I’ll send my M1 Apple back. It’s not ready yet.

As an engineer / scientist, the system is too problematic for work to be feasible.

Update: The following story is now well out of date. I’ve been watching the ecosystem around the M1 architecture since, and have written a new story, to address the issues I discuss below and more.

M1 for technical computing, round two: The Resurrection

A system freeze whilst updating Big Sur 11.1 -> 11.2. This was recoverable with a hard reset (press and hold power button). This was the least of my problems!

After reading lots of rave reviews about M1 Macs, I decided that, because I was long-overdue a speed boost on my 2013 Macbook Pro, I’d try out a Mac Mini.

I’ll keep this post limited to factual statements if possible, because turning this into a rant won’t help anyone. But, here’s my subjective opinion:

I’m really upset how poorly this system is behaving. Read on for basics like finder and system preferences not working, as well as more specialist problems that software developers will suffer.

I’m experiencing cognitive dissonance…