software/web developers take on M2 MBA?

[Kimcha]

Performance wise I think you will be fine as long as you get the 16gb ram version. You should definitely consider the 512gb ssd update too as docker and VMs can use a lot of space.

But you should keep in mind that you will likely run into issues with docker and developer tools from time to time. Oftentimes there are no arm docker images and you run into unexpected issues.

Most of those are resolvable, but it takes time to google it and fix it. On macOS docker starts a linux vm and runs in there. You could also probably start a x86 emulated VM to get around it, but the performance will be worse.

I frequently just SSH into a linux cloud VM to do stuff to get around these issues.

 

[LinkRS]

Odd that you never swap with 16 GB. Right now I have minimum swap, a few 100 MB, but almost a GB of compressed memory on an M1 Air with 16 GB. And I've just begun my day. Unless you are compiling something like Chrome all day, I agree that almost no developer needs 64 GB but I've seen on Hacker News a lot of developers complaining that they do. It seems to be a general meme, I need the maximum memory possible for development. I'm pretty sure that 24 GB will allow me to do whatever I need for the near future without any worry about running out of RAM. I can't imagine needing more than 32 GB.

I too would be surprised if the OP NEVER used any swap space. It is possible that they do use it, but unlike on most Windows PCs, the slow-down caused by the swapping was negligible. I am curious how macOS and Windows 1X compares when swapping to disk? Many PCs these days have disks, just as fast as Apple use, and one would think that they would get the same benefit. Upon further thought, since what is typically swapped to disk, are currently unused or background pages, if the OS was sufficiently threaded it could easily disguise the "thrashing" normally associated with swap usage. hmmmm. Thanks!

 

[abhixec]

Show end up getting the MacBook Air M2 with 16 gigs of RAM and 256 GB ssd and running darker and having chrome and Safari open with 20 tabs each and firing up bunch of containers as well as opening up every single app I have installed I never exceeded 16 gigs of RAM and never swapped.

benchmarks really do not speak for real world use

This is good to know! Thanks, I am contemplating between M2 MBA or getting MBP14. If MBA can handle development(mostly side projects that I want to work on) then I would prefer MBA purely for the portability aspect of it.
And your post seem to provide some kind of affirmation for me.
It is sad how none of the youtubers actually talk about real development work instead just show case installing and setting up dev env.(which means literally nothing)
I think I might buy MBA M2 with 24G and 512G(possibly 1TB)

 

[ADGrant]

This is good to know! Thanks, I am contemplating between M2 MBA or getting MBP14. If MBA can handle development(mostly side projects that I want to work on) then I would prefer MBA purely for the portability aspect of it.
And your post seem to provide some kind of affirmation for me.
It is sad how none of the youtubers actually talk about real development work instead just show case installing and setting up dev env.(which means literally nothing)
I think I might buy MBA M2 with 24G and 512G(possibly 1TB)

I know you like the portability but an M2 MBA with 24G and 512G is going to be more expensive than the base 14" MBP which has a much better screen, more performance and GPU cores and a proper cooling system.

 

[jdb8167]

I know you like the portability but an M2 MBA with 24G and 512G is going to be more expensive than the base 14" MBP which has a much better screen, more performance and GPU cores and a proper cooling system.

But less RAM

 

[ADGrant]

But less RAM

Everything else being equal, more RAM is better than less RAM. However, everything else isn't equal. Outside of Javascript and maybe python development, the 14" will be faster for most dev tasks.

 

[kasakka]

For me the only thing that makes it unviable is the lack of dual monitor support. I currently use a 5120x1440 super ultrawide configured as two separate monitors so I can get separate virtual desktops on each. Sure, I could run it as one monitor but if I want to change it to something higher res in the future, I am limited by the system on what to choose.

Otherwise a 16/24 GB RAM, 512 GB disk space model would probably be good enough. At the moment I am using a 16" 2019 Intel MBP with 64 GB RAM and at best it tends to hover at 32 GB usage for me with something like this:

• Several windows of VS Code
• Several Docker container running
• Teams
• Slack
• Google Chrome with many tabs
• Vivaldi with many tabs
• Several windows in iTerm2
• Path Finder for file management

Which is not necessarily the full story as it could be just allocating that 32 GB rather than truly needing it.

 

[bobcomer]

I too would be surprised if the OP NEVER used any swap space. It is possible that they do use it, but unlike on most Windows PCs, the slow-down caused by the swapping was negligible. I am curious how macOS and Windows 1X compares when swapping to disk? Many PCs these days have disks, just as fast as Apple use, and one would think that they would get the same benefit. Upon further thought, since what is typically swapped to disk, are currently unused or background pages, if the OS was sufficiently threaded it could easily disguise the "thrashing" normally associated with swap usage. hmmmm. Thanks!

I haven't seen Windows thrash in a long time, but we only use SSD's these days. It's better at multithreading now too... (Win10 and up)

 

[ADGrant]

For me the only thing that makes it unviable is the lack of dual monitor support. I currently use a 5120x1440 super ultrawide configured as two separate monitors so I can get separate virtual desktops on each. Sure, I could run it as one monitor but if I want to change it to something higher res in the future, I am limited by the system on what to choose.

Otherwise a 16/24 GB RAM, 512 GB disk space model would probably be good enough. At the moment I am using a 16" 2019 Intel MBP with 64 GB RAM and at best it tends to hover at 32 GB usage for me with something like this:

• Several windows of VS Code
• Several Docker container running
• Teams
• Slack
• Google Chrome with many tabs
• Vivaldi with many tabs
• Several windows in iTerm2
• Path Finder for file management

Which is not necessarily the full story as it could be just allocating that 32 GB rather than truly needing it.

You are running a lot of Electron apps and a virtual machine for the Docker containers. I have 64gb in my i9 iMac and I have seen the memory use jump to 32gb with VMs or Docker.

How warm does your 2019 Intel MBP get. Are the fans on most of the time?

 

[kasakka]

You are running a lot of Electron apps and a virtual machine for the Docker containers. I have 64gb in my i9 iMac and I have seen the memory use jump to 32gb with VMs or Docker.

How warm does your 2019 Intel MBP get. Are the fans on most of the time?

Just plugging the external display makes the fans run all that time. Without them it's more well behaved.

 

[ADGrant]

Just plugging the external display makes the fans run all that time. Without them it's more well behaved.

That is probably because plugging in the external display turns on the discrete GPU. My old Intel 15" MBP did the same thing which was one reason I replaced it with an i9 iMac instead of the i9 16" MBP.

 

[kasakka]

That is probably because plugging in the external display turns on the discrete GPU. My old Intel 15" MBP did the same thing which was one reason I replaced it with an i9 iMac instead of the i9 16" MBP.

Yeah that's exactly it. It's a rather disappointing machine but the 2016 model I had before was even worse. Haven't been happy with a Macbook Pro since the 2013 model I had but at least all of these have been paid by my work.

I aim to replace the current one with the M2 Macbook Pro whenever that comes out. I would have liked the M2 MBA for the portability but the external display limitations are too big of an issue for me.