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Comment by rvz | Hacker News Reader

It would have made sense to simply ignore the M1 hype altogether since the tools you require do not work / run on ARM, or run worse than on Intel, you're better off staying on Intel to wait until the situation for VMs in Apple Silicon improves first: [0].

For developers using VMs, Docker, multi-pass, etc I think it is more trouble than it is worth to jump on to the new shiny thing and invest time in workarounds that break on a new update. At least you weren't part of the November 2020 launch day chaos otherwise you would be waiting 6 months to do any work if you went all in on the M1.

Looks like Intel is (still) the way to go for VMs until Apple Silicon gets better (eventually).

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26159495

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Intel MacBook supplies are decreasing which has actually caused them to go up in price. In a few years they will be difficult to get. Any company which uses MacBooks is going to have to make the switch at some point - better sooner than later.

Also, the post you linked is over a year old and the situation has changed since.

When I first joined my current employer late November/early December (employee 1 with an M1), we could not source Intel directly from Apple. The only option was to purchase a refurbished device.

If you aren't ready to switch to ARM, consider Linux.

> Also, the post you linked is over a year old and the situation has changed since.

Yes. Exactly. It tells us that had the OP jumped all in to Apple Silicon since the day it launched, then they would have been waiting months to do their work. Little of the software from Intel was actually working in November 2020.

Thus, the sensible and smart action to do was wait and stick to Intel. By the time the software ecosystem caught up to Apple Silicon, the M2 Macbooks were announced meaning that they can upgrade directly to M2, skipping the M1 altogether with more working software than on release day.

I use Docker and Colima constantly on M1 and have had very few issues. Granted, my use case for those things is probably quite simple compared to someone in Ops.

For web development, I believe that Apple Silicon is really the place to be right now (especially if you also work on design projects!)

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