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Comment by freehunter | Hacker News Reader

On the other hand, where's the excitement around the iPad? Several notable companies don't even make iPad apps, and some just have a scaled up iPhone app. The big draw for the iPad is Kindle, Office (or Office-ish products) and a browser.

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The PRICE ! Ipad is damn cheap nowadays.

I just bought an ipad 2018 (with pen support) for 329€ [0] new in Paris. VAT included. I wanted something to show my decks on the go and not having to put "geek mode on" with my laptop. Im all for diversity, but not at any price. I would consider that surface for 3/7 - 4/7 of the price of the ipad. More is Microsoft not wanting my business. I just saw 399 on MS side. Not.

[0]: https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-ipad/ipad-9-7

What is your "mission"? $329 is a lot of money if all you do is use mobile apps and you already have a phone whereas for this new surface 399 gets you a computer where you have tablet functionality as well as full OS.

Surface is wonderful at showing and creating presentations :)

399 USD is 340 Euros, so that's only a 10 Euro price difference

I'd easily pay 10 Euros extra over an iPad for a fully functional computer - Seems like an easy choice

iPad is the best computer ever made. Microsoft will never make anything remotely as good.

That's because it built something better: a computer that actually allows you to run any software you want.

If I can run Linux on it, I might actually be interested.

You might be able to. The previous model of the Surface Go (called the Surface 3, non-pro) ran Linux ok.

You completely miss the point. When you're in the kitchen do you use your specialist kitchen knives or a Swiss army knife?

399 USD + VAT (EU prices are tax included) is ~399€ (after adding also the premium for "consumer protection laws").

There are still far, far more proper tablet apps for iPad than for Android or Windows. I owned a Google Pixel C tablet for a bit but ended up returning it because android tablet apps were so rare. If I wanted android phone apps I’d just buy an android phone!

I currently own a 9.7” iPad Pro and I’d say at least 80% of the apps I have installed, maybe more, have proper iPad UIs or at the very least have light tablet adaptations.

My laptop is a Windows machine with a Linux VM often running and I do the same things on that machine that I did a decade ago.

My tablet is an iPad and it is by far my favorite computer to use. The killer feature for me is the Apple Pencil combined with Good Notes and Procreate. I just worry because the software is so cheap I'm not sure its priced sustainably.

Another app that I just started using is Drafts and I'm quickly starting to feel like it could be a game changer for me. It has me thinking I would want to get an Apple Watch to use with it but I think I would need an iPhone and I don't really want to move off of Android for my phone.

I love those use cases myself! However, you and I are by far not the mainstream audience. Hate to say it, but the ipad/ipencil ecosystem is too expensive for the average person. To your point about sustainable pricing, bulk of the money is going to Apple in this equation, rather than to developers building on the platform.

> Hate to say it, but the ipad/ipencil ecosystem is too expensive for the average person

The $329 entry level 9.7 inch iPad now supports the Apple Pencil (as well as the new cheaper Logitech Crayon...), so not so sure this argument holds up. This $399 entry level Surface doesn't come with the stylus as standard either, with stylus the Microsoft tablet hits $499.

the medium surface (i5) usually sell at costco for 350 with pen and keyboard.

Do you mean for $1350? It definitely doesn’t sell for $350 total

lol. it's $799, no idea what I was thinking about when i posted 350.

What do you do that still needs a full Linux VM rather than using WSL?

These days, probably nothing. I have a Ruby on Rails environment that I work in occasionally and the path of least resistance is to continue using the VM I already have.

Not the OP, but I have Windows Firewall set to block outgoing connections by default, which renders WSL mostly useless due to the way firewall rules work. This is supposed to be fixed in the next major update, so I may move over. There is still something nice about being able to snapshot my Linux VM and reset it after making a mess while hacking on something.

I code mostly on leased VPSs and servers, and some on a MacBook, but like you my iPad Pro is my favorite computing device. I spend a ton of time working and playing on it.

I write most of my code in leased environments as well, which is great because I can just use vim anywhere. I have run into some issues with keyboard shortcuts that make the iPad difficult to use if you're heavily reliant on vim shortcuts though.

It's so close, yet just far enough to make me prefer my Macbook for coding.

Agreed, I also do most coding on a MacBook, even when SSHing to a server. But being able to SSH on iOS and Android devices is nice.

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