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by cbhl 3276 days ago
I love tablet hardware -- I remember using the second-generation iPad when it came out, and I have a Pixel C now. But the software just isn't there; it's not general purpose, and you end up with a lot of crippled mobile apps that are shadows of the Desktop equivalents. Plus you can't type the symbols that coding wants {}[]();

I'm really hoping that will get better next year, with Chromebooks that can run Android apps, the 12" USB Type-C Macbook, as well as Windows x86-on-ARM emulation.

2 comments

Same here. I still have high hopes for the Purism Librem 11[1]. I really like the tablet form factor, but every option so far seemed rather "meh" to me.

I'm looking for a real computing device and don't want to be confined to "toy operating systems" - the option for touch-optimized apps is nice, but unless there is a viable way to use desktop- (and especially terminal-)focused software without hacks I don't really see the long-term appeal.

Purism seem to essentially sell exactly what I'm looking for; plus: There are camera and mic kill switches, which to me seems like something that should've been the default ten years ago...

[1]: https://puri.sm/products/librem-11/

You can always use a bluetooth keyboard to solve the obscure symbol problem.
I would think that using a bt keyboard would be an absolute requirement if you were planning on doing a lot of coding on a tablet.