I recently upgraded from an M1 mac book pro 15", which I was pretty happy with, to the M4 max pro 16". I've been extremely impressed with the new laptop. The key metric I use to judge performance is build speed for our main project. It's a thing I do a few dozen times per day. The M1 took about four minutes to run our integration tests. I should add that those tests run in parallel and make heavy use of docker. There are close to 300 integration tests and a few unit tests. Each of those hit the database, Redis, and Elasticsearch. The M4 Pro dropped that to 40 seconds. Each individual test might take a few seconds. It seems to be benefiting a lot from both the faster CPU with lots of cores and the increased amount of memory and memory bandwidth. Whatever it is, I'm seriously impressed with this machine. It costs a lot new but on a three year lease, it boils down to about 100 euros per month. Totally worth it for me. And I'm kind of kicking myself for not upgrading earlier.
Before the M1, I was stuck using an intel core i5 running arch linux. My intel mac managed to die months before the M1 came out. Let's just say that the M1 really made me appreciate how stupidly slow that intel hardware is. I was losing lots of time doing builds. The laptop would be unusable during those builds.
Life is too short for crappy hardware. From a software point of view, I could live with Linux but not with Windows. But the hardware is a show stopper currently. I need something that runs cool and yet does not compromise on performance. And all the rest (non-crappy trackpad, amazingly good screen, cool to the touch, good battery life, etc.). And manages to look good too. I'm not aware of any windows/linux laptop that does not heavily compromise on at least a few of those things. I'm pretty sure I can get a fast laptop. But it'd be hot and loud and have the unusable synaptics trackpad. And a mediocre screen. Etc. In short, I'd be missing my mac.
Apple is showing some confidence by just designing a laptop that isn't even close to being cheap. This thing was well over 4K euros. Worth every penny. There aren't a lot of intel/amd laptops in that price class. Too much penny pinching happening in that world. People think nothing of buying a really expensive car to commute to work. But they'll cut on the thing that they use the whole day when they get there. That makes no sense whatsoever in my view.
The M4 was the first chip that tempted me to upgrade from the M1, which I think is the case for most people. At work, I’m at the mercy of the corporate lease. My personal Mac doesn’t get used in a way where I’ll see a major change, so I’m giving it a while longer.
I’ve actually been debating moving from the Pro to the Air. The M4 is about on par with the M1 Pro for a lot of things. But it’s not that much smaller, so I’d be getting a lateral performance move and losing ports, so I’m going to wait and see what the future holds.
Considering the amount of engineering that goes into Apple's laptops, and compared to other professional tools, 4000 EUR is extremely cheap. Other tradespeople have to spend 10x more.
I'm in the same boat. Still running an MBP M1 Pro 14". Luckily I bought with 32GB in 2021 when it came out so it can run all things docker similar to your setup. I recently ran a production like workload, real stress test, it was the first time I had the fan spinning constantly but it was still responsive and a pleasure to use (and sit next to!) for a few hours.
I've been window shopping for a couple of months now, have test run Linux and really liking the experience there (played on older Intel hardware). I am completely de-appled software-wise, with the 1 exception of iMessages because of my kids using ipads. But that's really about it. So, I'm ready to jump.
But so far, all my research hasn't lead to anything where I would be convinced not to regret in the end. A desktop Ryzen 7700 or 9600X would probably suffice, but it would mean I need to constantly switch machines and I'm not sure if I'm ready for that. All mobile non-macs have significant downsides and you can't even try before you buy anywhere typically. So you'd be relying on reviews. But everybody has a different tolerance for changes like track pad haptics, thermals, noise, screen quality etc. So, those reviews don't give enough confidence. I've had 13 Apple years so far. First 5 were pleasant, next 3 really sucked but since Apple silicon I feel I have totally forgotten all the suffering in the non-Apple world and with those noisy, slow Intel Macs.
I think it has to boil down to serious reasons why the Apple hardware is not fit for one's purpose. Be it better gaming, extreme amount of storage, insane amount of RAM, all while ignoring the value of "the perfect package" and it's low power draw, low noise etc. Something that does not make one regret the change. DHH has done it and so have others, but he switched to Framework Desktop AI Max. So it came with a change in lifestyle. And he also does gaming, that's another good reason (to switch to Linux or dual boot (as he mentioned Fortnite)).
I don't have such reasons currently. Unless we see hardware that is at least as fast and enjoyable like the M1 Pro or higher. I tried Asahi but it's quite cumbersome with the dual boot and also DP Alt not there yet and maybe never will, so I gave up on that.
So, I'll wait another year and will see then. I hope I don't get my company to buy me an M4 Max Ultra or so as that will ruin my desire to switch for 10 more years I guess.