If your code won’t run on this machine, you’re the problem not the machine (outside of niche processor heavy stuff like video editing and ai crap).

Depends what code you are programming. Unless you are doing significant number crunching, 3D work, or local GenAI, there is an awful lot that spec can do. If you are working on a multi-user system and it is slow processing your actions as a single tester on this, then you have a heck of a lot of optimising ahead unless you want your production users to hate you!

Maybe you'd save running a large test suite until back at base with the branch checked out on something beefier, but for on-the-go coding I expect this spec would do just fine for many. The reviewer's comments about the keyboard would be my concern, not the limits if what it can run.

This laptop is plenty powerful enough. The N150[0] is similar single threaded to some 8th gen i7s which many still use to code (including myself). Should run many claude sessions at once, too. I am not sure I'd want to compile large Rust projects on it, but Node/C++/Java works fine.

[0] https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?id=6304&cpu=Intel+N150

[1] https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?id=3064&cpu=Intel+Core+...

I was running gentoo on a 2011 Macbook Air for years with no problems. These computers are more than fast enough to compile and run code. They aren't going to by my first choice for reencoding video or running a build server, but for local development you really don't need a lot unless you're working on the type of stuff that really actually requires special or very powerful hardware.