One Mac or many?

Unless you’re in NYC!

The only thing that slightly annoys me with my Macbook is that some applications do not correctly handle the resolution changes when connecting/ disconnecting an external monitor. I probably cannot resist in ‘investing’ in a Mac mini or Mac Studio in the near future :slight_smile:

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Totally agree with the indestructible nature of desktop vs laptop or even pad.
If you can move it, eventually you will damage it.
I also switched my company to iMacs in 2011 and never looked back. Replaced them in 2015 only because the spinning drives could not keep up with dropbox. Still almost all the old iMacs were bought by employees and I believe most are still running.
As a fellow retiree, iPad Pro 12.9" would be my road computer too.
I am still assisting the business I started 33 years ago and using a 2015 iMac 5K that I just cannot bear to part with. Two months ago I replaced the fusion drive with SSD and it just is sweet.

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Right now I have a Mac mini with a Mac studio on the way. I do not have a laptop. My work consists of web development and video editing. Both of those things can be a pain to get synced on multiple computers.

In theory I could grab the FCP library and use it on another machine. In practice, it’s not 100% reliable. Plus, I have zero desire to edit video on a laptop. While I have done it, it’s much less efficient if a large monitor is not connected.

For development purposes the biggest pain point is keeping local databases in sync. This is something I’m willing to do, but not very often.

For me I can afford to work from home on 99% of my projects. My wife has a MacBook Air M1 if I need to work on the road.

I do have a web client that might want me to fly out to their offices a few times a year in NYC. If that happens I’ll probably by myself a low spec’d M1 Air to take on the road for development purposes.

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I just wanted to say thank you for saying this. So many web developers tell me I “must be doing something wrong” if I need to sync local databases. But sometimes you just need to do it. Often, if you’re using certain popular CMS options. And it sucks on multiple machines.

I feel seen. Thanks.

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I gave my company plenty of notice and spent over a year training my replacement and helping them select consultants. That was nearly 4 years ago and it’s been about a year since they’ve called for anything besides joining them for lunch. :grinning:

There’s nothing wrong with not using the latest and greatest stack. Web developers get so tribal about their “thing” sometimes. If a client pays me 15k to build a website and I do it to their satisfaction does it matter what my stack is? Nope. As long as your always pushing to get better don’t listen to the haters.

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Amen, good sir. Amen.

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The world needs more people like you.

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When I was a freelancer I had a Mac Mini on my home office desk (with monitor obviously) and a Macbook Air and iPad for when mobile - this setup worked very well. Mac Mini is now getting a bit old so running it headless for some background tasks. My newer personal Macbook Air (M1) now sits on (or rather, hangs off) my desk in clamshell mode with a 32" monitor. It stays there most of the time (I only take it with me when travelling for personal reasons e.g. for Lightroom photo processing) as my employer provides me with a Macbook Air for work. I still carry an iPad Air for mobile use as it has mobile data in it.

I became a “switcher” in 2004 with a G4 Mini. Then in 2006 I bought my first Macbook and became a laptop person for personal use, and use Minis for media consumption conected to my TV. All these years I did not question why I was purchasing MBPs for my personal use but the advent of the iPad Pro makes it much more questionable.

Why pay for an out-of-this-world laptop screen that is almost always superflous as the laptop is connected to my 32’’ display and does not move from my room, and when I am not in my room I am using the iPad Pro? Why not use that money to pay for a beefier machine?

I was considering getting a M1 Mini but with the Studio it’s much clearer now: my next Mac won’t be a laptop, it will be a Mini or a Studio.

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I agree, mostly. To buy a laptop to use it only in clamshell mode seems silly, yet there are two caveats for me: one is the possibility of having to live and work abroad for a few months (in truth that hasn’t happened in a while, and one could always buy a laptop as and when needed for such a purpose rather than organizing everything around this hypothetical) and the other is that the pandemic has taught me that working from multiple points of the apartment — desk, couch, armchair, kitchen table, bedroom, etc — can be a relief. In this light, a big unwieldy laptop like the 16” MBP could make sense, even if you don’t really need the power, as the closest you can get to having an iMac on your armchair. But if I had the 16”, personally, I would find it hard to justify also having the Studio Display, precisely because the excess of bounties is aesthetically displeasing.

Since the 2018 revision of the 12.9” iPad Pro got me excited (again) about the iPad, I had been living with that as a mobile computer, the iMac at home and Screens to call back the iMac for the tasks that I cannot do on iPad directly. That’s a fairly strong combo (I discussed its limitations in the other post I linked in the original up here).

Your post and others up here make me think that I never really focussed enough on the headless mini as a alternative for my set up. I should. I need some pretty menial background scripts and tasks to happen all the time, automatically, which really calls for an always-on desktop Mac. But at the same time I am finding some pleasures in Mac laptops again, after many years. So I could even throw a mini in a drawer to work headless regardless of whatever Studio Display/MacBook/iPad Pro combo I use up on the desk.

On the flip side, I’ve also heard folks with dedicated workspaces (Jason Snell, Myke Hurley, and @ismh) mention their desktops’ lack of mobility as a benefit. It helps them keep work separate, by making it something they do in a particular place.

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This is 100% accurate if your life and/or your home doesn’t require you to work on the go.

A simple conundrum: if FedEx needs me to sign for a package, I can’t hear the doorbell from my office. I could probably fix that with a smart doorbell, but come on, I’m not going to get a smart doorbell.

So I need to be on a laptop on those days, which are rare but possible.

Similarly, we have home renovations coming up which we won’t be able to be in the house for. So I’ll need to bring a computer. Last time, I literally brought my iMac Pro. It was necessary, but it felt so ridiculous.

So YMMV on the whole “my work happens in one place” thing. I think the success of that approach can vary from person to person, or from household to household. My brain likes to wander through different environments to trigger ideas while I work, so I like having mobility. I didn’t realize how much that was true until we moved to a house where I couldn’t wheel my desk around as much. In our old condo, I could wheel my desk from one side of the place to the other with my iMac and get a new perspective. That’s not possible here. And I miss being mobile a lot.

I think most people, somewhere deep down, probably know how their brains work and can answer this question. There isn’t a right or wrong answer, especially now that the laptops are powerful enough for most people.

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I do enjoy that I can tell the family I’m “going to work” and I can close my office doors and I’m at work. It helps to separate the two worlds—home life, working life—that share a building. I enjoy having a dedicated workstation, that easily allows everyone to identify when I’m working.

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