# Apple M1 Mac 48 Hacker News commenters recommended Apple M1 Mac and 10 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 12 of 13 months; owners who said how long report a median of 6 years (8 owners). It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule. **Verdict:** Still fast enough for web dev, everyday work and Linux years after release, and cheap used. Critics note soldered, hard-to-upgrade storage. ## Why people recommend it - Still fast for everyday work (7 comments): "the M1 is still good enough to last years longer under the sane demands of nearly any type of work" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46414574)) "Both of my m1 series Macs will be more than adequate for my web dev needs for the next few years" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45779166)) "I haven’t noticed anything struggling, even with tons of expensive apps running." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46773107)) - Works well with Linux (4 comments): "across all benchmarks, Linux running in a VM on the M1 had higher perf (4 cores) than any instance type I launched" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48686511)) "you can get a used M1/M2 which will run Linux really well" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45932895)) "Take an M1 and it's a joy to use with Linux." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48391166)) - Long lifespan, still going strong (4 comments): "the M1 is still good enough to last years longer under the sane demands of nearly any type of work" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46414574)) "My M1 Mac gets almost 2 days of low-intensity use after ~6 years of use" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49435203)) "My M1 is still going strong and I haven't felt any pressure to upgrade." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49589155)) - Good value on the used market (4 comments): "repurposing a cheap M1 in a few years? Absolutely." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48748303)) "snack up some of that awesome hardware for cheap" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46776510)) "You can probably get one for less than 500 USD." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47257568)) ## What people warn about - Soldered storage hard to repair (3 comments): "Most M1 systems I saw use on-board BGA110 NAND flash, and thus maintenance/upgrades on the SSD are difficult." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47378245)) "pretty good in almost every sense except for repairability" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47065298)) "Do you think SSD drives are replaceable for no reason?" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47368977)) - Locked bootloader limits Linux (3 comments): "Apple isn't interested in helping Linux and everything has to be painfully reverse engineered" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46571934)) "Locked, proprietary bootloader with no guaranteed Linux support" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45956469)) "how M1 Mac bootloader is locked down" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48367018)) - Struggles with large AI models (2 comments): "That's nothing stellar, but you can run 70b models at decent quants with moderate context windows." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46894553)) "is really starting to show its age trying to run anything bigger than 7B" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49533348)) ## 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 II](https://hackerapproved.com/p/apple-ii.md): 46 recommend - [Apple Macintosh](https://hackerapproved.com/p/apple-macintosh.md): 34 recommend - [Apple M-series Mac](https://hackerapproved.com/p/apple-m-series-mac.md): 34 recommend ## Where to get it - [See price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Apple+M1+Mac&tag=hackerapprove-20) (affiliate link) - [Official site](https://www.apple.com/mac/) ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Apple M1 Mac", https://hackerapproved.com/p/apple-m1-mac/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).