It is hard to believe that I’ve been at AWS almost four years, but it turns out that is about the amount of time one needs to qualify for a laptop replacement.

When I joined I could choose a 14-inch HP laptop running windows or a 13-inch MacBook Pro with an M1 processor. I chose the MacBook.

I could have pursued a third, Linux-based option, and some of my teammates use Linux laptops, but while I’m happy running Linux on the desktop for personal use I really don’t need the extra hassle of running it within a corporate environment, so I went Apple.

The MacBook was a good little machine. When I’m at home I connect it to an external monitor, with a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, and when I travel it was nice and light.

When I was up for a renewal, my choices had also increased. I ended up getting a 16-inch MacBook Pro with an M4 processor.

It is a beast.

Of course as soon as I got my “Nov 2024” laptop they came out with a new M5 model, and I have the M4 Pro and not M4 Max, but I don’t think I’ll notice the difference.

The new machine is both much larger and much heavier than my old laptop, and I’m wondering if made a mistake and should have gone with the smaller version.

But there was one reason I went with the big one: GenerativeAI.

While there aren’t much in the way of truly open source LLMs, I do like playing with open weight models you can run on your own equipment. I’ve played a lot with Qwen and I like it, although I’m not sure what’s currently going on with the development community. Running local models on the M1 can be time consuming, and I am hoping with the beefier hardware things will move faster.

I don’t think I’m going to like the extra weight in my backpack, but then again my backpack usually outweighs my carry-on bag by a considerable amount. Having the much larger screen should make working from a remote office or hotel room better.

Of course I didn’t get to play with it straight out of the box. Amazon put its own tweaked version of MacOS on the machine when I got it, and they shipped it with a generic 100W USB-C power adapter. One of the things that is kind of cool working at AWS is that if you need a backup adapter they are available from vending machines in AWS offices. You just use your badge to get one.

But the downside is that the Apple adapter has a removable plug, and these do not. I travel to a lot of different countries and it is nice to be able to swap out the electrical plug to match the local style without having to deal with external adapters.

So I ordered an actual Apple 96W power supply, as well as a MagSafe to USB cable. The MagSafe adapter is much larger than the USB-C connector, but it frees up a port and I am clumsy so if I trip over it the laptop shouldn’t fly off the desk.

The transition so far has been painless, and I’ll be shipping my old laptop back soon. I can only imagine what will be around in four more years.