Recently I have started to look at the Apple MacBook Air or Mac Mini with the M2 chip inside them, so I could keep being able to compile Xcode (Apple’s IDE used to develop software for macOS, iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, tvOS, and visionOS) projects.

Most of my coding is done on my NovaCustom laptop or my MiniATX desktop rig, and then I have an old Mac Mini that I use for compiling the code; sadly apple is dropping support for MacOS on Intel based Macs soon.

Sadly in Apple’s infinite wisdom they decided to focus on their Apple Silicon chips back in 2020, and now I have to think “what the hell am I going to do?”.

Now part of me was thinking about getting a M1 mac on the chip but sadly those where discontinued back in May 2024; leaving me with the options of M2 to M3 on the MacBook Air side of things or M2 to M4 on the Mac Mini end of things.

Let’s talk about the options we got here, well first off I don’t have any real reason to go with the top of the line M4 as the Mac would just be a glorified build server; for those who’ve never heard the term “Build Server” a build server basically does what it says it does on the tin.

A build server is mostly used to compile source code into usable software, and why would you need a separate machine to do this you might be asking yourself? Well that’s quite simple that has to do with either you are working with multiple coders or in my case having to build code for a platform you don’t have as your primary.

Sometimes this can be a build server for console games or in my case to compile iOS and tvOS code.

Only thing that can honestly make me think that using a Mac beyond a build server won’t want me to blow my brains out using it as a makeshift IRC Bouncer or maybe Remote EVE Online terminal that I can connect to while on the go.

Whoever in our damn culture decided that 58.81% of US users would use a closed source OS like Apple’s iOS needs to be called out and shunned for giving us this hellscape we find ourselves in as developers.

Apple’s Enshittification (A term coined by science fiction writer Cory Doctorow) is quite clear to see but their branding keeps them afloat it seems, first with their god awful “butterfly keyboards” or their awful Soldered on SSD drives, I mean whatever happened to the Apple where I could put my own Hard Drive into it or add more ram?

I miss the good old days where Apple’s computers didn’t make me want to rip my hair out and be forced to watch “Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out” while strapped to a chair like some sort of clockwork orange torture, now where did I put that can of Mt. Dew and bag of Fritos? (If you get that reference you are senior developer discount, if you don’t click here)