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What is the api? Storage heavy? Compute heavy? Why M1?

by malf 5y ago

rsp1984 5y ago
Compute heavy. It would be using integrated AI accelerators that the M1 offers and which Monterey offers a convenient API to. The data would be image / video for the most part. The results would have to be stored for some time until user downloads them or some timeout is up (whichever is first).
- ameliaquining 5y ago
  Which APIs do you want to use? I'd be really surprised if there wasn't a way to do whatever-it-is in the cloud on Linux, with comparable speed and ease-of-development to macOS, at dramatically less cost and operational overhead. The M1 might be the only consumer device that has the relevant kind of hardware, but you don't particularly want a consumer device; you want a server. Macs aren't designed to be used as servers and come with a lot of onerous restrictions that make them difficult and expensive to use that way (designed to prevent cannibalization of Apple's consumer business). Media processing isn't an uncommon use case for cloud services, so it'd be surprising if accelerator hardware for that use case were available only in consumer devices—unless it's a use case that doesn't really benefit from specialized accelerator hardware, which would suggest that you don't need such hardware either.
  - rsp1984 5y ago
    I definitely need to use Monterey, as it offers simple APIs for certain tasks that would be possible, but very time consuming, to recreate on other OS. The M1 is optional, theoretically, but in practice makes things go much faster due to its accelerator cores, which the Monterey APIs are taking advantage of.
    - ameliaquining 5y ago
      I am having a really hard time thinking of cloud-relevant macOS APIs that don't have comparably-easy-to-use Linux equivalents, other than for building and testing macOS and iOS apps. Which ones do you want to use? Core ML?
      - andrewf 5y ago
        I agree with everything you've said about it being most practical to run services on Linux. If OP's business grows I think they'd be wise to pivot away from macOS to avoid future pain. But also, if OP sees a business opportunity today, and they've already solved it on top of macOS, I think they should strike while the iron is hot, with the code that exists. Most businesses die because they can't get enough users and keep them. IMO it makes sense to take on tech debt.
        ameliaquining 5y ago
        I am not convinced that getting this set up on macOS in a way that can handle real user traffic with sufficient reliability (especially given an apparent lack of relevant experience) will take less time than porting it to Linux and then productionizing that. But I suppose anything's possible.

What is the api? Storage heavy? Compute heavy? Why M1?

by malf 5y ago

What is the api? Storage heavy? Compute heavy? Why M1?

rsp1984 5y ago

Compute heavy. It would be using integrated AI accelerators that the M1 offers and which Monterey offers a convenient API to. The data would be image / video for the most part. The results would have to be stored for some time until user downloads them or some timeout is up (whichever is first).

ameliaquining 5y ago
Which APIs do you want to use? I'd be really surprised if there wasn't a way to do whatever-it-is in the cloud on Linux, with comparable speed and ease-of-development to macOS, at dramatically less cost and operational overhead. The M1 might be the only consumer device that has the relevant kind of hardware, but you don't particularly want a consumer device; you want a server. Macs aren't designed to be used as servers and come with a lot of onerous restrictions that make them difficult and expensive to use that way (designed to prevent cannibalization of Apple's consumer business). Media processing isn't an uncommon use case for cloud services, so it'd be surprising if accelerator hardware for that use case were available only in consumer devices—unless it's a use case that doesn't really benefit from specialized accelerator hardware, which would suggest that you don't need such hardware either.
- rsp1984 5y ago
  I definitely need to use Monterey, as it offers simple APIs for certain tasks that would be possible, but very time consuming, to recreate on other OS. The M1 is optional, theoretically, but in practice makes things go much faster due to its accelerator cores, which the Monterey APIs are taking advantage of.
  - ameliaquining 5y ago
    I am having a really hard time thinking of cloud-relevant macOS APIs that don't have comparably-easy-to-use Linux equivalents, other than for building and testing macOS and iOS apps. Which ones do you want to use? Core ML?
    - andrewf 5y ago
      I agree with everything you've said about it being most practical to run services on Linux. If OP's business grows I think they'd be wise to pivot away from macOS to avoid future pain. But also, if OP sees a business opportunity today, and they've already solved it on top of macOS, I think they should strike while the iron is hot, with the code that exists. Most businesses die because they can't get enough users and keep them. IMO it makes sense to take on tech debt.
      - ameliaquining 5y ago
        I am not convinced that getting this set up on macOS in a way that can handle real user traffic with sufficient reliability (especially given an apparent lack of relevant experience) will take less time than porting it to Linux and then productionizing that. But I suppose anything's possible.