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>all of my high computation oriented use cases are offloaded to a desktop. That's very unusual. If you want a laptop for the easy stuff you're usually looking

>all of my high computation oriented use cases are offloaded to a desktop. That's very unusual. If you want a laptop for the easy stuff you're usually looking at a MacBook Air or iPad in the Apple ecosystem. These laptops are focused on people who want to be able to do "everything" on a portable computer.

gunshai 5y ago
>These laptops are focused on people who want to be able to do "everything" on a portable computer. At some point when you are "doing everything" you start to be tied to a physical location anyway. Multiple screens, hook ups to external equipment. So it just doesn't make much sense to me to actually need to do everything in a portable manner. Edit: Apologies, I didn't address the part about the Mac OS ecosystem.
- zarzavat 5y ago
  This is for people who require portability epsilon percent of the time. If you never require portability then a desktop is sufficient. If you frequently require portability then it's worth getting an air and building your workflow (if possible) around offloading heavy computation to the network, e.g. heavy use of build servers, SSH, syncing. But many people spend most of their time at a desk, but sometimes require portability. For example in a meeting, visiting a client, working from home occasionally, etc. For these people a heavy duty laptop is the best solution.
schleck8 5y ago
> These laptops are focused on people who want to be able to do "everything" on a portable computer Like 3D rendering? Or deep learning training?
- kgermino 5y ago
  I suspect there are people who want to do 3D rendering on a laptop, and these devices are probably a good option for them. More broadly, that's why I put 'everything' in quotes. There will always be cutting edge workflows that require the power and cooling you can only get on a desktop or server, but that's a minority of a minority. There are plenty of people who want to run multiple VMs, edit/render 4k+ videos, edit large audio projects, do semi-complex data analysis, or any of 100 other tasks without needing to choose power vs portability, or manage multiple devices.
  - asdff 5y ago
    I've always wondered who is buying these super fast apple laptops? Freelancers with that much cash to throw around on a laptop, who wouldn't be buying an imac or mac pro instead for nearly as much? If you are doing this sort of stuff for work, you probably already have a server you connect to or at least a beefy workstation under your desk you are using for the heavy lifting. A lot of people in this space just use an i7 dell workstation from their employer that's probably cheap and thats that. Especially in the age of aws there is no reason anymore to run a lot of data analysis stuff locally anymore when you can get compute power for seconds at a time. I feel like they must sell so few of the top spec macbooks.
    - timeon 5y ago
      I have always used MBP for rendering. Usually not for final renders. I'm not always connected to high-speed internet so it is handy for work-in progress renders especially if you are not in the office. Or even if you are working on model that is on the server you still need to have good specs in order work with it.
      - asdff 5y ago
        You can remote into the server and use that horsepower from anywhere, no?
    - prawn 5y ago
      Freelancers who work from home and an office or on the road. I edit photos and video and haven't had a desktop machine for almost 20 years.
      - asdff 5y ago
        I'm sure a few people are doing this but it seems like such a teensy market compared to freelancers who generally work in one place in front of a massive imac screen.
        5y ago

gunshai 5y ago

>These laptops are focused on people who want to be able to do "everything" on a portable computer. At some point when you are "doing everything" you start to be tied to a physical location anyway. Multiple screens, hook ups to external equipment. So it just doesn't make much sense to me to actually need to do everything in a portable manner. Edit: Apologies, I didn't address the part about the Mac OS ecosystem.

zarzavat 5y ago
This is for people who require portability epsilon percent of the time. If you never require portability then a desktop is sufficient. If you frequently require portability then it's worth getting an air and building your workflow (if possible) around offloading heavy computation to the network, e.g. heavy use of build servers, SSH, syncing. But many people spend most of their time at a desk, but sometimes require portability. For example in a meeting, visiting a client, working from home occasionally, etc. For these people a heavy duty laptop is the best solution.

schleck8 5y ago

> These laptops are focused on people who want to be able to do "everything" on a portable computer Like 3D rendering? Or deep learning training?

kgermino 5y ago
I suspect there are people who want to do 3D rendering on a laptop, and these devices are probably a good option for them. More broadly, that's why I put 'everything' in quotes. There will always be cutting edge workflows that require the power and cooling you can only get on a desktop or server, but that's a minority of a minority. There are plenty of people who want to run multiple VMs, edit/render 4k+ videos, edit large audio projects, do semi-complex data analysis, or any of 100 other tasks without needing to choose power vs portability, or manage multiple devices.
- asdff 5y ago
  I've always wondered who is buying these super fast apple laptops? Freelancers with that much cash to throw around on a laptop, who wouldn't be buying an imac or mac pro instead for nearly as much? If you are doing this sort of stuff for work, you probably already have a server you connect to or at least a beefy workstation under your desk you are using for the heavy lifting. A lot of people in this space just use an i7 dell workstation from their employer that's probably cheap and thats that. Especially in the age of aws there is no reason anymore to run a lot of data analysis stuff locally anymore when you can get compute power for seconds at a time. I feel like they must sell so few of the top spec macbooks.
  - timeon 5y ago
    I have always used MBP for rendering. Usually not for final renders. I'm not always connected to high-speed internet so it is handy for work-in progress renders especially if you are not in the office. Or even if you are working on model that is on the server you still need to have good specs in order work with it.
    - asdff 5y ago
      You can remote into the server and use that horsepower from anywhere, no?
  - prawn 5y ago
    Freelancers who work from home and an office or on the road. I edit photos and video and haven't had a desktop machine for almost 20 years.
    - asdff 5y ago
      I'm sure a few people are doing this but it seems like such a teensy market compared to freelancers who generally work in one place in front of a massive imac screen.
      - 5y ago