Ask HN: Is the iPad ready as a SSH-centric development machine? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Is the iPad ready as a SSH-centric development machine?

9 pointsnextos8 comments

Due to COVID, I am stuck in a weird location, with an old laptop, unstable housing and no wired Internet connection.

At work, I have a really powerful Linux workstation which I can SSH to. Hence, I can run Emacs and shells remotely and multiplex them in a single terminal window using GNU Screen.

Are iPads ready as development machines, if one sticks to SSH and a local browser? Alternatively, what other simple, inexpensive and light machines are suitable for this purpose?

I have done some research, and there are some good clients around like Blink. Furthermore, the new Magic keyboard with an integrated trackpad seems to position iPads as relatively direct competition for netbooks. Some glitches and roadblocks are concerning, like the lack of dedicated ESC key or issues with SSH background connections.

Chromebooks are sadly not a good alternative anymore unless you are comfortable logging to Google services for everything. This is a big privacy concern for me. Hardware is great and inexpensive on some models like the Pixelbook Go, but it's not easy to wipe out ChromeOS to run pure Linux.

What other options are worth considering? Perhaps Surface devices or cheap Thinkpads? Some other ARM devices like the Pinebook are very appealing, but not easy to purchase quickly.

Give this series a read, it’s from 9 years ago: https://yieldthought.com/post/12239282034/swapped-my-macbook...

The author was using his iPad as an SSH dev machine even way back then. These days I find it even easier since the iPad can now fully support AWS Cloud9 and also VSCode remote workspaces, so you can do graphical IDEs as well. If you’re going to be developing remotely there’s no reason an iPad wouldn’t work well for you.

Use mosh with Blink. WorkingCopy, CodeHub, Textastic make it usable. A better keyboard like a small Logitech with esc key helps but you can remap keys in Blink. I use an iPad to ssh to remote servers, works great. I mainly use a Chromebook because I need a real browser with developer tools, which is one big shortcoming with iOS. The other is clunky text selection, but that’s not an issue if you use vim or emacs over ssh.

So you think iPad's new keyboard is not worth it?

Is Safari on iOS good enough for intensive browsing, and is the window manager fluent for context switching back and forth to Blink? I'm not a web developer so I don't need too many bells and whistles.

Yes you can switch apps easily with a keystroke or swipe.

I haven't used the new iPad keyboard. I have a Logitech K380, works great.

I wrote up my experiences, a little dated now. This setup works for me still.

http://typicalprogrammer.com/working-on-an-ipad-pro-as-my-ma...

I had been using 10.5" iPad Pro for minor PHP dev work. Blink shell with mosh is just perfect. Lack of escape key was not a big issue, as you can remap CAPS lock key.

Also Working Copy is great if you have setup CI/CD pipeline. I used that only for Hugo sites on Netflify. I would edit content in ia Writer, commit in Working Copying. And a few minutes later it was deployed.

Lately, I am playing with Flutter. I am still setting Flutter dev environment on Linux VPS. I can compile webapp and then test in in the browser. Once this is setup complete, then I might just buy desktops in future, and keep iPad for on the go minor dev work.

I just got the new iPad magic keyboard case, and I love it. I use VS Code via code-server running on a VPS that I interact with via Blink/mosh.

The new keyboard is a huge upgrade over the previous model, and I’ve found that the trackpad feels natural when I’m using my iPad, much more familiar feeling compared with my MacBook.

One complaint I read about the new case is viewing angles, or lack thereof. I have had no issues personally, and find the angle to be exactly where I’d want it.

Overall I’ve been using my iPad for ~50% of my workflow lately.

You mentioned an old laptop - is it too old to have wifi, or why doesn't it seem to be an option?

There are SSH clients for iPads (I use termius), but the screen size / cost ratio is rather prohibitive if you only want a smart typewriter.

A cheap Thinkpad is definitely worth exploring. Four years ago I bought a used T420 (built in 2011). I paid just over 300€, RAM and SSD upgrade included. It's still running great and the keyboard continues to be a joy to type on :-)

My laptop is just falling apart. It'd be a good option if it worked well.

Hence, I'm just looking for something simple, mobile and easy to buy that offers me a good browser + SSH. It's also a nice experiment.

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