2022 M2 Macbook Air Owners Thread (1 Viewer)

[Ronald Epstein]

So, I did something I am not sure I'll regret...

Sold my 2021 12.9" iPad Pro (5th generation)

Bought my first Macbook Air for travel purposes, leaving my 16" MBP and Studio at home.

I am only using it for lightweight work while on the road, but knowing that, I couldn't bring myself to go with the base 8 GB model.

I always look long-term with my Apple purchases. I went with a 13" 10-Core 16GB/512 configuration.

I would have gone with just 256GB and 8-core, but the problem is, those configurations are sold out everywhere and I need a computer next week as I am traveling.

It's something that should future-proof me for several years as a travel computer. I wasn't interested in the 15" as I already have the 16" MBP powerhouse and I wanted something ultra-portable and lightweight.

Ultimately, I got frustrated with the iPad Pro as a travel computer. While I can do everything with an iPad that I can do on a Mac, the process is more cumbersome. It's always a matter of having to find a different method of getting things done. Of course, in the process, I lose an HD screen but I feel more at home with Mac OS than I do iPad OS.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Interesting choice that sounds like makes perfect sense... and congrats, Ron!

IIRC, you probably don't want the base model 13" MB Air anyway due to the (sorta hidden) lower spec of the hardware.

I may end up considering a 15" MB Air at some point myself (for my 1st foray into MacOS, not counting my college days over 3 decades ago when their underlying OS was completely different, LOL). Not sure.

Anyhoo, congrats again!

_Man_

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Interesting choice that sounds like makes perfect sense... and congrats, Ron!

IIRC, you probably don't want the base model 13" MB Air anyway due to the (sorta hidden) lower spec of the hardware.

I may end up considering a 15" MB Air at some point myself (for my 1st foray into MacOS, not counting my college days over 3 decades ago when their underlying OS was completely different, LOL). Not sure.

Anyhoo, congrats again!

_Man_

Thanks, Man. That was another concern about the 8GB model. The SSD is slower than the higher-spec models as you have indicated.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

First day using the MacBook Air and I am really happy with the device.

It's incredibly light and portable which is exactly what I needed to take traveling. As much as I will miss my iPad Pro, I am already way more productive with Mac OS and its file system.

I knew, knowing this was only a travel computer -and- I was limited with 16GB of memory, that I would have to be careful about how much stuff I allowed to load at startup. I was conservative with my choices.

One of the things Apple NEVER talked about -- and for good reason -- is that the amount of memory you need with their silicon machines is completely different than Intel. This was something that took some time for everyone to realize. 8GB is unheard of on a Windows machine. On Silicon, I am assuming you can just about double the capacity of what you purchase. So, 16GB on my device is probably equal to 32GB. I am sure I am off a bit on that approximation but you get the picture.

In the end this was my reading from iStat Menus:






So, with everything loaded and using Safari, I still have just under 6GB of memory FREE and the drive is not swapping yet.

I do see occasional CPU spikes. "softwareupdated" seems to be running rather high at over 100%. Will need to see what that is.

Maybe one of you has a better idea about these readings than I would. I am very amateur at that kind of stuff.

 

[Thomas Newton]

SU-Daemon(8)              BSD System Manager's Manual             SU-Daemon(8)

NAME
     softwareupdated

SYNOPSIS
     softwareupdated -- macOS Software Update daemon

DESCRIPTION
     softwareupdated is the main daemon responsible for running software
     updates.

SEE ALSO
     softwareupdate(8)
     softwareupdate_firstrun_tasks(8)
     softwareupdate_download_service(8)
     suhelperd(8)

https://iboysoft.com/wiki/softwareupdated-mac.html

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

^Ha! That "d" at the end of softwareupdated apparently stands for "daemon" -- was wondering about that. So very (BSD) Unix of them (still), hehheh...

And yeah, that reference page info reminds me so much of the old "man" pages in (all flavors of) Unix, heh...

It's been ages (maybe at least a dozen years or so?) since I last touched anything Unix...

_Man_

 

[Ronald Epstein]

^Ha! That "d" at the end of softwareupdated apparently stands for "daemon" -- was wondering about that. So very (BSD) Unix of them (still), hehheh...

And yeah, that reference page info reminds me so much of the old "man" pages in (all flavors of) Unix, heh...

It's been ages (maybe at least a dozen years or so?) since I last touched anything Unix...

_Man_

Man,

Thanks, my friend. I shouldn't have been so lazy and just looked it up myself.

Seems like all the fixes are temporary. It's a needed process to update software. Now that I am sitting here on my 16" MBP, I see the CPU levels running a bit high as well, though for other things. So, CPU spikes are normal and it doesn't seem to be affecting the speed of the laptop.

 

[Robert Saccone]

First day using the MacBook Air and I am really happy with the device.

It's incredibly light and portable which is exactly what I needed to take traveling. As much as I will miss my iPad Pro, I am already way more productive with Mac OS and its file system.

I knew, knowing this was only a travel computer -and- I was limited with 16GB of memory, that I would have to be careful about how much stuff I allowed to load at startup. I was conservative with my choices.

One of the things Apple NEVER talked about -- and for good reason -- is that the amount of memory you need with their silicon machines is completely different than Intel. This was something that took some time for everyone to realize. 8GB is unheard of on a Windows machine. On Silicon, I am assuming you can just about double the capacity of what you purchase. So, 16GB on my device is probably equal to 32GB. I am sure I am off a bit on that approximation but you get the picture.

In the end this was my reading from iStat Menus:

View attachment 187966

View attachment 187967


So, with everything loaded and using Safari, I still have just under 6GB of memory FREE and the drive is not swapping yet.

I do see occasional CPU spikes. "softwareupdated" seems to be running rather high at over 100%. Will need to see what that is.

Maybe one of you has a better idea about these readings than I would. I am very amateur at that kind of stuff.

Glad you are enjoying the new Mac Book Air. What we can say about memory management on Apple Silicon is that it is much more efficient than memory management on other platforms, Intel in particular for a number of reasons. First is the processor - memory architecture (https://www.quora.com/What-makes-Apple-M1s-memory-management-more-efficient-than-that-of-Intel-Macs). Second the page size on Apple Silicon is 16KB compared to Intel's 4K page size default (which is typically used by most OS as the standard page size). This page size difference on Apple Silicon results in more efficiency in the virtual memory manager subsystem given the size of memory used in today's system. Apple will also takes memory that isn't being used by applications (i.e. hasn't been referenced in a long time) and compresses it. Compressing it means it occupies less space and that frees up some memory for other uses. Once the memory is compressed should it need to be written to disc to free up the space entirely the write to disk will be more efficient than if it wasn't compressed. And if it does need to bring it back into memory the read from disk will also be quicker. You do pay the cost of the processing time it takes to do the compression / decompression but my suspicion is that they have a hardware accelerator onboard that it makes it very fast and efficient. (That's what we did at IBM when we're doing something similar in the Power Processor). MacOS does the same memory compression on Intel but my guess is that it is done it isn't as efficient as what can be done on Apple Silicon.
In the end you can't make a general statement that X amount of memory is equal to 2 X on another platform (Intel in this case) because if your workload requires 2X memory you'll just end up swapping if you only have X but I think we can say due to the efficiencies of the Apple's hardware and software platform you likely need less memory to run that same workload than on an equivalent Intel based Mac. However the actual amount of memory saved needs to be considered on a workload by workload basis. If I have 16GB of data to be processed and my app needs it all in memory at the same time then if run it on an M based system that only has 8GB then my system is going to be spend a good amount of time swapping things in and out. It more do it more efficiently but there's no magic that let's it hold all 16GB in main memory in an accessible manner.

I think you did the right thing by going with 16GB as anything less is probably not going to be give satisfactory performance down the road even for general use machine.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Yeah, basically, treat that extra efficiency as a bonus (though significant) improvement, but don't go skimping on memory for what you actually need to do when/where it counts most.

Of course, there seems so much great (giant leap in) improvement of Apple's M series architecture over the old Intel one for MacOS, so it's probably easy to think maybe one could skimp on the memory afterall... but if it were me, no, don't really skimp... though maybe you just don't need to double what you likely actually need like you used to worry in the past... but OTOH, you also can't just add more RAM like before either, so...

_Man_

 

[Sam Posten]

$100 off the m2 air but the m1 air is down to an astonishing $799.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

So, I am sitting here near the pool, on a cruise ship, in the middle of the Atlantic, with my new Macbook Air on my lap.

I am completely impressed and in love with this device and it reminds me why I am obsessed with Apple products.

This is such a well-constructed portable machine that has been extremely lightweight to carry and once it sits on your lap, is such a joy to use.

This little guy has been extremely quick and responsive while browsing the web and doing small tasks. It's impossible at this level of use to differentiate it from my M1 Max Macbook Pro. I would ditch that Macbook Pro completely for this baby if not for the fact that I want a powerhouse laptop at my disposal.

Just wanted to post and say that I am amazed by this laptop. It was worth selling my iPad Pro for it as I prefer OS X over iPAD OS.

 

[dpippel]

Geez Ron, I guess it just sucks to be you! Enjoy the rest of your trip!

 

[DaveF]

So, I am sitting here near the pool, on a cruise ship, in the middle of the Atlantic, with my new Macbook Air on my lap.

I am completely impressed and in love with this device and it reminds me why I am obsessed with Apple products.

This is such a well-constructed portable machine that has been extremely lightweight to carry and once it sits on your lap, is such a joy to use.

This little guy has been extremely quick and responsive while browsing the web and doing small tasks. It's impossible at this level of use to differentiate it from my M1 Max Macbook Pro. I would ditch that Macbook Pro completely for this baby if not for the fact that I want a powerhouse laptop at my disposal.

Just wanted to post and say that I am amazed by this laptop. It was worth selling my iPad Pro for it as I prefer OS X over iPAD OS.

How’s internet access on the ship (speed and price)? We’re doing a Christmas cruise, and haven’t done one since 2015 when cruise internet was $$$ and slow. Hoping 2023 cruise ship wifi is affordable and decent.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Based on the ship's SpaceX Starlink connection, I am paying for premium Internet (top tier) for the entire week.

Connection in port and at sea has been consistent as shown above.

Surprisingly, at this speed, webpage loads are relatively quick to the point I never feel that I am struggling with the connection.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

This article really hits home

Giving up the iPad-only travel dream

Every time any of us packs a bag, we are making some very specific tech-focused decisions. It starts with what devices we need (or can live without) and cascades into charging bricks and cords and …

sixcolors.com

The best thing I did this year was sell my 12.9" iPad Pro and use that money to buy the 13" Macbook Air

It's so much easier to use when traveling as desktop apps are far easier to use than their mobile counterparts. And, I can drag files to and from the desktop with ease.

I don't miss my iPad one bit.

 

[Robert Saccone]

This article really hits home

Giving up the iPad-only travel dream

Every time any of us packs a bag, we are making some very specific tech-focused decisions. It starts with what devices we need (or can live without) and cascades into charging bricks and cords and …

sixcolors.com

The best thing I did this year was sell my 12.9" iPad Pro and use that money to buy the 13" Macbook Air

It's so much easier to use when traveling as desktop apps are far easier to use than their mobile counterparts. And, I can drag files to and from the desktop with ease.

I don't miss my iPad one bit.

I've had an iPad since its introduction way back when. I don't disagree with your sentiments as I fully expected Apple to evolve the table computing experience much more quickly than it has. As an Apple developer my (pipe) dream was to see the iPad Pro supplant the Mac for most use cases including offering Xcode support so it could be used as my main development system. Unfortunately none of this has happened.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

I've had an iPad since its introduction way back when. I don't disagree with your sentiments as I fully expected Apple to evolve the table computing experience much more quickly than it has. As an Apple developer my (pipe) dream was to see the iPad Pro supplant the Mac for most use cases including offering Xcode support so it could be used as my main development system. Unfortunately none of this has happened.

It's hard to debate this issue since it seems that Steve Jobs had always intended for the iPad and Mac to be two separate entities.

Over the years, Apple certainly has made strides to bring both devices closer together with the introduction of iPad OS, but at the same time, it remained clear that each device would serve its own purpose.

With every new update of iPad OS, the reviews remain the same where everyone gives accolades for the advances made, but at the same time point out the shortcomings that it isn't as fluent to use as Mac OS.

I really loved my iPad and it could absolutely be used in place of a desktop for my needs. However, it involved finding compromises and more time-consuming workarounds.

It seems to me that Apple could just give everyone the device they want by putting Mac OS on the iPad or like Microsoft, making a touchscreen Mac. However, in doing so, it would eliminate the need for consumers to buy both devices. At least that's my personal viewpoint on the situation.

 

[Rodney]

Thanks for the link to the article. Yeah, the few times I have tried to travel with just the iPad has been frustration over not having my MBP as opposed to traveling lighter. They really are for two different purposes.

 

[Clinton McClure]

I’ve always viewed the iPad as a really big iPod touch and nothing more. It’s designed primarily as a media consumption device and that’s all I ever use mine for.

 

[Robert Saccone]

It's hard to debate this issue since it seems that Steve Jobs had always intended for the iPad and Mac to be two separate entities.

Over the years, Apple certainly has made strides to bring both devices closer together with the introduction of iPad OS, but at the same time, it remained clear that each device would serve its own purpose.

With every new update of iPad OS, the reviews remain the same where everyone gives accolades for the advances made, but at the same time point out the shortcomings that it isn't as fluent to use as Mac OS.

I really loved my iPad and it could absolutely be used in place of a desktop for my needs. However, it involved finding compromises and more time-consuming workarounds.

It seems to me that Apple could just give everyone the device they want by putting Mac OS on the iPad or like Microsoft, making a touchscreen Mac. However, in doing so, it would eliminate the need for consumers to buy both devices. At least that's my personal viewpoint on the situation.

I think you are right. As long as Apple doesn't feel the need to merge them they probably do figure keep both around and many will buy both. However, if something comes along that compels them to merge the two I think they will cannibalize one for the other.