Is anyone using this as a daily driver? If this is your case, what is your experience?
I'm a linux user looking for a new laptop. My preference would be a thinkpad but the Apple machine looks way superior. Migrating to Apple OS is a no go for me.
My mainly use will be internet browsing, js development with vim + running docker containers.
About 20 days ago I asked the same question ("How ready for daily driving is Asahi Linux?") as a Ask HN, resulting in ~100 comments about it. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33607994
Conclusion seems: depends on how ready you are to live with the various drawbacks. Personally, I wasn't, but I'm hopeful the day will come soon as I like Apple hardware in general, but can't stand Apple software.
Functional GPU drivers were a big missing piece! Even if they just do 2d bit-blitting for the desktop (and they seem much more functional than that), it saves the CPU a ton of work.
I vastly prefer my Thinkpad X1 Nano to my work MacBook Pro. I pair it with a desktop, so keep that in mind…
The nano is very, very lightweight, which makes it an amazing portable device for packing up and carrying around.
The display is matte, which reduces glare when working outside.
The keyboard feels significantly better to type on. This is the biggest pro for me.
The camera has a privacy shutter, which gives me a greater peace of mind.
And of course, it works well with Fedora Linux.
I also optioned mine to have a 5G modem, which is convenient, although I rarely use it due to costly data plans. I have only managed to get the modem to work on the Windows side, but I’m optimistic it will have better Linux support one day.
The MacBook Pro is an impressive piece of hardware. The M1 chip is powerful, the battery life is amazing, and the build quality is high. However, I find it to be a much better experience exclusively using it at home docked in my setup due to its weight and glossy screen. At home, I can use my own mechanical keyboard when it’s docked to get around its mediocre keyboard. At that point, I’d rather just use my desktop. But if you’re only getting one device and are fine with MacOS, it is a good option. I prefer the more flexible desktop + lightweight laptop setup personally.
A minor thing I’ll note in favor of Apple is that the MacBook Pro is capable of driving my nicer Sennheiser headphones with ease. It’s something most people wouldn’t care about, but Apple excels in the audio department and deserves praise.
I’ve honestly never measured it, but it lasts me most of the day (e.g. ~8 hours) with the i5 chip I optioned it with last year. I wouldn’t classify battery life as a strength, but I wouldn’t classify it as a weakness either. On a normal day, I’m never worried about the battery dying. If you want more battery, the bigger sized X1 offers more than the Nano.
My normal workflow consists of Firefox playing music on YouTube, VS Code, and the terminal.
In another year or two you’ll be able to buy an M1 Air refurb on eBay for maybe 400$ and once this thing is stable, that would probably the best bang for your buck Linux laptop you can buy.
I work at a network VAR and use it regularly though not exclusively. The big remaining limitation at the moment is the speakers are still disabled while the Asahi team works on volume safety. Other than that it's reasonably stable for non critical use but not something to be relied upon to work right by any means. I'd say give it another year unless "I want to get it to tinker" is higher on the list of reasons for getting a laptop than "I want to do work". If you need a laptop sooner than that one of the commonly recommended x86 laptops recommended by HN'ers would probably be the way to go.
