Ask HN: Windows 10 WSL2 or Macbook Pro M1??
13 comments
> as opposed to an M1 Macbook Pro which has the same hardware specs as the Windows but costs twice as much?
Maybe if you squint the specs look the "same" on paper, but there isn't an Intel laptop out there that will even come close to the M1 in terms of performance, battery life, and thermal management.
Maybe if you squint the specs look the "same" on paper, but there isn't an Intel laptop out there that will even come close to the M1 in terms of performance, battery life, and thermal management.
Well, I rather meant the screen quality, keyboard and build quality etc.
I'm aware that there is no other CPU that offers the same performance per watt as the M1 does, but it looks like the latest Ryzen and The Intel Evo CPUs have come a long way.
I'm aware that there is no other CPU that offers the same performance per watt as the M1 does, but it looks like the latest Ryzen and The Intel Evo CPUs have come a long way.
I'm guessing you haven't ever laid hands upon or used a MBP. The screen quality and build quality are untouchable as well.
Keyboard is definitely a personal choice, and Apple had a multi-year stretch of terrible keyboards, but they're back to being good IMO.
I have both a new Dell XPS 15 with Intel i7 and a 16" M1 MBP on my desk right now... it's really no comparison. You really need to base it on whether you need Windows-specific software or you simply prefer it. Even some of the Windows/x86 apps I need turn out to run without issue with Windows 11 for ARM via Parallels Desktop on the M1...
Keyboard is definitely a personal choice, and Apple had a multi-year stretch of terrible keyboards, but they're back to being good IMO.
I have both a new Dell XPS 15 with Intel i7 and a 16" M1 MBP on my desk right now... it's really no comparison. You really need to base it on whether you need Windows-specific software or you simply prefer it. Even some of the Windows/x86 apps I need turn out to run without issue with Windows 11 for ARM via Parallels Desktop on the M1...
"I'm guessing you haven't ever laid hands upon or used a MBP"
Nope, my work forces macbook pros upon all of us and I've been using one with an Intel CPU for years. I don't like it because it's constantly going off (the fans always spinning), and gets insanely hot. It also slows down a good deal for anything intensive. I never liked it really.
I don't like Mac OsX all that much either and felt they have a weird ux,but that's not a deal breaker though. More than anything the fact that wsl performance on windows is close to bare metal seems to entice me a bit
Nope, my work forces macbook pros upon all of us and I've been using one with an Intel CPU for years. I don't like it because it's constantly going off (the fans always spinning), and gets insanely hot. It also slows down a good deal for anything intensive. I never liked it really.
I don't like Mac OsX all that much either and felt they have a weird ux,but that's not a deal breaker though. More than anything the fact that wsl performance on windows is close to bare metal seems to entice me a bit
Yeah, one of my personal laptops is a 2019 16" MBP with Intel i9. It's hot, loud, and slow. Just like the work issued XPS 15.
This is what I am worried about. If it's anywhere the same with M1 then I would just rather bail out of Macbooks and go straight to Windows.
That's what I was saying in my first post though. The M1 suffers none of this. It's playing in a different league than other laptops.
I've been on a Macbook since 2015 and have been on an i5 thinkpad for a year now..
my experience - on paper the thinkpad is decent. i5 1.8Ghz (upto 3.4Ghz) and 16GB RAM. But in practice its always constrained by power and heat so it never reaches those boost speeds. It frequently gets laggy running a light backend workload (webserver/client/message queue/redis) + IDE. The trackpad and display is also not as good as a macbook. The build quality isn't bad by any means though, everything is solid and works well. I don't like Windows but thats personal preference.
On a windows laptop, you have to really do your research on which laptop in particular, look at how much power and cooling that specific laptop can do w.r.t the CPU, because without that the CPU alone does not mean anything. this is the kind of stuff i generally don't have to worry about on a Mac. I would get a Mac..
my experience - on paper the thinkpad is decent. i5 1.8Ghz (upto 3.4Ghz) and 16GB RAM. But in practice its always constrained by power and heat so it never reaches those boost speeds. It frequently gets laggy running a light backend workload (webserver/client/message queue/redis) + IDE. The trackpad and display is also not as good as a macbook. The build quality isn't bad by any means though, everything is solid and works well. I don't like Windows but thats personal preference.
On a windows laptop, you have to really do your research on which laptop in particular, look at how much power and cooling that specific laptop can do w.r.t the CPU, because without that the CPU alone does not mean anything. this is the kind of stuff i generally don't have to worry about on a Mac. I would get a Mac..
> an M1 Macbook Pro which has the same hardware specs as the Windows
Whatever Windows laptop you get won't have the same hardware specs as the M1 Macbook simply because no one is selling M1 hardware with Windows on it. (Hobbiest have put Windows on an M1 Macbook, but I don't think that's what you're proposing here)
In my experience, people buy Macbooks because either they like the build quality, they like something specific about the hardware (i.e. they specifically want an M1 chip), or they like the MacOS system.
People buy Windows machines because it's what they're familiar with, or they have a specific need for the Windows OS (generally because of games).
(I know both these comments are wide generalizations, but I think they work for the purpose of this post)
It sounds like you aren't falling into either category. I can tell you what I would do personally, but you are not me, so I'm not sure that my recommendation is going to be worth anything to you.
Whatever Windows laptop you get won't have the same hardware specs as the M1 Macbook simply because no one is selling M1 hardware with Windows on it. (Hobbiest have put Windows on an M1 Macbook, but I don't think that's what you're proposing here)
In my experience, people buy Macbooks because either they like the build quality, they like something specific about the hardware (i.e. they specifically want an M1 chip), or they like the MacOS system.
People buy Windows machines because it's what they're familiar with, or they have a specific need for the Windows OS (generally because of games).
(I know both these comments are wide generalizations, but I think they work for the purpose of this post)
It sounds like you aren't falling into either category. I can tell you what I would do personally, but you are not me, so I'm not sure that my recommendation is going to be worth anything to you.
Well, go for it! Your recommendation is still valuable to me. I'm in a haze and insights like these are more helpful than you think!
I'm using both. My PC runs on Windows (9900XE 18 cores/ 36 threads /w nvidia RTX A6000) and Macbook Pro M1 Max. Both are 64GB ram. Windows crashes too much and needs constant updates (and will update in the middle of the night which messes up everything) while my Macbook rarely needs a restart and it will ask you rather than automatically update.
For me, it comes down to the OS and I'm running docker on both. WSL2 runs fine but again... constant updates and restarts. It just too much hassle.
Of course, if you go Ubuntu or *nix, sure you can have stability / less restarts on PC. But the developer experience on my Macbook will always be a better experience. Its just less hassle and less frustration/anxiety. I'm on my third Macbook (my first was in since 2006) and so far none of them have had hardware issues other than battery (easily replaceable).
For me, it comes down to the OS and I'm running docker on both. WSL2 runs fine but again... constant updates and restarts. It just too much hassle.
Of course, if you go Ubuntu or *nix, sure you can have stability / less restarts on PC. But the developer experience on my Macbook will always be a better experience. Its just less hassle and less frustration/anxiety. I'm on my third Macbook (my first was in since 2006) and so far none of them have had hardware issues other than battery (easily replaceable).
Thank you for the insight. Much appreciated. Sad to know windows updates is still a problem after 10 years lol
This actually quite strange- I run 2 laptops with Windows Insider (beta releases) and I reboot once 2-3 weeks because of updates. From time to time, they may have updates spree, like near release dates, but it's couple times per year I think.
Cannot say I'm bothered by updates at all. On stable builds it should happen even less often.
Cannot say I'm bothered by updates at all. On stable builds it should happen even less often.
Been debating between the two but wanted to get ideas from folks here who have had experience with both!
What are the cons of going with a Windows 10 with WSL2 (i7-1260p) machine as opposed to an M1 Macbook Pro which has the same hardware specs as the Windows but costs twice as much?
Is there anything only possible on the Macbook and not possible on the Windows machine? (Except for iOS-specific development)
Thanks!