As I said in a comment below, I've been using the preview version with M1 support for a while now and I have it constantly running in the background. I literally use Docker all the time, mostly building images locally to test/debug something or running things like Redis locally or nginx or something else during development and I have not had any issues so far.
And the M1 still amazes me every day. I code all day long, watch youtube, listen music, do zoom and slack calls and so on and don't charge my MBP even once during the day. I once forgot to plug in my laptop in the evening and the next day I was surprised that by mid day my battery was down to 10% after working on it for 1.5 days without charging. That's when I realised how long it lasts and that I got used to not charge it like my iPads or phone.
I realized that, similar to you it seems, think of my laptop more like my phone now.
Until now, my laptop would be plugged in per default and every now and then I would run on battery. Where as now, my laptop needs to charge now and then, but most of the time it runs on battery.
This has been my biggest psychological shift with my M1 mac too. I used to use my laptop plugged in whenever possible, only using battery power if plugged power wasn't an option.
Now I almost never use my M1 laptop on wall power. I use it on battery power all day long, even when sitting right next to a power outlet. I charge it every few days when I go to bed or won't be working on my computer for a while. This is similar to how you use tablets and phones. You usually charge them up and always use them on battery power. Only in an emergency do you use it while plugged in. The laptop now actually fits into that category now and is used like a true go-anywhere laptop, not a portable computer.
Are you using an 8GB or 16GB M1? My 8GB air has been fine for everything I've done with it so far but I'm wondering if Docker will be the first thing that needs more than 8GB.
I swear by 13 inch but I know I'm in a minority. I don't need a huge screen for my work. I like to look at code without bending my neck left and right all day long and if I need to multi task I four finger swipe left or right and feel extremely productive this way for many years now :)
EDIT:
I shall say I had an 8GB intel MBP before and 8GB was just about enough for everything including Docker.
13 really is the perfect size. I had a 16 inch forever before it because that is the size you needed if you wanted a capable enough computer to do what I needed. Now I can get a $1,200 computer that works better than my old $3,200+ computer.
I have fallen in love with the 13" size. I still have my 16" computer and I pulled it out the other day and it looked comically large on my lap. It seriously felt ridiculous. I couldn't believe that was my standard for so long. The 13" is still good enough to do most anything, but small enough to really be portable. My mom has an 11" air and it feels like a kids toy in my lap, too small for my liking. But the 13" MBP is right in that Goldilocks zone.
I will admit I turn down screen scaling down to minimum to get more stuff on the screen. The default screen scaling state makes things quite large out of the box.
I was using the 16" MBP before this but having gotten used to the 13" that now feels ridiculously huge. It helps that I'm not using XCode much though. That really wants a lot of screen real estate.
I still wonder a lot about whether 16GB are worth the 200€ for a development workflow like this. Most sources I've seen say "no", does anyone have any personal insight?
If you are using a MacBook for work, get it with 16GB. 200 Euro is at most a few hours of salary for a developer in a western country and it will improve heavy workflows (JetBrains IDEs, Docker, etc.) a lot.
If it is a personal Mac, I would still go for the 16GB version, but purely for longevity. With 16GB you can probably use the MacBook longer. Also, less swapping means less SSD wear.
(16GB should really have been the default, at least on the MacBook Pro.)
I meant that they just shouldn't sell the Pro with 8GB. I know that the meaning of 'Pro' is somewhat debated, but if they want to address professional developers and creatives, 8GB is just too little.
Also, 8GB additional memory is not expensive at cost price. They could use the different amounts of baseline memory as a differentiator between the Air and Pro, especially now that the delta between the Air and Pro is so small (same SoC plus one more GPU core, Touch Bar that a lot of people hate, better screen).
I had the 8Gb MBP. I bought it the day they were released so it arrived on launch day. Because of the holidays we had extended return window, so we could use it until January 15th before returning it. I used it that whole time and fell in love with the computer, but returned it for the 16Gb model. But not for the reasons you would expect.
I originally bought the 13" MBP on M1 because I was in desperate need of a new laptop. I previously had a maxed out 16" MBP that cost me around $3,500. I had used it for about 5 years and was looking to replace it. But Apple's systems were in flux and I didn't want to drop $3,500 again on an intel macbook right as they were going out of production. So when I saw the new M1 macs released, I decided to buy the $1,200 13" MBP with 8Gb of RAM and a 256HDD. Just the base model. The idea was that I would use this computer for a year, until Apple released the 16 inch "big boy" models. Then I would sell the 13 inch and get the real 16 inch that I was waiting for.
But when I got my new mac in November, I started using it and was just so amazed by the performance that I realized it could do what I was asking it to do, plus I loved the size, the epic battery life, and the no fan noise. I essentially fell in love with that computer. When I went back to my 16" macbook it felt so large and heavy, I wanted nothing to do with it. Even if Apple fixes the fan noise (that the 16" is horrible with) and the battery life, I still hate the size. I had truly fallen in love with the 13 inch computer I already had. And it was less than half the price I had planned on spending during my computer upgrade.
I originally bought the 13 inch macbook pro as a stop-gap until the 16 inch models were available on M1. But after using it, I decided that this was going to be my new long term computer. So at the end of the return window I had about 6-8 weeks using the computer. I had never had any trouble with the 8Gb of RAM. BUt my mind just kept telling me that 8Gb wasn't enough.
Since I was already upgrading the computer for more SSD storage, I really went back and forth on whether to upgrade the RAM as well.
The reason it was such a hard decision is that I couldn't pinpoint a single time when I felt that the 8Gb held me back.
But I kept going back to the idea that if I keep this computer for even 3 years, the $200 becomes insignificant (to me at least, I recognize I am very fortunate). So I couldn't really identify a good reason to upgrade to 16Gb, but because I decided to do it anyway because for $200, it was worth future proofing it. So I ended up returning my base model 13 inch macbook pro and upgrading it to a 1Tb SSD, with 16Gb of RAM. It is now my daily driver computer. Even fully loaded it is still a fraction of the cost of my old macbook pro. I couldn't be more happy with my computer right now.
The performance is just incredible. No fan noise ever. Epic length battery life. Perfect size. I just really love this thing.
So do you need 16Gb of RAM. No. Not at all. I have not yet identified a time when the 16Gb has helped me or made a noticable difference. When I had the 8Gb, I never felt like it was slowing me down. But with all that being said, if your budget allows for $200 extra, I would get it just to future proof your purchase. But if you are already penny pinching, then don't worry about the 8gb. You probably won't ever notice it holding you back.
I have the 8GB MBA I bought for my wife and feel somewhat similarly. There are a few times when things lag a bit, but mostly it just hums along.
I'm holding out for the next gen to release for my personal machine and will go with 16GB and whatever the next CPU is. Mostly, as you suggest future proofing, but there are a few spots in my workflow where it does hang a bit which I think extra memory would help with.
And the M1 still amazes me every day. I code all day long, watch youtube, listen music, do zoom and slack calls and so on and don't charge my MBP even once during the day. I once forgot to plug in my laptop in the evening and the next day I was surprised that by mid day my battery was down to 10% after working on it for 1.5 days without charging. That's when I realised how long it lasts and that I got used to not charge it like my iPads or phone.
Also never gets hot and no fan noise yet.