As a general purpose machine for development / web dev, then the answer is yes, it's still worth using because it was worth using when it first launched and that didn't change.
Many guides come with instructions specifically for OSX including homebrew install commands etc. https://brew.sh/
The MBP 14' M1 laptop is a powerful, robust machine with great battery life.
If you enjoy that, first class support for all common webdev tool chains, and enjoy OSX, then it's still worth it for web dev.
An overlooked point is many courses and youtubers will be making videos using the same machine as you on OSX so it's good for that purpose as well (i.e. to learn and see the instructor using the same environment as you are.)
ESR is mostly wrong about this. He assumes that the person asking the question is not writing in good faith or that they have not considered and dismissed alternatives, without evidence. It's almost always appropriate to assume the person asked what they asked for a good reason ignore the question if you don't know the answer.
SO is plagued with this nonsense, where people answer the question they wish was posted (because it's all they know?) instead of just moving on.
I cannot recommend brew for react development (NPM). Installing NPM packages through brew is not supported by projects that require global packages. NPM installed through brew frequently runs into issues by projects that expect packages via NPM to be in /usr/local but are not symlinked. This is not even mentioning all other flaws of brew, such as owning /opt or /usr/local to your user breaking multi user support, being based on git and subsequently very slow, brew breaking on even point releases of macOS.
I recently started a job that requires react and docker so here's what works for me. Install node.js from their website, use npm to install typescript language server globally, docker binaries like Minikube suggest using `sudo install minikube`, reading the manual for `install` says it simply copies the binary over to /usr/local/bin (already in path! security issue for brew owning this to your user??). You can then use `install` for any CLI tools you need (jq!).
macOS was never designed for package managers, brew does an exceptionally poor job at being a package manager while also fighting against macOS to stay functioning. I highly recommend avoiding brew, it is certainly not a necessity nor supported by packages it hosts.
I use a M1 pro 13" ans it’s more than good enough. Some coworkers have the 14" but it’s a lot more chubby and I’m not sure the performance gain is worth the size increase unless you do more GPU work (but you would want a better GPU anyway).
I’m not using flutter but react development is very smooth on the M1, especially when you use vite.
But you absolutely need at least 16GB of ram is you use a VM or two.
I recently got a MacBook Pro with an M1 Max. So a little bit more powerful than what you're looking at. Overall I'm pretty happy with it.
I know a souped-up M2 (Likely a "M2 Max") is likely this year, but the difference between The original M1 and the M2 is so marginal that I doubt it's worth the wait for a hypothetical "M2 Max".
Is there ever a reason to go for the smaller factor? At work, we got 13" macbooks, and I wish we'd gotten the one-size-up ones. I'm a reasonably healthy human being, and can easily carry the slightly larger version - not that I do, because 99% of the time it's sitting on my desk, anyway. When I'm away from my large monitor, it irks me that I don't have more screen real-estate.
It's lighter and easier to travel with. The 16" doesn't really fit on an airplane food tray, for example, and I don't think it fits in my messenger bag either.
I've flown w/ the 14" in economy and didn't have a problem. You do have to be alert in case the passenger in the seat in front of you reclines suddenly (snatched the lid of an x60 out of the way just barely fast enough once), but it should be OK.
Now that I'm thinking about it I didn't have a problem w/ the 15" Intel either, and the dimensions are pretty similar. I'm pretty slim and short though; I don't feel like a T-Rex typing.
Are there any numbers on the difference in cooling? Is it significant? I don't generally want a laptop that large, but I have also had many laptops that run too hot in the past.
Yeah, the difference is 10-13 F. IMO it's on the edge of being uncomfortable, and it's not super easy to do (like, how often do you run Cinebench with the computer on your lap), but if it's a concern then yeah, there's a significant difference.
I'm not used to measuring computer temperatures in F, so that doesn't mean much to me (I only use it for outside temperatures pretty much). My concern would be thermal throttling as I have seen on many ThinkPads rather than it becoming a bit uncomfortable. I'll probably use my future MBP mostly stationary at a desk with the lid closed.
I am semi-regularly dealing with temperatures in the 80-90s in celcius with my ThinkPad T440p in a docking station.
From a glance at your links it looks like they didn't get anywhere near that in their testing, so I probably have nothing to worry about, but I guess when the M2 Max comes out I'll give some thought to getting the bigger model, even though I don't tend to like overly large things. With ThinkPads I would absolutely not want a numpad (often on 15" models but not 14"), but it looks like Apple doesn't put those on any laptops anyway.
What do you mean "still?" They only released a few months ago, of course they're still worth it, not like they're outdated. That being said, I got the 16" due to wanting more screen space.
Depends on what your use case is and what you consider worth.
In terms of hardware, M1s are portable, and battery life is great IF you use sparse apps that don't hog up the cpu all the time (running Slack, VSCode, and a bunch of docker containers isn't going to make your battery last anywhere close to advertised, although still respectable). The processor is great, but not significantly faster than competitors at similar price points. External monitor support sucks, external hubs are annoying, keyboard is good but not the best. Long term repairability is also probably not a thing, Apple wants you to buy a new laptop instead.
Software wise, this is personal preference on what you like/want or dislike. Personally, having used Mac OS for work on my work issued M1, I still prefer Linux every time. The two main reason is being able to run a lightweight tiling windows manager like i3wm that starts up way faster than Mac's UI, and not having to deal with permission system for things like camera, microphone, e.t.c.
If you don't travel often, I still maintain that the best possible use of 2 grand for computer is to build a desktop for around $1500, monitor included, and then get a cheap used laptop.
Of course. The M1 is already lightyears ahead of any kind of other past Macbook model. I have the Air M1 (that doesnt even have active cooling) and it's blazingly fast in anything I throw at it.
Granted, maybe it's a valid consideration for video editors and the like, but you won't notice significant differences in our line of work.
I don't work a lot with React or Flutter, but there have been few times I've run into show stopper issues getting older projects with older dependencies (mainly Python) running on M1. It's an incredible machine for the price though.
Im using it since it came out (16 GB ram, M1 Pro 10 core CPU - meaning: the middle one.), including React development - it is more than enough and a pleasure to work with. Docker is also much faster than on Intel based MBP 2015 15".
I love mine. It’s actually not that much bigger than the new M2 Air and weight is negligible for me (although difference is there). It’s the perfect form factor for the times you want to code away from your desk.
I will argue that M1 Pro 14 is not necessary for development. M2 MacBook Air is enough though if you're using docker I recommend upgrading ram to at least 16gb for the qemu VM alone.
Considering that there is nothing better out there I would definitely say yes. The M2 is incredibly thermally constrained so I wouldn't advice it for developers.
If your question is about whether to wait for the next iteration see: https://buyersguide.macrumors.com/#mac
As a general purpose machine for development / web dev, then the answer is yes, it's still worth using because it was worth using when it first launched and that didn't change.
Many guides come with instructions specifically for OSX including homebrew install commands etc. https://brew.sh/
The MBP 14' M1 laptop is a powerful, robust machine with great battery life.
If you enjoy that, first class support for all common webdev tool chains, and enjoy OSX, then it's still worth it for web dev.
An overlooked point is many courses and youtubers will be making videos using the same machine as you on OSX so it's good for that purpose as well (i.e. to learn and see the instructor using the same environment as you are.)