[heywoodlh]

Having an iPad Pro with an M1, I grow increasingly frustrated each year with how incapable my iPad is compared to my Macbook/Linux laptops. iPadOS still feels like iOS with some visual tweaks to the larger screen real estate. It’s absolutely not a laptop killer for a sysadmin or developer (unless your preferred language is Swift). Maybe it’s a laptop killer for creative professionals?

I think my iPad is an excellent thin client, however — but a Pro device should be more than just a thin client for me, imo.

Some things that would be a huge improvement for me:

1. Ability to do development locally

2. Virtualization (might circumvent the need to do local dev)

3. Install/build local applications

Apple seems determined to never allow anything outside of the App Store on i[Pad]OS, and with iPadOS being over four years old and still feeling like a giant iPhone, I don’t think I could recommend anyone should buy an iPad as a power user device.

[jijijijij]

Same. Don't buy an iPad! For real. It's a ridiculous device. Effectively no more useful than any other cheap tablet. Those tempting hardware features, you won't be able to use them in the end anyway, because of software limitations. You just can't do serious work with the iPad in practice. Trust me, after a short honeymoon period, and another few weeks of frustration, it will end up collecting dust and you will only ever rarely use it to watch movies at most.

If you buy one still, don't forget to turn it off completely, or you will find it someday, the battery completely drained and you realize it must have been months. Not good for battery health.

[galleywest200]

An iPad for drawing vs a cheap tablet for drawing are a mile apart in capability.

Maybe for technical work your statement is true, but for artistic work an iPad with Procreate/Dreams is absolutely a viable primary workstation.

[jijijijij]

Yes, of course if you have a concrete, specific significant use case for the pencil it may be more appealing. But the pre M1 iPad with the pencil did the job as well, for drawing and pure handwriting. Obviously the iPad is marketed to be more than a single purpose device. The processing power is completely wasted. Most people probably won't use the pencil much in the long term.

It's file management, app limitations and interoperability which kill usefulness.

[seanmcdirmid]

I love the iPad for its stylus, it’s a great device for brainstorming even with just notes. I wish there was more creative software they took advantage of the form factor however, like a touch/stylus based programming environment.

[jijijijij]

It is marketed to be more than a drawing device tho. It fails at anything but being a glorified scratchpad. Very narrow usefulness.

I got the first iPad (2016?) with pencil, for 400€, I think. It still does completely fulfill my needs for brainstorming. For anything else, the app ecosystem and locked down system are useless.

[seanmcdirmid]

I bought the iPad to do mostly three things: browse web, send emails, watch video, and take notes.

I also wish there were better more inventive apps.

[plufz]

I agree that a lot could be improved on the iPad and I would not say no to the features you suggest. But I’m not sure I understand why you would want to use an iPad instead of a laptop as a developer. For me the whole thing with the iPad is the pencil. I would never use it for development tasks (maybe like some sort of emergency device while traveling).

Not saying you are wrong to want to use it for development, just curious why!

[jijijijij]

Because the iPad is only missing a keyboard to become a laptop hardware wise. In theory. The laptop is redundant.

You can even have better ergonomics with a detachable screen. Basically a desktop setup with laptop mobility.

[plufz]

Fair enough, that makes sense and would be nice if it worked.

[jijijijij]

It would be the last device I ever need, if it did work like that... It actually hurts me, how its limitations are completely arbitrary and artificial. The iPad could be the best thing ever, yesterday. So, so frustrating and disappointing.

[robenkleene]

> Maybe it’s a laptop killer for creative professionals?

Nope. I'd argue developers are actually the best served professionals by iPads, simply because a terminal-drive workflow via SSH is at least possible.

I've written about the situation of creative apps not gaining traction on iPads (Procreate being the main exception) https://blog.robenkleene.com/2019/08/07/apples-app-stores-ha...

[heywoodlh]

> simply because a terminal-driven workflow via SSH is at least possible

This has been the one thing that has kept my iPad useful! I use Blink (grandfathered into their Legacy Pro plan) and it’s a very clean experience. I can’t help but feel like it’s a fragile experience having to rely on an app from the app store for my iPad to be useful — that Apple or the Developer could remove at any time. Maybe it would feel less fragile if Apple provided an official i[Pad]OS Terminal/SSH client.