MacBook Pro M1 14

[Jezzer]

I went from a hefty Razerblade 15 gaming laptop to my first Mac OS based machine - an M1 MacBook Air. The machines are like chalk and cheese but I do prefer the MacBook for its silent operation and easy portability. (Didn’t play that many games and could not stand the fan noise on the Razerblade)

(though it wasn’t my first Apple computer - that was an Apple 2e)

 

[Darth Vader]

.. as it's reminiscence time

My first Mac was a Performa bought in '93 (before that I had a Commodore Amiga, which was loads of fun)

Gone through loads of them since then and find the experience less and less rewarding with every new OS iteration and successive 'locking down' of the hardware (and deterioration of the software). Suffered loads of abuse on various tech forums for sticking with them during the 'bad' years - all just 'banter' of course

Currently experimenting with migrating away from Macs to Debian and a much simplified computer life.

Macintosh were great - Apple sucks. ....

Just remember an Intel Apple computer is a PC and you can run whatever UNIX/Linux that you fancy.

Macs are good solid machines and can be had at a fair price s/h. Although I have made triple boot Macs Windows/macOS/Linux its a bit hairy as a Linux update always wants to stick grub onto the disk and its a pain to rectify. So now I keep a Linux flavor either on a dedicated machine or on a bootable USB drive. I have also played with boot loaders such as RFIND but at the end of the day I prefer Apples startup manager - clean and simple.

DV

 

[miktec]

Just remember an Intel Apple computer is a PC and you can run whatever UNIX/Linux that you fancy.

Macs are good solid machines and can be had at a fair price s/h. Although I have made triple boot Macs Windows/macOS/Linux its a bit hairy as a Linux update always wants to stick grub onto the disk and its a pain to rectify. So now I keep a Linux flavor either on a dedicated machine or on a bootable USB drive. I have also played with boot loaders such as RFIND but at the end of the day I prefer Apples startup manager - clean and simple.

DV

Two of my old mac minis - one runs Win 10, another Debian 11

Both boot up pretty much as fast as a third (2014) I use for Monterey.

None of that as much fun as an RPi/Debian combo in a home made box with touch screen .... slower, but not obscenely so.

 

[James]

Just remember an Intel Apple computer is a PC and you can run whatever UNIX/Linux that you fancy.

That'll be why I bought the last Intel-based MBA; just in case I needed to establish a Win environment to run LspCAD. It's been more than 10 years since I designed a new Ergo, and increasingly unlikely I will do another one.

 

[foxwelljsly]

My first experience with Macs was around 1984 or 85, when I attempted a paper in computer science at uni. I did not much like it, or maybe I did not engage with the course. I avoided computers for the rest of 1980s. In the early 90s, I had no choice but submit course work in softcopy, using WordPerfect 5.1 or Lotus 1-2-3. I was dragged onboard the personal computing bandwagon kicking and screaming, but became an adopter of MS Windows when I bought my first PC (386SX). I had a succession of PCs. They mostly lasted two or three years before bloatware would frustrate my user experience.

I thought I'd give Apple Mac a try when my last Toshiba laptop wouldn't boot up or if it did, kept crashing. We bought a 21.5" Mac in 2012, and it's still working fine today. I treated myself to a MacBook Air in 2013, which worked flawlessly day in and out. I'm now using the last of the Intel MacBook Airs (2020). In hindsight, I should have waited for the M1 chip. But whether it has Intel or M chip, I simply cannot fault the Mac user experience. The only slight inconvenience (compared to my 2013 MBA) is the absence of SD card reader and MagSafe power cable. I see Apple has brought MagSafe back for its M2 MBA, which is quite tempting.

I don't think I'll ever go back to PCs for personal use. I'll just put up with them for work, where at least I don't have to manage their configuration or obsolescence.

My daily desktop is 10 year old i3 Lenovo thinkstation which is still running flawlessly, albeit with a Freesat card, hopped up graphics card, SSD, maxed out ram and 3 monitors. I also have an 11 year old i7 MacBook Pro which is still running, but nothing like as smoothly. I am also constantly amazed at the nippiness of old laptops once you stick W10 and a SSD in them.

I joined the apple eco system in 2006 with a white MacBook after getting exasperated with slow xp laptops that kept crashing and subsequently with an iPhone 3gs. I bailed around 7 years ago after I got fed up with devices that implausibly ground to a halt prematurely due to Apple bloatware and the inability to replace memory and storage. I have found no such problems with Android (running on Google phones) and W10. I do still have an iPad though - the Tablet applications I use simply aren't available on Android, although the Galaxy tablets are amazing.

I will presumably have to buy a W11 compatible PC eventually, but the lack of SFF PCs with 4 PCIE slots is a concern.

 

[MJS]

My first Apple experience was running CP/M on an Apple IIe. That machine ran a machine that stuffed most of the components in pretty much every single NAIT2 ever made.
Then I did college work on an Amstrad PC1512 maxed out with extra RAM and disks drives from a friendly PC repairer. That lasted until I discovered Lemmings and bought an Amiga A600, then later a 1200. That 1200 got massively pimped out due to me handily changing jobs and working for the then household name in computer graphics who had handy things like extra RAM and 68040s lying around. A succession of hand-built PCs followed as I got online, then I bought a G4 mac mini. I haven't looked back since. The best ever buy was a refurbed 2009 iMac that's only needed a decent hard drive. That machine lasted a decade.

Typing this on my works M1 MBP. Compared to a similar spec Dell I sometimes have to use, this thing is lightning fast and totally silent. You should hear my colleague's Dells screaming during Teams video meetings. I can use the Dell D6000 docking station to get around the display limitations using DisplayLink.

 

[Kirk]

Just bought a MBP 14 and agree with the OP - a wonderful machine: fast, great screen, compact enough + MacOS.

 

[garyi]

Picked up a macbook air M2, not getting great reviews, not because its bad but because apple seem to have lost their way with pricing. That being said I wanted the smallest lightest thing, so I go it. It's terrific.

That being said for heavy fay to day, its PC all the way here.