You can even do this with three or four windows.
Windows and Linux both have what I would call “sane” window snapping ( shown here), where you drag the window to the left or right edge of the desktop to snap left or right. However, multi-tasking within the same virtual desktop (i.e., having multiple windows open side-by-side) is awful. I’m accustomed to virtual desktops on both Windows and Linux, so it was nice to see that on macOS. There is no other way to say this: window management is painful on macOS. Also, because Thunderbolt 4 has so much bandwidth (up to 40Gb/s), you really aren’t limited to what you can plug in (as long as it’s over Thunderbolt). However, the trade off is that because everything is so tightly coupled, you get better speeds than you would from traditional components that communicate over a slower bus. With the new M1 Macs, the CPU, memory, and storage are all unified, meaning they are soldered together and cannot be upgraded. The dongle meme ( one, two, three, four, five) is overplayed at this point, but it’s not wrong. What about your wired keyboard, webcam, USB DAC, or USB chargers? I bet they’re all USB-A. I can almost guarantee that you don’t have a USB-C flash drive, but you probably have ten USB-A flash drives laying around. There are zero USB-A ports on the Macbook Pro. Speaking of USB-C, if you’re buying a Macbook Pro, think about picking up a Thunderbolt or USB-C hub/dock/adapter. I know USB-C is supposed to be “one cable to rule them all”, but anyone who has tripped over their power cord while charging knows what I’m talking about. It should be a standard (like USB-C) on every laptop in existence. That being said, MagSafe is a genius idea.
The Medicore # Connectivity #Īpple decided to grace the 2021 Macbook Pro with ports that any PC laptop user has had for years (HDMI?! SD card reader?! gasp!). This means if you’re comfortable with a Linux command line, you’ll probably be just fine for about 95% of your tasks. While macOS isn’t POSIX-certified, it is Single Unix Specification UNIX 03 registered and compliant. I won’t claim to be a Unix or BSD historian, but I do know that macOS is based on Darwin, which itself is based on BSD. I can easily get through an 8-10hr day with no problems.
Battery life #ĭoes this machine actually have a battery, or there some sort of magic arc reactor inside? Seriously, the battery on this thing lasts forver, whether I’m doing work, or if the lid is closed and it’s sleeping. The M1 Pro chip sips power when asleep, but can handle anything I ask of it. The display is bright and vibrant with very deep blacks. Closing the lid feels like closing the door of a German car. The indentation where you put your finger to open the lid is so well machined that the edges are actually sharp. There isn’t a single imperfection on the finish. Holding it in your hands feels like holding a solid piece of aluminum, there isn’t a millimeter of flex. In fact, I have probably never owned anything this well-built.
Apple M1 Pro (8 performance cores and 2 efficiency cores).
These are my impressions of using a Mac for the first time.įor reference, below are the specs of the machine I am using:
A little background on me: I’ve been using Windows and Linux my entire professional life, I have been daily-driving various Linux desktops at home for 10+ years, all of my servers run Linux, but I have never used a Mac in my life. I recently started a new job where my employer provided me with a brand-new 2021 16‑inch MacBook Pro. ⚠️ Warning Apple fanboys: this is a rant ⚠️ When I migrated from WordPress to Hugo, I lost comments on this blog, but the HackerNews post has some really good discussion and recommendations that I highly encourage you to check out. I reached #3 of the front page (screenshot below) and am officially on the top 10 list for. I posted this article to that orange site and it blew up more than I expected. Below is a screenshot from my Plausible analytics setup showing the traffic spike up to almost 14k unique visitors from HackerNews (and other sources).
I typically average around 100 unique visitors to this site per day.