The M1 Air is a wonder as far as I'm concerned. It's very thin and light, fanless, yet I can happily do java dev on it all day and I'm not lacking in capability or waiting around for build and test runs. It rocks.
I have docker-desktop for the things I need it for - building the odd linux native image, or running testcontainers for postgres, same as we do when building on linux - and it works great.
I have an M1 Air where I max out the 16G RAM all the time. It works because swap works painlessly for me, but I would have been really, really happy with 24G (or better 32G). It works but I have unfortunately no breathing room in RAM.
Often, I use 11-18G, rarely I use 20-50G.
Definitely go for M2 Air if you like the form factor (I prefer the M1 Air’s form factor though).
I've got a maxed out ram M2 that I use for development.
I run Linux in Parallels with 16gb allocated and it runs great at around 50% memory pressure. MacOS compresses the memory that Linux doesn't use and it runs amazing.
We have slightly different use cases as I prefer developing in Linux as opposed to MacOS, but I'd imagine you would be fine depending on how actually memory intensive your containers are?
The thermal throttling the reviews complain about isn't a problem for me, though I prioritize power usage over raw power since I often run it off of solar.
So far I haven't noticed any issues with the 16GB in my air, but then I haven't really been looking for them either. I run a couple of containers in docker desktop, my IDE (IntelliJ) and its builds/test-runs etc, a browser with a doze or so tabs, but little else of any particular 'weight'.
I have heard anecdotal reports of those on 8GB machines facing the spinning beachball from time to time. It's never happened to me.
The only person doing that kind of content is Alex Ziskind. He compares various dev tools, build times, ML tools across Apple Silicon, Intel or Mac and PCs.
I think a lot of the macbook air's popularity comes from it being the cheapest macbook. Some people want an apple and dont have 2-3k to spend on a laptop.
I've got a sleek option because lugging around a brick is a miserable experience. There's a qualitative difference between the XPS 13 that I can whip out on the train, and a desktop replacement laptop that is heavy and big enough to be a bother and barely fits in my backpack.
Power isn't really an issue - I'm never far from an outlet, and I could carry an external battery in a backpack pocket if it really bothered me.
Then make that a segment and stop enforcing your unrealistic expectations on the rest of us finally.
Oh wait, it already is but you don’t. I routinely engage in comment sections where a highly juiced up desktop CPU is derided for it’s “heat output” and other such nonsense.
