Is the new M1 MacBook Pro a good choice for programming and stuff?

No. Only apple early adopters should buy those to support the idea. They are going to rush the M2 and M2X out as fast as possible and put the M1 in the rearview, which means that line will have a notoriously short lifespan.

I've heard good thing, especially regarding the battery life, but do keep in mind you're going to have many software incompatibilities for a "long" time.
If you don't need anything specific or use mostly web apps, you should be fine.

PS: Also, it's only the first gen. Who knows what they'll do in a few months.

Came here to say the points above.

They’re quite nice, but not a good choice.

It's not a good choice even generally imho. It's a decent 1st attempt at a general purpose arm CPU giving ok performance and decent battery life, but that's it. The top amount of RAM available is the absolute minimum amount for a dev machine too.

Despite what all the YouTubers would have you believe, it's not the best performing thing out there, and it'll get replaced very quickly.

Send it

Also, lets not forget it only supports 1 external monitor, and no ultrawide (though they promised a fix for that). I personally can't develop properly without some screen real estate 😉

That's just on top of the arguments above. No real benefits for a dev right now, just limitations.

I would always suggest against being an early adopter. Let us wait for it to evolve more and stabilize before jumping to it. I have nothing against the idea and actually like it, but as it was mentioned above by others, it will be under a constant influx of changes.

If feel like first gen most things ... and particularly a new / different processor... you're just asking for a lot of dev environment hassle if you pick that up.

Granted some folks like that sort of thing, but if you need to be productive / value your time / don't like 'fixing the shit that used to work so you can fix other shit already' ... I'd be VERY wary of picking up an M1.

@SortOfTested the same principle applies to every "new model" or "new technology" out there.

Rule of thumb: if you need it to be reliable - never take the first release.

It’s the best computer you could buy... but not good enough... and other computers will be made in the future... so, better wait a few years??? Not buying this logic.

I have a late 2019 13”MacBook Pro. I still mostly use my late 2013 MacBook Pro because I haven’t fully moved over. They are both great.

However the newer one has a loud fan - and since I’m recording my screen - it’s kinda a bummer / and I had to buy an iMac for that instead.

The M1 might have a few more months of software compatibility issues / mostly software catching up - but it’s screaming fast and dead quiet. I’d buy one in a hart beat. It is a fantastic machine - and if that’s not exciting to the people / then no computer will ever excite them.

However for “coding and stuff” you really don’t need much.

So, it all depends on what you actually plan on doing with it. You’ll need more power for things like after effects.

@sheriffderek it's not the best computer you could buy. By a huge margin.

@rooter thats one thing I am not to worried about.

On top of the 43 000 in the trials the US have already vaccinated about 2 million people.

By the time I am even considered (I do not belong to any priority group) many millions more will have had it.

So unless they cancel it it will be very well tested by then :D

Last I checked it lacked some serious visualisation tools besides a bit lacking in ram.
Docker has tech previews now (not good enough for professional use) but no virtualbox for example.

@sheriffderek It's probably the best *MacBook* you can buy by a huge margin, which is why everyone is so hyped. But best computer?! Especially for dev work?! Not a chance, unless maybe your dev work is Apple exclusive.

As soon as any M1 machine is compared to an actual decent workhorse, it pales in comparison on everything but battery life.

@rooter that was a steriod, which affect the body on a hormonal level and achieving the desired effect through secondary processes in the body. That is always riskier as much of that is not fully understood.

Vaccines has been around for about as long and been administered to many more people with few side effects like that.

And the antibody immune response has been studied in far more depth by many more scientists and doctors.

Sure nothing will be 100% safe, but covid has killed 1.7 million people world wide and 1 in every 1000 Americans (including those that has not had the disease.

The vaccine has to be extra ordinarily bad to beat that risk of death.

@AlmondSauce ah. Ok. I mean... I don’t know what a work horse is... but laptop wise - using a piece of trash / and touching shitty keys and a shit trackpad and —- well, that’s just isn’t an option for me. So, as far as a laptop goes - there is absolutely no other option for me. I’m not playing word of war craft or whatever / so, editing text files is pretty smooth ; ) it about ‘living” with a good design - 10 hours a day.

@iiii can you send me a link to the best computer you could buy ‘for coding and stuff’ (keeping in mind that the op probably means ‘laptop’ and they probably don’t know how to program... so, virtual box isn’t going to be a priority)

@rooter I read the messages, bro. Maybe you should read the Question again.

@sheriffderek Dell XPS lineup exists. You can use windows or Linux with it and it's x86 so compatible with all the modern software

@iiii yeah. I mean. I get it. A lot of my previously Mac-based friends have switched - back to windows for 3D rendering and for all sorts of reasons. For me - looking at windows is like shitting in my nose. I just can’t really work with the stench. Personal preference.

@sheriffderek Macs have been and still are overpriced for the hardware they provide. Vendor locking in such case does not add merit

@iiii if I do the math - pleasure of use to dollar - the machine is basically free.

@sheriffderek fanboyism is never good.

@iiii I’m not a fanboy. I just know basic elementary school math and I don’t like touching things that make me feel bad. It’s a personal preference.

@sheriffderek Mac is not an ultimate pleasure to use. It's weird.

@rooter there are around 328 000 000 americans in total. 335 000 of those has died by covid. That 1 in every 1000 americans.

@rooter ok sure with covid ;). But I bet a lot of them was ny covid to.

And considering that, as long as the vaccine protects most who take it, it will need some serious drawback to not be worth it.

And with now 6+ different vaccines being deployed world wide, if one start making problems there are other they can use.

@rooter even if lethal, if you have a 1/1000 risk of contracting the virus and die from it and a 1/100 000 to die from the vaccine its still statistically better to take the vaccine