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By "came into", I'm going to assume that you either received it for free or got it very inexpensively because of circumstances.
In which case I'd take the opportunity to make a profit by selling it for far more than it's value to some moron who see's an Apple logo and automatically creams themselves. They're not hard to find.
Then you can buy whatever you want.
The music mixing capabilities are very solid if you’re looking to use your new laptop as a creative outlet. The default software is solid for journaling and writing as well. You can set up shortcuts to run some custom automations as well. Hope this helps!
It is really powerful per watt, and has a built-in UPS. Any homelab type things you could do with that? macOS+homebrew will give you a nice *NIX feel, very familiar if you're a Linux user.
I'm a fan of having a remote homelab computer+disk for off-site storage. This would be a good candidate in that it wouldn't use excessive power at a friend/family's place, but may be overkill (I use a pi3 for that).
Dev device for Asahi Linux, don't think M3 support is quite there but if you had the time could help contribute
Something as powerful as an M3 at the very least could be used as a folding@home client. Other suggestions would be a rendering farm machine, a retro emulator for higher end consoles like PS3+, or part of a carputer since it's got GPS and is quite efficient.
They run Linux really well. I'm reaching you on an ancient one right now.
Trash can is right here 🗑️
Combined with a minimalist Linux distro, a laptop like that should have amazing battery life. Not sure of a specific use, but maybe something where you have to run off battery for long periods of time. Portable server maybe?
The transcode performance on the apple silicon is pretty solid if you wanted to go the media server route. Or have a really expensive NAS host lol
I have a macbook for work and I like it generally, it integrates well with other *nix environments. But if you don't use a laptop or don't want to have the uncomfortable interruption to your hotkey muscle memory it's a bit useless. I'd either sell it and/or find someone in my network that needs it
Switch emulation.
As someone who really needs a laptop but is broke because of cancer, I am very jealous.
You can always use it as something like a Pi-Hole if youre fine with leaving it on at all times. Probably overkill for a Pi-Hole, though. Anyway nearly any PC can be turned into some kind of network appliance.
Hope you find a good use for it!
DM me, while it won't be this laptop, I have a few others I got from work before they had a proper recycle program that still work fine. Nothing fancy but I couldn't let my former boss toss them.
Dang, such a generous offer! Any laptop is better than no laptop! Thank you for your kindness!
No problem! Technology should be used, most of what is thrown away isnt even close to done. We can and should do better.
It would be a fast host (and client) for more heavily modded Minecraft.
You could self-host an LLM, but unfortunately 18GB total system RAM (so less than 14GB usable by the GPU?) is pretty skinny.
You can do some stuff to an iPhone with one. Like sideloading, I think?
You think this would run Project Ozone 3 better? I dont think anything will with that modpack as is but my current host has to be reset daily or it crashes.
Some mod packs are just unstable.
Could be a specific area/item crashing it, and TBH all modded servers need regular maintenance like mob culling and regular server restarts. But it could also be a problem with your host, yeah, and the M3 Pro is going to be way faster than any CPU your host has. Plenty of RAM too.
I’d recommend running it with GraalVM EE as your JVM.
I tend to gravitate towards Enigmatica and ATM myself (as their devs/dev process is pretty good), but not sure about Ozone or skyblock mod packs.
I mostly use Linux but I have a MacBook from a previous job. I mostly use it for media consumption. It’s not the problem it once was but back in the day, Linux and streaming services didn’t always get along because of DRM.
I do like how using macOS pushes me to get the design details right on my own software. I mean, say what you want about Apple but they do usually put care into the aesthetics and design details. When I feel like a project is done because it’s functional, I’m wrong. That extra 10% effort to use the right fonts or consistent margins or whatever is what makes good software great.
So, I would say use it as a learning tool. There’s plenty things that are worse on macOS but it’s different. And that’s healthy. Periodically using a different OS with a different goal is good for you. (Don’t bother with Windows 11. Nothing of honor is to be found there. Distro hop and keep Windows in a VM if you need it.)
I also found it helpful when working from home. Like, I’d spend all day on my Linux machine writing code or whatever and then I’d clock out and just use the MacBook. I could have probably used a PlayStation or done anything but sometimes, you’re busy. Switching operating systems and having zero work stuff on one computer can be good when you’ve had a long day.
Xcode for iOS development if you want to experiment with that
I can say I didnt particularly like xcode the last time I tried it. Though Idk if I gave it a chance.
I’m surprised dabbling with the Mac creative suites hasn’t been suggested yet. It’s the main reason a lot of users go for the OS over Windows or Linux.
Its got them. I'm not a fan boy by any means but they make very nice toolsets. Thats one thing I like about Mac is a lot of the shipped programs are good. Microsoft has been dragging ass on that as years go by.
The thing I use Mac for primarily is music production. Garage Band is very approachable and free if you’re just getting started. Both Linux and Windows struggle to perform as well as MacOS does in this regard.
I have Pro Tools 12 lol, I prefer Ableton and Reaper now. I could take a look st Logic again I didnt get to use Logic X when it came out and it was cool. It might be worth keeping around for audio design now that I make shitty games I never finish or release.
Oh man I've kept my 2015 Macbook Air around purely because it handles light Ableton sessions better than my old Windows desktop did, and more reliably than Ableton under WINE. Ableton is a dream on Macs, I'd love to switch to Reaper though; would you say it's worth switching?
Honestly, I'd only recommend Reaper if you wanted to do audio work on Linux. Its a catch 22 for sure, but I did like Ableton better just all around.
I heard bitwig is where it's at for Linux these days (for electronic music at least)
Ableton is a dream on Mac compared to Windows. Basically zero latency.
Live is substantially better on Mac.. I'm pretty sure installing packs takes about 1/10th the time it does on Windows too.
You could use it to read Lemmy.
What's you home lab ecosystem? My years in the Unix/Linux CLI world make it my preferred laptop (especially with homebrew).
Its a mix, only about five devices. Mostly Linux but the threadripper is windows and runs game servers. I did think about using it for that instead of my gaming desktop. Dedicated devices are the shit and my gaming rig is showing its age.
I have an M1 MacBook Pro that I mostly connect with via ssh and it is currently running as an Ollama server, but it has run various projects over the past few years.
I have wanted to try that, I always wondered how much world building I'd have to do to build an llm off of it to control NPCs talking. But recently with world events I have been turned off of those. Maybe I could try it though. Thats all I would want to do with an llm.
Use it as a laptop?
This is a terrible suggestion. Use it as a frisbee
Sell it? M3 MB Pro will fetch a good price.
I have an MB Air M3 and love it, personally.
I'm a little tech goblin hoarder and dont like to sell even when I need money lol I do like the UI, its snappy speed, theres a lot going on here thats cool.
Depends on the generation/CPU
I don't know what you daily drive, but I used my laptop to trial Linux desktop environments and make sure I knew what I was doing before converting my main PC from Windows to Arch (btw)
Its from 2024 with an M3 Pro, thats not a bad idea. I do have a bunch of comments saved from here for transitioning my desktop. As the last time I had time to fidget with it I throw my laptop config on there as a starting point and it was just a nightmare. Next time I'll go with Plasma on a fresh install instead.
~~donate it to me~~
Jokes aside... If you don't use Mac stuff at all and don't mind bricking the computer, would you be interested in trying out Asahi Linux for science?
I'm not familiar with the project at all so I'm not sure how it works, but it might be cool to try. The lead developer had some personal issues recently but is otherwise quite active on Mastodon
If I do nothing else at all with it I will consider this. Its better the body goes to science than do nothing.
it's actually remarkably easy to install and remove if you dont want it. Last time I used asahi it was cool but not ready for daily use. The m3 is a powerful little chip. I'd use that machine as my daily driver laptop whenever I needed it. Can do coding, music stuff, video editing, etc. I can do all that on my m1 pro, even!
alternatively, sit at a coffee shop, put a mech keyboard on top, and type a pretentious manuscript hoping someone will notice how cool u r (:
I honestly feel like a raccoon that has somehow wandered into a five star hotel suite every time I am on this. Most of my machines are 8+ years old except for one other.
What year is it?
2024, with an m3 Pro
You can do a million things with that.
I use a 2015 MacBook Pro that I’ve upgraded and dual-boots Linux as my laptop I take with me.
this will probably be what I do. The display is so killer. It wants to be looked at, not left closed running services.
