MacBooks 💻 : What I love and What I hate

For over two and a half years now, I have been exclusively using MacBooks. For work, I have got a MacBook Pro (13 In, Intel,2020) and very recently for personal usecases, I have purchased a Macbook Air (13 In, M2, 2022). Here are my thoughts on how MacBooks and MacOS in general fared for my uses.

Hardware

Intel and M series

Intel Macs

My work laptop is a MacBook Pro 13 Inch (2020) with an Intel i7 chip and 32 gigabytes of RAM. Over the past years, I have pushed it to the limits with my usage. It handles very heavy duty work loads and is chugging along fine for now. I run a lot of stuff for work which includes

• A lot of coding in IntelliJ IDEA
• Rancher Desktop and Podman
• Running multiple containers and microservices
• Running postman, mockoon and other development apps
• A lot of chrome windows

The laptop runs fine but slows down intermittently. You can hear the fans spinning up just by opening apps. The aluminum body gets really hot. Recently, especially after Sonoma the laptop heats up like crazy. The battery lasts for 4 hours tops.

Not to mention since this is a company issued laptop, there’s a huge amount of third party spyware running in the background.

M Series

I recently purchased an M2 MacBook Air 13 Inch (2022) for personal use. It has 16 gigabytes of RAM as well. I usually prefer to buy mid-range windows laptops and install linux on it. But, I fell prey to the M-series hype which I am glad I did.

M2 is a beast. I have tried pushing it to the limits, but it just never sweats at whatever I throw at it. On top of this, the thermals are extremely good even without a fan and the battery just goes and goes without no issues. It can last a full day without a hitch. Apple has knocked it out of the park with M-series. It is night and day difference.

Software

I miss Linux

The biggest gripe I have with Macs is the software. Mac OS is pretty bad. It has got a lot of small annoyances and quirks that adds up to a bad experience.

Window Management

Window Management of Mac OS is the worst that I have ever seen. You close an app, it is not really gone. You need to quit the app to really make it go away. If I maximize a window, it ends up in the last virtual desktop. Nobody knows why. If I want to switch (alt-tab) between different apps especially across different virtual desktops, it is a pain. There is no great way to snap apps. Apps like rectangle make it better but still I expect it to be part of the kit. Really what exactly is this?

Freedom

Mac OS is extremely restrictive. Even though there are ways around it, it treats you like a kid in a candy store. This prompt summarizes my thoughts exactly.

The app selection especially with brew is good. But, I miss the high quality apps that we get for free with linux. I have to fumble around reddit to find great free and opensource apps and ensure they won’t lock me in. I have also observed that a lot of high-quality apps are subscription based which is an extra kicker.

Ecosystem

Apple has got a great ecosystem game going. If you have got other apple products, they integrate well. Even though many of the features are useful, they lock us in this walled garden. So I am extra careful in using software that are FOSS and follow common standards. A great example of this is FSNotes , an open source note taking app for Macs. It allows easy integration with git which makes my life a whole lot easier.

So, will I return my MacBook?

The answer is a No. Even with all the gripes, M-series is a beast. If MacOS gets on my nerves, then I might give Asahi Linux a try 😉.