# Apple M-series Mac 34 Hacker News commenters recommended Apple M-series Mac and 13 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 11 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule. **Verdict:** People recommend M-series Macs for battery life, displays, trackpads, quiet operation and efficient chips. Common caveat: poor Linux support and limited hardware documentation. ## Why people recommend it - Efficient, powerful Apple silicon (5 comments): "I thought there was universal sentiment that apple silicon / M-series computers are pretty unmatched." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47167139)) "super integrated packages like Apple's M-series make for really well-performing computers" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46143381)) "Sadly the hardware is amazing and so much more efficient compared to Intel/AMD x86." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49595296)) - Long battery life (4 comments): "The hardware+software combination of MacOS is unbeatable in terms of things like battery life and overall reliability" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49716474)) "I see a lot of people extolling the battery life, displays, and trackpads." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46409366)) "when it comes to Laptop Battery life afaik there isn't even a competition." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49827007)) - Good for running local models (4 comments): "If you're interested in pure inference I'm pretty partial to Apple devices." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48725179)) "the M-series chips handle inference well for tool-calling tasks" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47636541)) "macOS on M-series macs is excellent for local models" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49434719)) - Display and trackpad quality (2 comments): "Display quality, trackpad quality, overall form factor, and very high RAM space in a laptop would be the primary reasons I'd go with Asahi Linux." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49459428)) "I see a lot of people extolling the battery life, displays, and trackpads." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46409366)) ## What people warn about - Poor Linux support, no drivers (7 comments): "Mac M series machines are an option except that then you're not running Linux, except in VM" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45878088)) "I don't think that works anymore with with the M chips (at least in the same easy way)" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46800064)) "Buy something else to run Linux, as in anything other than Apple M series laptops" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49591931)) - Not revolutionary, little change (2 comments): "His only success was the M series macs, a really good but by no mean revolutionary step-up" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45945763)) "the M-series Macs have spent 5 years changing absolutely nothing" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47508669)) - Slow or unusable local LLMs (2 comments): "The prompt processing times I've heard about have put me off" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46910863)) "the local llms were unusable" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47232840)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [Apple Mac](https://hackerapproved.com/p/apple-mac.md): 453 recommend - [Apple Mac Studio](https://hackerapproved.com/p/mac-studio.md): 319 recommend - [Apple M1 Mac](https://hackerapproved.com/p/apple-m1-mac.md): 48 recommend - [Apple II](https://hackerapproved.com/p/apple-ii.md): 46 recommend - [Apple Macintosh](https://hackerapproved.com/p/apple-macintosh.md): 34 recommend ## Where to get it - [See price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Apple+MacBook+Air+M-series+laptop&tag=YOURTAG-20) (affiliate link) - [Official site](https://www.apple.com/mac/) ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Apple M-series Mac", https://hackerapproved.com/p/apple-m-series-mac/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).