Using a MacBook for Xcode/IntelliJ?

Hey!

So i just picked up a 12" macbook, 1.2 Ghz, and to my surprise, i was able to run JBoss, JBDS (JBoss IDE) and a virtual instance of Linux (Cent OS 7) rather well. However, i have more of a leadership role now and not really deep in the weeds anymore... More POCs and hello world examples; really have not tried any "real work" on it but ran fine for me so far. You're a student, so not sure how much raw processing you need. Are you running the application server locally? If you want to be safe, I'd go for the MBP, OR you can configure a MBA with the i7 2.2Ghz which will be more than enough. However, Apple's 14 day return is really "no questions asked" i picked up a 15" MBP last month, really hesitant, but the apple employee talked me into it stating "Just try it out, if it does not work out return it in 14 days, we support that!" I did return it with zero issues and there is no restocking fee.

So i dont know why i didnt post this, but back in 2010 i went back to school for a MS in CIS. The programming requirements were Java (desktop apps, not Java EE) and Web app development (XHTML, HTML5, PHP, and JS). i bought a 2010 MBA that had 2GB of memory and a Core 2 Duo and it was more than enough power to run all this, and i just uncommented the included Apache and PHP on Mac to run the web apps. I also took a somewhat advanced RMDBS course using MySQL that ran fine on the 2010; just recalled i used MySQL in the web app dev class too. if the 2010 MBA was fine, the new MacBook will be more than enough; definatelly more powerful then the 2010 MBA i recently sold.

Like you said, if you find you need some real power, just use the lab machine. Writing code on the MacBook will not give you any issues.

So battery, two answers. the other week we had an all day hack-a-thon and i ran 100% on battery for 9 hours. I rarely put it to sleep, BUT i was only taking notes, answering email's and IM pretty much non stop. I did crack open the IDE here and there, but didnt have the need to start JBoss or anything locally. was very impressed with basic use battery life, and walked out with 4% battery left.

However, if you do have Apache, PHP, MySQL etc running it will suck the battery life. no so much just using IntelliJ. I think you'll be fine for all day use. One note of caution, the bottom will get rather warm when under a decent load. There are no moving parts in the MacBook, so no fans. Not burning hot or anything, just warm enough where you'd expect the fans to kick in, which dont exist 🙂

Did you receive your Macbook yet? I'm quite curious, because I would need to run IntelliJ for small projects every now and then, when I give Java trainings. If you tell me it's good enough for some light Java/JEE development and Powerpoint presentation, then I think I'll fall for it.

Can you provide the feedack? I am thinking of buying the Macbook 12 inch and I need some reviews!