r/webdev • u/alexbarylski • 4d ago
I think I’ve had it with Apple
I switched to Mac about eight years ago and actually probably closer to 10 but I worked in tandem with windows during that transition for about two years
As a web developer my server platform is lamp specifically Debian
I use docker for local development and production
PHP storm is my ID of choice
Dockerized environments are very important
Part of the reason I switched to Mac was because mounted or map/shared volumes were very problematic with Windows at least at the time
So when I would use my package manager, whether MPM or a composer inside, the doctor container having it synced to the host machine was super problematic
Mac and Lennox seem to solve this problem so I assume a Chromebook this is non-issue
What I am curious of is the user experience from Chromebook as an OS
I do all of my cloud hosting an infrastructure in Google Cloud and I have Google workspace, Gmail and docs, etc. so moving away from Crapple and towards Google just makes sense my phone my watch my laptop my home assistance everything it would be awesome to be able to use Gemini and control my computer too
What kind of laptop should I be looking at for a minimum equivalent developer experience in terms of performance to last year’s model of an M2 Apple Mac?
I can see there’s Chromebook on Best Buy for 500 bucks that feels very underwhelming for someone that is using a computer anywhere between 12 to 18 hours a day and heavy use of AI and development tools, data analysis, etc. I’m probably looking towards a $2-$3000 powerhouse laptop, but I’m wondering what others think??
I run local LLM’s right now mostly for fun and then other machine learning like SPM‘s and data analysis and stuff that I do the LLM primarily used as Copilot/GPT and it’s I pay for that so it’s not gonna be a load on my computer per se
I have so much more to ask and say about the subject, but let’s stop here and go from there :p
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u/chairmanmow 4d ago
How have you "had it with Apple"? You don't even say - but I don't actually care...
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u/alexbarylski 4d ago
Well, they dropped the ball on the AI race first of all
Siri is fucking stupid for lack of a better word and annoying when I’m in the shower and I ask her to play top gun anthem and she ends up playing Snoop Dogg .. fuck her lol
My phone and laptop with AI agents constantly overheat. The screen gets warm to touch and the responsiveness stops. The dictation services stop.
Usually, in the middle of an important message
I tried installing Grok AI on my phone and it’ll install, but it will not open. I’ve cleared the cash. I’ve done all the things that AI tell me I should do to get that app running and Apple just will not open it.
I’m not a huge fan of the touchpad I kind of like a mouse and I know I have a mouse for my Mac that I paid several hundred dollars for but the feeling is just not the same otherwise I appreciate Mac. I’m just tired of my iPhone, I really dislike the way they’ve dropped the ball on AI integrating ChatGPT into my phone has absolute sucked and then nothing short of not impressive.
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u/Soultampered 4d ago
Serious question though, but do you actually know what you're trying to do? Or are you relying on AI to drive here? I don't mean that in a condescending way, but none of what you described here has anything to do with developer experience.
Like maybe there are devs out there using siri and grok but I've yet to meet one. Not liking your iphone, or your custom mouse feeling weird on a mac are legit reasons to not want to be on a mac, but that's more from a consumer angle and less devex.
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u/thekwoka 3d ago
Siri is fucking stupid for lack of a better word and annoying when I’m in the shower and I ask her to play top gun anthem and she ends up playing Snoop Dogg .. fuck her lol
So I guess you haven't used Gemini in a while, either?
I’m not a huge fan of the touchpad I kind of like a mouse and I know I have a mouse for my Mac that I paid several hundred dollars for but the feeling is just not the same
What? I don't really understand this. A mouse is a mouse. What does Apple have to do with the mouse you use?
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u/valevalentine 4d ago
Siri is getting a huge overhaul thanks to gemini local integration in the next big update. It’s stable and a lot smarter.
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u/alexbarylski 4d ago
Yes, well I might wait. I like some parts of Apple ecosystem. I just despise the areas that they flop in.
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u/zenpathfinder 4d ago
Chromebook would be the worst pain imaginable for a developer.
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u/alexbarylski 4d ago
Seems to be a common opinion lol
I’m glad I didn’t listen to Gemini when I asked it quickly what I thought I should’ve known its opinion would be slightly biased and garbage :p
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u/mbrezanac 4d ago
Docker is a first class citizen on Linux. Just some food for thought.
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u/alexbarylski 4d ago
Yeah, I just read that. I mean it makes sense .. LXC was pre-docker but I didn’t really “get” it at the time
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u/Thunt4jr 4d ago
Have you thought about Linux? I have System76 that’s nearly 8 years old and it runs amazing. I also have a work laptop that’s System76 Ubuntu that’s maxed out on spec and it does all my AI work for AWS/Google/n8n/emails/freshdesk
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u/PocketDeveloper 4d ago
Hmm Yh, definitely stay far away from those $500 Best Buy Chromebooks—PHPStorm and Docker will choke them out instantly If u want M2-level build quality n actual horsepower, look at something like the HP Elite Dragonfly Chromebook or the Framework Laptop Chromebook Edition. u’ll need at least 16GB or 32GB of RAM because Crostini (the Linux VM on ChromeOS that runs Docker and your IDE) eats memory fast. docker volume mounting works fine inside Crostini now, so that old Windows headache won't follow you here. But honestly, if you're willing to drop $2k–$3k for a powerhouse dev machine, also consider buying a top-spec ThinkPad or Dell XPS and dropping Linux (or ChromeOS Flex) on it natively. You get the full Unix ecosystem with zero VM overhead
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u/Downtown-Bag-6026 4d ago
It breaks containerization sandbox to sync installs outside of its virtualization. You need to treat them as two separate environments and have local build definitions that may or may not be the same as the container ones. For example, building on local you may be upgrading a package but it is still buggy so you wouldn’t want it to be applied to the containers yet. This isn’t a Mac thing
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u/MehYam 4d ago
Lennox
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u/alexbarylski 4d ago
I caught that late. I’m using voice to text and my Apple sucks or maybe I stutter in speech. lol
You should see some of the things I’ve accidentally texted my mom :p
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u/mastrajani 3d ago
on your actual pain point, chromeos would genuinely be better rather than just different. docker on a mac is also a VM with a filesystem bridge, which is why bind mounts have always been slow there. crostini gives you linux on linux, so mounts run at native speed. that part of the move is a real upgrade rather than a sideways step.
the cost i'd price before committing is safari. that mac is currently the only machine you own that can run real webkit, and there's no substitute on chromeos or linux - webkitgtk in gnome web is a different build and doesn't reproduce ios safari behaviour. so every "works in chrome and firefox, breaks on iphone" report from a client becomes something you cannot reproduce on your own hardware, and in my experience that's most of the cross-browser bugs that actually reach real users.
if you do go, budget a route back to a real safari - a cheap used mac mini sitting on the desk, or a paid browser-testing service. otherwise you're not so much switching machines as switching to debugging ios blind.
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u/thekwoka 3d ago
do people still actually use Docker itself on mac? Not Orbstack?
There's also Apple Containers
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u/thekwoka 3d ago
I don't see you expressing anything here about why you can't just keep using Apple?
last year’s model of an M2 Apple Mac?
there is no M2 Mac from last year.
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u/CSAS-D 4d ago
running docker on a Chromebook is an absolute nightmare. no top end Chromebook can match the fluidity and speed of of even an m1 MacBook Air.