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Comment by bobochan | Hacker News Reader

I find the iPad is a great platform to have when you have a lot of different computing options available and just need a lightweight client to bring with you. The most important app for me is Prompt2, an SSH client, that allows me to be work very efficiently, particularly when I pair a wireless keyboard. VMware Horizon lets me pull up an office desktop when I need one. Efficiency aside, I love using my iPad for reading, listening to music, checking news, etc.

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But now you're lugging around an iPad and a wireless keyboard. Essentially you've got a 2-piece laptop with twice as many batteries to worry about, with awful performance-per-dollar.

Might as well just get a Chromebook and put Linux on it.

I completely agree, recently took my Acer c720 with Lubuntu on it with me on my trip to GDC, it cost me £170 new and I could use it for everything I needed, which was basically just working on my game and browsing the internet.

One of those things I could not do on a £800 - £1000 ipad. The other thing I could do on it, with the minor benefit of a retiner HD display

The only performance that really matters to me is the ability to keep up with my typing over SSH, which the iPad handles beautifully. I have used Chromebooks and I do not get nearly the same utility out of them, mostly because I am very happy with the quality of the apps that I have access to and how well it integrates with everything I have at home and at the office. The battery life is excellent, so that is rarely a concern.

I get that there are definitely times when local processing power is necessary, and I lug my laptop around when needed. The iPad definitely works for me 80% of the time for me, and the important thing is that I actually ENJOY using it. That is worth a premium for me.

Ultimately I guess it comes down to Just using the tool your most productive with, whether that be hardware, software, programming languages etc ...

I use Prompt2 on my iPad Pro for SSH/term also - really like the tabs so I can have a shell and a few emacs sessions open and flip back and forth (a little better than flipping emacs buffers).

I made a decision to not buy a keyboard. I can type fast enough on a virtual keyboard and I have 2 Mac and 2 Linux laptops for programming.

My iPad Pro is my most used device at this time. I also have a Chromebook that, like iPads, is something I would recommend to non-tech family and friends to use. Most people don't need a conventional computer.

The only issue with iPads is the cost! I love my iPad Pro, but $800 for a 32GB model seems expensive, especially compared to my Toshiba Chromebook 2 that was under $300 with a 1080p screen.

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