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I need to buy a new MacBook Pro; as far as I can tell, the M1 is significantly superior than my 2019 MBP in any aspect, so I would not like to get an older model even if I could.

One thing that gives me pause is that in the past I have been using Parallels to run docker-machine (plus a Win10 VM for very few inevitable Windows-only applications in my company).

I can avoid having a Win10 VM, but being able to work with docker (more concrete: build Dockerfiles with any kind of application compatible with docker - no matter if it's based on containerd or whatever) is crucial to me. I do not require to then push my docker images anywhere, the images on any other servers will be built on a Linux-based CI/CD system. I only require to be able to use some pretty standard public base images (i.e., alpine, debian, ubuntu, python, things like that) and am also able to maybe switch to different generic base images if they are available.

On my old Intel-based MBP I am using docker-machine, which seems discontinued (I see little or no changes in their GitHub repository for years).

Docker Desktop seems still to be in an experimental state.

What are your experiences with this? Are you using a M1-based Mac for software development, is this still an issue? Or is it "fixed" and some good solution exists?

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    We strongly prefer one question per question -even though you want hardware shopping advice, it's really a software recommendation question at heart. If it gets closed, rephrasing multiple questions to be a list of requirements tends to get a better vote reception here.
    – bmike ♦
    Commented Oct 22, 2021 at 11:27
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    I have removed the "bonus questions", @bmike.
    – AnoE
    Commented Oct 22, 2021 at 11:56

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I say yes indeed. I'm all in on the future direction Apple has staked for Apple Silicon and use M1 / iPad for everything I can and will set up a linux VM or pay for cloud VM as needed when I have to have code that just isn't possible without Intel or kernel extensions for OS prior to Big Sur. I haven’t installed Rosetta 2 on my daily driver yet as well.

You can certainly find some pain points if you go looking at software revolving around kernel extensions or not updated in the last 24 months for general OS changes. Hopefully you can refine any big show stoppers for your critical projects and buy with confidence after some research and other people share their experience. I personally find instant on and the battery life and performance of the initial Air so good, I can't imagine I'll ever get an intel again other than maybe next year's bump on a Mac Pro if I decide to retire my 2013 Mac Pro home lab which takes much of my legacy code lifting off my portable.

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