Apple for Development?

[DeanJ]

I was wondering if it was worth it to spend around 1250$ - 2,999$ to buy a Macbook Air or Pro just to do Software Development on it and other office tasks.

[BobVonBob]

If this is for a job, you'll probably receive a development computer from your company, or you can ask for a recommendation from your hiring manager. Go with that, since that will presumably be what most people at your company are developing on.

 

If this is for hobbyist software development, are you used to macOS or developing for the Apple ecosystem? Then buying a Macbook will probably be worth it to you. If you're more familiar with Windows/Linux, and you aren't developing for an Apple system, you'll probably prefer Windows/Linux.

[Laborant]

It depends on what you want to develop. From what I heard, for most tasks these machines work really well. Web development? Go for it. Embedded Linux device driver development with yocto-builds? Might cause problems because some SoCs require you to have a native Ubuntu. (I look at you, Nvidia). 

As I am in the same boat - thinking about switching part-time to Mac - I found this youtube channel quite useful: Alexander Ziskind - YouTube

For me, I think I wait for M2, as I technically do not really need a new machine (it can wait) and for FPGA-Design I would still need an x86 processor (that won't change in the near future I guess).

[rikitikitavi]

Unless you are using some specialized software that is platform specific, you are fine getting pretty much anything.

Apple Silicon shouldn't be a problem either, but just in case, you can google if whatever software you need is supported at this point.

Also even if a given task is platform specific, you might be able to remote access another machine for the specified task.

 

So, yes, overall it might be worth getting even the cheapest MBA M1, and the only thing you might want to upgrade is the RAM.