They provide excellent performance, and power savings compared to Intel based Macbooks, as Apple has full control from the hardware, to the software level. There is a slight issue with it being a new chip architecture, so not all apps will work with them. But in regards to developer tools/app support you’ll be fine 99% of the time. All major software, like VSCode and tools support M1.
I’d assume M2 is supported the same and supports the same architecture, but I’d verify that on your own.
Unlike Apple products, where there are a few choices, and a few levels within those choices, Windows products are vastly more broad. To the point there is not real single reference, or even multiple references that are “go-tos”. Depending on your budget, and depends you could easily look at 5+ different manufactures for nearly the same specs. The difference usually lies in the details, and even those details might make or break the overall decision.
Generally for windows machines, for development you’d probably want:
- Windows 11 support if you want to be “future proofed”
- WSL2 - easily one of the best ways to leverage Linux tools, while keeping the stability of windows.
- Linux support - if you want to fully ditch windows, then having Linux support for your computer of choice should be checked directly for the model. Generally Linux will work most of the time, but you might have issues installing it due to BIOS level security, issues installing in general, and possible hardware issues you may or maynot be able to fix. So getting direct confirmation that your exact laptop model worked for someone before should be done to make sure this can stay an option. The more popular/main-stream the model, the higher the chance you’ll find info/docs for your distro.
Assuming your budget is 1k USD, where you generally have near complete flexibility for the most common spec setups you’d want to go for:
- 32gb of ram is enough for now and years down the road, 16gb is fine as well, but may run into walls if your doing really heavy duty stuff
- higher-ish CPU, means faster code execution. For reference, an intel I5 should be good, but most laptops focus on efficiency over power. So not all I5 intels run the same. However, again unless your doing something really heavy, a “mid-teir” CPU will be fine for coding just fine.
- Hard-drive - any sort of SSD should suffice, even a 225gb drive would work, but I’d aim for 1TB, or at least 500gb. As a developer you really wont use much memory most of the time, but if you want to do something like dual boot and install “all the software” then 500gb will keep your options open.
If your more on a budget then you might want to think about mobility and desktop options, as they are more flexible, can be upgraded and generally provide more bang for your buck, but you’ll need to buy externals (which also can be upgraded) and obviously lose out on mobility.
Finally, I’d like to point out that you can get pretty far with development with really any machine if you really leverage your online options. Still, not everything can be replicated perfectly with online tools, so having your own stuff can help, but it isn’t a requirement to get started. 
