upgrade the RAM, you can&#x27;t upgrade the SSD, it doesn&#x27;t have replaceable battery and you are forced to run a crippled OS on it (macOS Big Sur deliberately cripples VPN and firewall on it so that select Apple softwares can bypass them, allowing Apple better access and control over your data and softwares).<p>(And if you don&#x27;t care about any of the above, then sure, give in.)

My wife has a 2012 MBP, which is usable because I upgraded the RAM to 16GB and added an SSD.<p>I had limited experience and use of macOS, but didn&#x27;t like it much.<p>I bought the Air last month under duress, because I was going to a place that&#x27;s 10°C warmer than my home, and my laptop&#x27;s GPU passes the idle quiet threshold. I have tinnitus, so the laptop fan noise becomes unbearable.<p>I&#x27;m enjoying using the Mac, I mainly develop in Rust, so the experience has been mostly good. I&#x27;ve had a few hard crashes of other software that restarted the machine, that&#x27;s fine though.<p>I still mainly remote into my beefy Windows desktop in the other room, but I haven&#x27;t needed to turn on my work laptop as Microsoft also updated Office to work on Arm64.<p>I didn&#x27;t know about Parallels, I&#x27;ll try it out, as sometimes I can&#x27;t remote into my desktop conveniently.

I have bought an M1, and so far I am slightly disappointed. Intel macbook pro was quite fine, too. Firefox is still occasionally slow. No significant improvements in compilation speed (well, homebrew still relies on Rosetta 2). Instant wakeup is cool, but not a life-changing improvement. Etc.

For some reason, the link doesn&#x27;t work for me (on mobile, domain not found).<p>My own take, owning one, and only mentioning things I&#x27;ve never or rarely seen mentioned:<p>- unibody with no openings for ventilation is kind of mindblowing for a machine that can build Firefox in 20 minutes and 30 seconds. Which also means it won&#x27;t accumulate dust inside, assuming the keyboard is hermetic.<p>- it actually feels pretty heavy for its size.<p>- the edges are very sharp. Too sharp. Not cutting sharp, but uncomfortably sharp.<p>- it&#x27;s cold to the touch (except after using the cpu for a while).<p>- leaving it unplugged and sleeping (lid closed) consumes more battery than on a MBP late 2013.

I just bought one and my reaction was, meh.

Is this post even about the macbook? Nix, homebrew, go, terraform, ... ?

More RAM would be nice.

I have the MacBook Air 2018 (13-inch, 1.6 GHz i5, 16 GB memory) and it gets pretty slow for my dev side-projects, the battery is good but definitely not as good as my iPad pro (but much better than my macbook pro), and my keyboard has been acting, I got a replacement, and now it&#x27;s acting again... Without the keyboard issue, and the slowness, it&#x27;d really be perfect.

You&#x27;re talking about software here. You&#x27;d have the same experience on almost any macbook. In fact, for the things you&#x27;re describing you&#x27;d probably have a better experience with a non M1 machine. There&#x27;s only one line that is related to the actual M1 MacBook Air hardware.<p>Have you tried other machines as well, such as a ThinkPad? Have you ever used Linux?

Bought one for my kid, been testing it out and it’s so good that I’m tempted to buy one myself - much better than any of the recent mbpro’s I’ve had. Super responsive while staying cool on the lap, completely silent and all day battery life.<p>Can’t wait for mbpros with miniled display and more arm cores later this year.

Regardless of what computer that is, having what you think it is the best computer you ever had is such a great sensation, at least for me that I spend at lease 9 hours a day in front of it. In my case it&#x27;s a Dell XPS, but it doesn&#x27;t matter.<p>Treasure this sensation, it won&#x27;t last forever :)

I&#x27;m still on a MacBook Pro 2011. Chrome runs great. Newer Xcode doesn&#x27;t work, though.

If their first M1 out the gate is this good, I&#x27;m excited to buy whatever comes second.

There&#x27;s a lot of love for the M1 Macs. Medium send me emails of recommended articles and always at least one is a blog about how good it is.<p>What are the issues people have been experiencing? No laptop is perfect.

It&#x27;s all about the battery life. It had become miserable lately. I wasn&#x27;t going to upgrade for any gimmicks but 2X battery life (or thereabouts) is a game changer

Nice post, makes me wanna dump my 16” as well and if it weren’t for my work’s heavy dependency on Windows. — O and I really dig your domain name! ;-)

Is parallels running the ARM windows preview emulating 64 bit X86 fast enough for anything practical? Can I play ten year old games?

I have one too. Yes, all those things are nice but mine is fricken GOLD. Note pinky rose gold, but GOLD FRICKEN GOLD gold.<p>Best color ever.

I would have appreciated it if he posted the exact configuration he bought.

they seem good and stuff but Mac OS and the Mac ecosystem are awful

is it built like a tank?

&gt;It is even the best Windows PC<p>The delusion is very strong here.

New computer is better than old computer. Shocking.<p>The M1 is a good chip. It is great that we have ARM cores that can go toe-to-toe with Zen 3. It is hardly a revolution and it would not be trivial to scale it to a workstation or server design.<p>It is telling to see someone acting like the competition is still Intel. Intel has been playing catchup since Q1 of 2017. Their server parts in particular are woefully outdated.

Amen.

Here&#x27;s the intersting part - there&#x27;s no alternative to that price&#x2F;performance ratio for atleast a year.

&quot;owned&quot;

Unfortunately, you don&#x27;t actually &quot;own&quot; it. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;sneak.berlin&#x2F;20201112&#x2F;your-computer-isnt-yours&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;sneak.berlin&#x2F;20201112&#x2F;your-computer-isnt-yours&#x2F;</a>

Prediction: The M1 will make the web slower for most people.<p>Web devs will buy the M1 because it executes their slow dev tools faster (npm ecosystem).<p>Then they will test their web pages on the M1 and deploy them when they are &quot;fast enough&quot;.<p>Result: web pages will be even slower on mobile phones and non-M1 laptops.<p><i>Software is a gas; it expands to fill its container</i> - Nathan Myhrvold

...and is probably one of the least libre* computer I&#x27;ve seen in the 21th century, too.<p>Before that, Linux can&#x27;t run on MacBooks, and after a few years of development it&#x27;s just barely working, now this thing.<p>This is never going to be Desktop Linux compatible. Even Linus claimed he would like to but the effort is tremendous.<p>&gt;&gt;&gt;<p>I&#x27;d absolutely love to have one, if it just ran Linux.. I have fairly fond memories of the 11&quot; Macbook Air (I think 4,1) that I used about a decade ago (but moved away from because it took Apple too long to fix the screen - and by the time they did, I&#x27;d moved on to better laptops, and Apple had moved on to make Linux less convenient).<p>Apple may run Linux in their cloud, but their laptops don&#x27;t ;(<p>I&#x27;ve been waiting for an ARM laptop that can run Linux for a long time. The new Air would be almost perfect, except for the OS. And I don&#x27;t have the time to tinker with it, or the inclination to fight companies that don&#x27;t want to help.<p>Linus<p>&gt;&gt;&gt;<p>Maybe you can run just some more productivity apps by sacrificing your freedom to be kept captive by Apple. But this also means your machine isn&#x27;t entirely yours.<p>*: used liberal here. I don&#x27;t know what&#x27;s the exactly word to use but it turns out there are people so sensitive to politics and thought the otherwise.

Except the interface which has been designed for touch interfaces without having any touch capability on the Mac, for the sake of &quot;design unity&quot; bullshit. You can&#x27;t have M1 without macOS Big Sur.<p>Not only on macOS, but generally the entire web is mobile-first and desktop-last philosophy.