Anyone use a Macbook Air for development purposes?

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tzhu07

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I'm likely on the verge of buying a new laptop, and I'm very enticed by the portability of the Air over the heavier but more powerful Pro line.

I only plan on doing web development work on my laptop, so I feel like a Pro's power would just go to waste.

Not to mention I already have a powerful desktop as my main machine.
 
I know lots of people who do development on an Air. Extremely light and portable with an excellent keyboard, it is really good for that kind of thing.
 
If you already have a powerful desktop, than a lightweight portable would probably compliment your setup well. If all you're doing is just coding (not graphics intensive work) then the Air will fit the bill, and in fact with the new models with the i5/i7 and 4+ GB of RAM are plenty quick, faster than lots of entry level regular sized laptops.

Still, basic Photoshop and Illustrator stuff will be "workable" on an Air. It won't scream, but it shouldn't be so slow that you want to cry. This is especially true if you get the i7 and 8GB of RAM (which I figure is worth it since both items are not upgradeable).
 
I use a 2011 i5 with 4gb ram everyday at work. I have no trouble developing and have never found the system to be slow. Even opening large 200mb+ PSD files doesn't seem to slow it down. Would definitely recommend an air for dev work.
 
The most intensive program I'll use is Photoshop. And even with that, web design comps tend to be on the smaller side in terms of file size.

I don't care for running VMs either. My desktop can take care of that.

If I buy the Air, I'm not sure if I even need to upgrade to 8GB of RAM. I don't like to leave a ton of apps running at the same time.
 
tzhu07 said:
The most intensive program I'll use is Photoshop. And even with that, web design comps tend to be on the smaller side in terms of file size.

I don't care for running VMs either. My desktop can take care of that.

If I buy the Air, I'm not sure if I even need to upgrade to 8GB of RAM. I don't like to leave a ton of apps running at the same time.
Click to expand...

I have the 2012 with 4gb RAM and ive found even with fusion running win8 up ive been able to work with lightroom and other apps on spaces simultaneously without any slowdown issues.
 
tzhu07 said:
The most intensive program I'll use is Photoshop. And even with that, web design comps tend to be on the smaller side in terms of file size.

I don't care for running VMs either. My desktop can take care of that.

If I buy the Air, I'm not sure if I even need to upgrade to 8GB of RAM. I don't like to leave a ton of apps running at the same time.
Click to expand...

I find myself going over, and I do use VM's every now and then. I think shelling out an extra 100 though for ram that can't be upgraded is not a bad investment though.
 
The 2012 11" Air is the best laptop I've ever owned. I topped mine out with 8GB of RAM and the upgraded CPU and with that I can comfortably run Xcode, Chrome with many tabs open, Windows 7 in Parallels (configured to use 4GB RAM) running IIS, Visual Studio 2012, and MySQL.

My biggest complaint is that there is seemingly no way to disable USB charging, so if you want to write objective c and debug on an actual device without being plugged into the wall, you're going to drain your battery very quickly. Seems like a simple thing for Apple to implement a fix for.
 
My advice for anyone like the OP but running VM's is to get an Air with the biggest SSD you can afford. Make no mistake about it, the SSD makes the lack of ram unnoticeable until you evaluate your virtual memory usage.

OSX like Windows acts all sorts of crazy when it doesn't have space for virtual memory (Kernal Panics, OS Corruption.) VM's are quite punishing to SSDs especially SSDs near max capacity. (Go 256 or 512.)

First couple of months running a mac book pro I was happy with a 160 GB Gen 3 Intel thinking the ram was plenty and everything was fine. Until the Win 7 VM required more space (temp + VS2008 + VS2010 + Libraries + Office since some of the OSX Office apps suck etc...) Unless you're lugging around an external get the 8GB + 256 SSD.
 
martinmsj said:
My advice for anyone like the OP but running VM's is to get an Air with the biggest SSD you can afford. Make no mistake about it, the SSD makes the lack of ram unnoticeable until you evaluate your virtual memory usage.

OSX like Windows acts all sorts of crazy when it doesn't have space for virtual memory (Kernal Panics, OS Corruption.) VM's are quite punishing to SSDs especially SSDs near max capacity. (Go 256 or 512.)

First couple of months running a mac book pro I was happy with a 160 GB Gen 3 Intel thinking the ram was plenty and everything was fine. Until the Win 7 VM required more space (temp + VS2008 + VS2010 + Libraries + Office since some of the OSX Office apps suck etc...) Unless you're lugging around an external get the 8GB + 256 SSD.
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While I agree with you, I had this same thought until I researched the cost of fast USB3 thumb drives. The storage expansion in the Air is quite pricey, and with the constant reduction in cost of flash/SSD storage you can easily pop a VM (or even just the swap) on to a fast USB stick or drive and save cash in the long run. Getting the 128 GB Air over the 64 GB is a no brainer at an extra $100, but beyond that you're looking at +$300 for 256 and +$800 for 512. Granted, the drives in the Air are quicker than most of the fastest USB3 drives you can get today, but we all know that will change.

I'd examine my usage after the first few months and then consider something like this.
 
I love the Air's, the newest gen are pretty solid too. I've developed solely from the 1st gen and an external monitor, though I found I ended up with a few external drives. So as noted above, grab as much storage as possible without breaking the bank. You can always grab one of the cheap SSD deals from the forums and then grab a USB3 external enclosure from kingwin. I have a few 120GB intel setups specifically for Virtual Machines (though I have to confess that i'm using 2 Retina MBP's as my only systems now). Luckily work payed for them :D

The only major gripe I ever had was the display resolution, which if you're at a desk with a monitor isn't really of concern.

FYI you can always buy after market Air SSD's herehttp://http://macsales.com/
 
Taikero said:
Linus Torvalds does. He talks about why here:

http://techcrunch.com/2012/04/19/an-interview-with-millenium-technology-prize-finalist-linus-torvalds/
Click to expand...

Very cool.

Here's what he said about the Air:

"That said, I’m have to admit being a bit baffled by how nobody else seems to have done what Apple did with the Macbook Air – even several years after the first release, the other notebook vendors continue to push those ugly and *clunky* things. Yes, there are vendors that have tried to emulate it, but usually pretty badly. I don’t think I’m unusual in preferring my laptop to be thin and light.

Btw, even when it comes to Apple, it’s really just the Air that I think is special. The other apple laptops may be good-looking, but they are still the same old clunky hardware, just in a pretty dress.

I’m personally just hoping that I’m ahead of the curve in my strict requirement for “small and silent”. It’s not just laptops, btw – Intel sometimes gives me pre-release hardware, and the people inside Intel I work with have learnt that being whisper-quiet is one of my primary requirements for desktops too. I am sometimes surprised at what leaf-blowers some people seem to put up with under their desks.

I want my office to be quiet. The loudest thing in the room – by far – should be the occasional purring of the cat. And when I travel, I want to travel light. A notebook that weighs more than a kilo is simply not a good thing (yeah, I’m using the smaller 11″ macbook air, and I think weight could still be improved on, but at least it’s very close to the magical 1kg limit)."
 
Very cool indeed and one of the reasons why i sold my 13" pro for 13" air. If I'm going to spend $1000+ on a laptop it should be unique and subjectively worth it.
 
Man, this is super tempting. I am finishing my Comp Sci degree this year, and I have been looking into treating myself a little upon graduation with a "big boy" laptop, lol :) I do a lot of work in Visual Studio, which has been part of what has held me back from just picking up some version of a Mac. I noticed you guys mentioned VM's on a USB3 flash drive. Is that a viable option? What kind of performance hit are you taking by doing this?

If it is feasible, I would definitely consider picking up an Air, otherwise, I am probably going toward a Lenovo X230 (something I could max out the RAM in and change out the hard disk, etc.).
 
sniggle said:
While I agree with you, I had this same thought until I researched the cost of fast USB3 thumb drives. The storage expansion in the Air is quite pricey, and with the constant reduction in cost of flash/SSD storage you can easily pop a VM (or even just the swap) on to a fast USB stick or drive and save cash in the long run. Getting the 128 GB Air over the 64 GB is a no brainer at an extra $100, but beyond that you're looking at +$300 for 256 and +$800 for 512. Granted, the drives in the Air are quicker than most of the fastest USB3 drives you can get today, but we all know that will change.

I'd examine my usage after the first few months and then consider something like this.
Click to expand...

The USB3 does help and I wish my MBP13 had it (wasn't available with Sandy Bridge, thus I'm on USB 2.0)

However, I still highly suggest going 256. Take 20% of the drive off the total storage and that's where you want to keep it without going over to maintain performance/health and keep OSX/Win 7 happy. It can be done if you're strict and take advantage of USB3 and cheap SSD drives to put into the enclosures. It will be a balancing act all around.

If this is a personal + school + work machine, 128 is going to be real tight. (<Insert what ever deity you believe in insert here> help you if you have filevault enabled while running at/near full capacity especially if its sandforce based.)
 
Deinos said:
Man, this is super tempting. I am finishing my Comp Sci degree this year, and I have been looking into treating myself a little upon graduation with a "big boy" laptop, lol :) I do a lot of work in Visual Studio, which has been part of what has held me back from just picking up some version of a Mac. I noticed you guys mentioned VM's on a USB3 flash drive. Is that a viable option? What kind of performance hit are you taking by doing this?

If it is feasible, I would definitely consider picking up an Air, otherwise, I am probably going toward a Lenovo X230 (something I could max out the RAM in and change out the hard disk, etc.).
Click to expand...

Very negligible performance hit if run Fusion 5 + Win7 VM with 16 GBs of ram (HD buffering on) and/or an SSD drive. However, for a portable machine (w/o carrying around a bunch of externals) 256GB minimum on an i7 MBP 13 (Sandy Bridge.)

I'm back on the 500GB toshiba HD drive however the 16 GBs keeps the VMs (Xp and Win7) happy.
 
Deinos said:
Man, this is super tempting. I am finishing my Comp Sci degree this year, and I have been looking into treating myself a little upon graduation with a "big boy" laptop, lol :) I do a lot of work in Visual Studio, which has been part of what has held me back from just picking up some version of a Mac. I noticed you guys mentioned VM's on a USB3 flash drive. Is that a viable option? What kind of performance hit are you taking by doing this?

If it is feasible, I would definitely consider picking up an Air, otherwise, I am probably going toward a Lenovo X230 (something I could max out the RAM in and change out the hard disk, etc.).
Click to expand...
Screen res of the X230 is too low IMO for stuff like Visual Studio (1366x768)
 
I can't speak for the Air, as I ended up with a Pro and am glad I did. Started with the 15" Pro i7, upgraded the RAM to 16GB (max capacity) and put in an Intel 520 SSD.

The biggest things I love are the speed, and the high res anti-glare screen. My "web development" is actually cloud services in Microsoft Azure, and the Azure development stack is HUGE. I can easily chew up all the cores and memory load testing my software. The screen is great too, considering it's a 15". I'd love a Retina screen, but it would cost far too much to get one that matches the specs of my Pro.

I would probably struggle to do all this with the Air's tiny CPU and memory capacity.

robvas said:
Screen res of the X230 is too low IMO for stuff like Visual Studio (1366x768)
Click to expand...

Indeed.

The correct answer to "How many pixels are enough for software development" is always "more."
 
robvas said:
Screen res of the X230 is too low IMO for stuff like Visual Studio (1366x768)
Click to expand...

I would agree for extended laptop sessions; however, I tend to utilize external monitors when I am tethered to my desk. Also nice to have docking station that is tailored to your machine. Don't have to got about hooking and unhooking everything all the time. Just pop it in and get to work.
 
If I were doing this again, I would go with a near max spec 11" MBA (the i7, 8gb ram, but only the 256gb SSD) and a 27" Apple Cinema Display.

Between bluetooth and the thunderbolt docking station built into the ACD, I would have a solid "desktop" with great resolution, and all the hardware needed as a desktop, but then I'd have an 11" ultraportable when I'm on the go.

Even as is, my 15" MBP is really a "desktop" that I can fold in half. It spends 90% of it's time sitting on my desk, with a 2nd display plugged in, and with me using a bt keyboard/mouse.

I might notice the slower speed/less cores of the MBA 11" occasionally, but I WOULD notice the size/weight difference every time I unplugged the thing. Tradeoff, but I'd probably be happy with it.
 
Deinos said:
I would agree for extended laptop sessions; however, I tend to utilize external monitors when I am tethered to my desk. Also nice to have docking station that is tailored to your machine. Don't have to got about hooking and unhooking everything all the time. Just pop it in and get to work.
Click to expand...

Yea, it comes down to are you using it at a desk with a monitor 8 hours a day or are you using at in 5 different places during the day.
 
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