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Comment by jstanley | Hacker News Reader

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jstanley·

Or an SSH client, and run all that stuff at DigitalOcean.

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But you can also do that do that on any iPad or Android tablet?

Plus imagine the cases where you don't have wifi (train commute, metro, lousy coffee shop etc.)

You can, but IME, it's all terrible. I've tried so many android ssh-clients, and they are all either closed source, or don't work smoothly.

You could use Terminal Emulator and run the CLI ssh client. I know CyanogenMod includes "ssh".

It's probably closed-source, but I use JuiceSSH and it is great. The Pro version has a cloud backup that makes SSH migration a breeze.

I've used TE, and it does the job, just not well. Same with CM's ssh.

I've heard juicessh is great, but I'm not going to use a closed-source app, especially to manage my ssh-keys. I have my own migration method (svn repo), that works great on laptops, it just sucks on android's shells.

+1 for JuiceSSH, I also have the pro version and I'm very happy with it.

If you're rooted on Android, you could put a full Linux distro on it with chroot.[1] You could even set up a vnc server and use that to get into Xorg. I'd recommend using a physical keyboard for any long term use or may quickly learn how strange RSI feels at the shoulder.

You may also need a busybox installer app to get things working.

[1] - https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Change_root

I've done the chroot, and it's slow and bulky. Although you are correct that it does work, I still don't feel it works well.

I also want to be able to configure my tablet from within my shell, and that means I'd have to be outside of the chroot.

It's probably more useful to be able to run Lisp, R, Octave etc. in a device like this.

Than what's the point of a Linux machine?

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