I'm a web developer.

My main working machine is iMac and it's fantastic.

My portable device is MacBook Air (5yo) and working on it becomes torture when I deal with big projects (Node.js mostly), several parallel processes and a decent IDE.

I like the laptop because it's small (13-inch) lightweight and works long hours without a recharge. But I hate the experience of dealing with frozen processes and slowly running compilers.

Did (or do) you have a similar experience? Do you have any tricks to make an old machine work faster? Probably some alternative software or CLI tools for web developers to make life easier?

I'm aware of the common ways to enhance macOS performance (like this one or similar), but I'm looking for dev-specific tips (like "use vim instead of VS Code", or "roll back to older macOS version", or something), hidden gems to let my old aluminum friend live and work for a year or two more.

Please, share your experience, I would highly appreciate any small advice!

Also if you have practical experience of comparing old machines' performance with newer "slim" options (12- and 13-inch MacBooks of 2019) for development purposes, please share that as well. It would greatly help me to decide do I need a new Pro-line laptop or lighter version would be enough.