This is my first post here, do not judge me hard, I will work hard to improve my question if needed.
I use macbook air for work and privately for many years. Every time I use to buy these laptops privately. However, I got recently funds to buy computers for my research group at university. Quite naturally, I wanted to continue using the same OS. But our financial department tells me it will be very difficult to achieve because they need to open a public invitation to tender and, most probably, there will be cheaper notebook offers on the market. This can be dealt with by formulating the requirements for the product, such that only the desired model comes into question.
I am interested in purchasing M1 chip MacBook Air for my students (M2 is a bit too expensive for my budget). What functionality can I indicate so that only this desired model comes into question and other products can be filtered?
Intended use: running computer algebra software such as Mathematica, debugging python and fortran codes before running them on dedicated clusters, preparing presentations, typing scientific texts, preparing illustrations with adobe illustrator.