Apple/Work Stress

MacRS4 · 2 Feb 2021 at 00:30

How is everyone dealing with the ARM transition? I use Apple stuff for all of my things, but my day job is 100% x86 based stuff - Azure/VMWare/Office365 etc. Mostly back-end, and on the larger side too. Currently playing with a 36k seat SfB setup with Exchange for example. In fact it's pretty much all of my time - I utterly hate badly documented custom code, but anyway.

I'm at a bit of a dead end. I've such a good work-system setup with my iMac Pro(s), a couple of Minis, and my 16" pro. I know there's nothing these things do that I can't do on a Windows setup I guess, but I just don't enjoy using the actual operating environments anything like as much. I develop on 'my' kit and deploy to Azure to run (mostly), and that's when others pick up the bill (well, in an obvious way - they pick up the other bill too).

I've got used to how well everything works together, and I guess I may have some misplaced fear of going back to a time when it felt like I spent half of my day wrestling to get stuff to work properly and then just put up with the oddities.

I'm fearing over nothing I hope. I've a 17" XPS here (an i9 something or other) sat in a box I've not had a play with yet, and I suppose replacing the Minis with a VMWare Workstation equivalent (or even running Windows & VMW Workstation natively on the Minis) isn't that much of an ask.

Aware I sound like a whinging b****. Just curious how others are planning on dealing with the whole transition? It seems so consumer focused that I'm not sure what the options are.

I'm calm. They want my iMac Pro back. This does not please me.

Throrik · 2 Feb 2021 at 05:26

There's been no issue for me, but I am pretty much only managing and deploying core Infrastructure these days, VMware, Cisco and Dell/NetApp storage all of which is completely CLI/Web Based. I also manage and deploy Azure, but again with Azure being CLI/Web based too, I am happy with using PowerShell / AZ on my Mac.

Rosetta 2 emulates anything which hasn't been migrated over to ARM as of yet, and does a fantastic job of it, and the time's that I absolutely need to utilise a Windows Machine we have jumpboxes/bastion boxes which can be used should I ever need to get involved in something like the Exchange Shell or anything like that.

I don't think it's going to be a quick transition away from x86 in core business, and ARM is capable of emulating x86

shiver · 2 Feb 2021 at 09:31

Who wants your iMac Pro back?

It’s still early days, only 3 low power products have been updated to ARM and even they have SKUs that are still Intel

LiE · 2 Feb 2021 at 10:29

MacRS4 said:
It seems so consumer focused that I'm not sure what the options are.

It will do as they refresh from the bottom up. I've read a rumour that they may be using Intel for a while on their Mac Pros.

Steedie · 2 Feb 2021 at 15:23

The transition to ARM has been a bit flat for me. I do a lot of app development for people so, in that sense, it's been fine and even improved somewhat, with XCode being M1 optimised. But for my other development stuff, I've shifted everything over to my Windows machine now as the support just isn't there with the bigger apps. On my MacBook Pro's, I have Parallels with different Windows VM's running and did most of my Windows development stuff on those, but with Parallels still not having any proper versions for M1 out yet, and VS Code and VS for Mac still not having a fully released (I know they have insider builds), I've just given up waiting and the Mini is used just for the admin work on my business, so it's effectively used once or twice a week at most.

I'm not worried as I know it will be improved. This generation was always going to be a year-long beta test, and the Mac Mini was so cheap that it's not really cost much to participate in the experiment. I think those that went all-in on M1 for it to be their main machine for coding and other productive stuff, might be regretting it though

LiE · 2 Feb 2021 at 15:31

Steedie said:
The transition to ARM has been a bit flat for me. I do a lot of app development for people so, in that sense, it's been fine and even improved somewhat, with XCode being M1 optimised. But for my other development stuff, I've shifted everything over to my Windows machine now as the support just isn't there with the bigger apps. On my MacBook Pro's, I have Parallels with different Windows VM's running and did most of my Windows development stuff on those, but with Parallels still not having any proper versions for M1 out yet, and VS Code and VS for Mac still not having a fully released (I know they have insider builds), I've just given up waiting and the Mini is used just for the admin work on my business, so it's effectively used once or twice a week at most.

I'm not worried as I know it will be improved. This generation was always going to be a year-long beta test, and the Mac Mini was so cheap that it's not really cost much to participate in the experiment. I think those that went all-in on M1 for it to be their main machine for coding and other productive stuff, might be regretting it though

To be fair they have only moved over the base systems to Apple Silicon. Anyone who relies on their system for a living will likely not move over for many years, certainly not on day one.

Steedie · 2 Feb 2021 at 15:35

LiE said:
Anyone who relies on their system for a living will likely not move over for many years, certainly not on day one.

In any rational user base, sure, but this is Apple. Their fanboys will have flocked to M1 without a thought for their workflow and the practicality of it.

Looking at MacRumors comments on relevant articles, you can see there are some people who have been stung doing exactly that

Deleted member 77746 · 2 Feb 2021 at 15:37

Just hand it back, do the transition then when it doesn't work blame them because they swapped your equipment.

LiE · 2 Feb 2021 at 15:37

Steedie said:
In any rational user base, sure, but this is Apple. Their fanboys will have flocked to M1 without a thought for their workflow and the practicality of it.

Looking at MacRumors comments on relevant articles, you can see there are some people who have been stung doing exactly that

Yea there is a lot of that over on MacRumours, people trading in their high spec 16 MBP for a base M1 Air because of the hype, then realise it doesn't cut it in some areas.

Throrik · 2 Feb 2021 at 21:25

LiE said:
Yea there is a lot of that over on MacRumours, people trading in their high spec 16 MBP for a base M1 Air because of the hype, then realise it doesn't cut it in some areas.

All about understanding the requirements for doing the job - personally I think the majority of people overegg what they require. But if you need the power then yeah, stick with something with a dGPU, and something optimised more towards the traditional x86 workflow.

Fortunately, for me all I need is a Web Browser, a Terminal and Visual Studio Code.

LiE · 2 Feb 2021 at 22:03

Throrik said:
All about understanding the requirements for doing the job - personally I think the majority of people overegg what they require. But if you need the power then yeah, stick with something with a dGPU, and something optimised more towards the traditional x86 workflow.

Fortunately, for me all I need is a Web Browser, a Terminal and Visual Studio Code.

Yea all my work/development is cloud based.

Feek · 2 Feb 2021 at 22:36

I'll be looking to swap my 2017 iMac for an Mx iMac when they're released. 95% of what I do is done through macOS although I do have two VMs that I use from time to time. One is Windows for some specific ham radio software and the other is Mojave for just one 32 bit application which I really ought to ditch. I run a number of web sites and they were all developed in Adobe Muse.

I'm hoping that Parallels will be able to emulate Windows which will allow me to carry on using that VM. I'm sure it's something they'll be working on with quite a high priority.

MagicBoy · 3 Feb 2021 at 00:54

I've just ordered a 16" MBP before the Intel ones disappear. Current 15" rMBP started having some issues a couple weeks ago and there's some offers around on stock machines at the moment so I've bit. I do a fair amount of virtualisation, so an ARM Mac isn't going to cut it for my usage as things stand.

Steedie · 3 Feb 2021 at 09:13

Feek said:
I'm hoping that Parallels will be able to emulate Windows which will allow me to carry on using that VM. I'm sure it's something they'll be working on with quite a high priority.

You can use Parallels to run Windows now with their preview builds. But it only runs ARM-based Windows, and they have said that it will never run x86/x64 based Windows (unless that stance has changed since Christmas). Which is a shame

Bluecube · 3 Feb 2021 at 10:39

I’ll be upgrading my 2017 iMac when the M based iMacs are released. VMs are a slight sticking point as I’ve one fairly critical Windows based app that I need use plus Windows VMs are useful to have. My current strategy is to move my VMs to Unraid and access them remotely but I really hope a M based solution can be found.

chef-borjan · 3 Feb 2021 at 11:29

Transition is completely fine overall, Mountain Duck has eased the pain of google not getting File Stream to work correctly on M1 just yet.

Overall, the vast majority of professionals (ie people doing work on their computer to earn a living) are not using specialised software. Emails, zoom, office probably is the workload for most, and in that sense having a laptop that is fast, light and with a ridiculous battery make these a no-brainer. Assuming portability is also a factor of course.