Day 1 with MacBook Air - Apple Silicon (M1)

My first impressions and setup notes after switching to the Apple Silicon M1 MacBook Air.

First Impressions

• No heating issues at all
• Noticeably long battery life
• Good speaker quality

Setting Up a Node.js Development Environment

Apple Silicon uses ARM architecture, so some tools need special handling. Here’s what I ran into and how I fixed it.

Issue 1: nvm and Node.js won’t install natively

As of early 2021, nvm couldn’t install Node.js natively on M1. The fix is to run Terminal in Rosetta (x86_64 emulation mode).

Step 1: Open Terminal in Rosetta

1. Find Terminal (or iTerm) in Finder
2. Right-click → Get Info
3. Check Open using Rosetta
4. Restart Terminal

Now install nvm and Node.js normally — they’ll run under x86_64.

References: Node.js on Apple Silicon

Issue 2: “bad CPU type in executable” errors

Install Rosetta via the command line:

softwareupdate --install-rosetta

Reference: zsh bad CPU type fix

Issue 3: Check and switch architecture

To check which architecture your shell is running under:

node -p process.arch

To switch to x86_64:

arch -x86_64 $SHELL

Step 2: Install common dev tools via Homebrew

Once Rosetta is set up, install everything you need:

brew install iterm2 alfred licecap sublime-text visual-studio-code karabiner-elements sourcetree araxis-merge itsycal the-unarchiver easyfind omnidisksweeper

Miscellaneous: “You don’t have permission to open the application”

If an app is blocked from opening:

Step 1: Open Terminal

Step 2: Run:

sudo chmod -R 755 /path/to/app

Step 3: Enter your password when prompted

Step 4: Try opening the app again — it should work now.

Initial system stats (without any apps installed):