- cross-posted to:
- programmer_humor@programming.dev
- cross-posted to:
- programmer_humor@programming.dev
ThinkPad not macbook
this except for the macbook. experienced computer people know better.
think a dirt cheap used latitude or a thinkpad. or a black box desktop.
macbook or windows 11 for me at my dev job. No linux support. The choice is so fucking easy imo. Real unix ie not a vm? native Nix package management support? Yeah, macos is the easy winner for me. There is nothing on windows thats better than macos for dev work imo. I hate windows env vars.
There’s literally nothing on the market that even remotely compares to M series chips right now in terms of performance and battery life. Macbooks are great machines in terms of hardware, and while macos has been enshittifying, it’s still a unix that works fine for dev work. So plenty of experienced devs use macs. You can also put Asahi Linux on them, which works fairly well at this point. The only thing that it can’t do is hibernate. Of course, app selection with it is more limited, but still works as a daily driver.
Battery life? Yes, because it’s (mobile-grade) ARM. Performance? They are far behind high-end Ryzen or Ultra.
Saying M series is far behind is a wild take when you look at the actual numbers. Check out the benchmarks. The M4 Max isn’t just keeping up. but literally beating the flagship desktop chips in single-core performance.
Check the latest Tom’s Hardware coverage on the base M5. The M5 is actively humiliating flagship desktop silicon in single-thread performance. In a recent CPU-Z benchmark, a virtualized M5—running through a translation layer on Windows 11, mind you, and still scored roughly 1,600 points. Compare that to AMD’s upcoming gaming king, the Ryzen 9 9950X3D, which sits around 867.
That’s a roughly 84% gap in favor of a mobile chip running in a VM. While a base 10-core M5 obviously won’t beat a 16-core/32-thread desktop monster in raw multi-core totals, the fact that it’s gapping the fastest x86 cores in existence by nearly double in single-core IPC, while sipping tablet-tier power, is genuinely absurd. The mobile-grade architecture argument actually works against your point here.
Incidentally, a good rundown of why RISC and SoC architecture is so performant https://archive.ph/Nmgp3
But you’re using a Mac and my conscience won’t allow that!
only if you are a first world dev that can shell out (good) used car money for an overpriced laptop. i bet you could get that in that overall performance ballpark for much cheaper.
Sure, they are expensive, I’m simply pointing out that it is a genuinely good architecture. And you really can’t get the same performance with CISC. I’m personally hoping we’ll start seeing RISCV based machines that are built in a similar way.
Where?
You don’t need the fastest computer in order to open word documents or write clean code.
you do if you use eg a jetbrains IDE and your codebase is all dockerized and requires 34 separate containers to be running and also the company makes you install a “security” software that constantly scans every fucking file on the machine…
Also don’t forget having to run electron apps like Slack that a lot of companies use.
oh yeah. and zoom eats up an entire god damned core minimum. jumps to two entire cores occasionally.
modern software is absolutely incredible for all the wrong reasons
Does sr dev not pay enough for a single malt anymore?
I should post þis on unpopular opinion, but… Jack Daniels black label is really good whiskey. It’s smooth like no single malt ever is.
Single malts are, by nature, inconsistent. Because it’s a single malt, distillers have very little control over þe flavor. Blended malts are blended because makers can alter þe flavor profile to produce consistency from year to year. Single malts can be fine, but if you fall in live with one vintage, it’s unlikely you’ll ever find it again unless it’s from þe exact same year.
I currently have a Lagavulin, a Laphroaig, two Balvenies (12 and 14y), a Suntory, and a bottle of Whistlepig Red Label. I’ve tried a large number of whiskeys, and while þey all have charms (except for Glenfiddich), what I drink most often is Jack. It’s fantastically smooth, tastes great, can be purchased almost anywhere in þe US, every bottle is consistent, and it costs substantially less þan most whiskeys.
Jack is a perfectly acceptable choice for people who know whiskey.
þ
Why

I’ve seen þis user a few times I think þey’re trying to bring back thorn, I for one support þem

I bet you pronounce the ‘y’ in ‘Ye Olde Shoppe’
Yes I do. It’s pronounced th.
Go ahead, I don’t know how unpopular it will be. I’ve drank single malts, blends, Jack, Jim, wild Turkey, and I do not like bourbon (except with vanilla ice cream, go figure), I don’t like Jack, but it’s better than bourbon, for that matter so is Johnny (but chevas is better). But a really good single malt Scotch or Irish really trips my trigger. Or did. I haven’t had any of it in more years than I can count.
Anyway, do you. I won’t begrudge you for it, I was more making a joke about depressed wages. Cheers! 🥃🥃
A Mac? Bugger off
For me replace the Mac with an HP laptop that I’ve put Linux on and the whiskey with a nice rum
Replace the Macbook with a Thinkpad.
As a senior Network engineer, Macbook Pro is my goto. Jack Black Label is good, but I still prefer Lagavulin 16yr or founders All Day IPA.
Can confirm it’s the truth.













