Ask HN: Best iPad Pro Alternative for VSCode? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Best iPad Pro Alternative for VSCode?

7 pointseuos9 comments

Did anybody found a good iPad alternative that can natively run VSCode.

I am using VSCode to remotely develop on my WSL so I only need to run the frontend. I saw some open-source efforts to run it as web app (which would allow running it on iPad) but I do not think they are ready yet.

I am looking for: - 11'+ screen with the quality (resolution/brightness/etc) comparable to iPad Pro - No keyboard or collapsable keyboard (I want to be able to use it as iPad to watch Netflix in bed and such). I assume all OSes now support wireless keyboards. - Officially supported OS for VSCode (Windows/Linux/Mac). Looks like ChromeOS is also supported now.

Am I asking for too much?

Get a Microsoft Surface with decent Linux support, toss something like Pop_OS! on it and you should be good to go. Perfectly usable native dev environment without any cloud trickery or OS lockdown, probably at a cheaper price point than an iPad too.

Yeah, that's what I may end up with. Was wondering if there's a comparable Chromebook.

I am most worried about the screen quality.

I'd suggest the MS Surface Go 2. It has a 10.5" 3:2 display.

There's many iterations of Surface Pro 7/7+/8 models with faster CPU and larger displays.

Have you considered Gitpod with an iPad? https://ghuntley.com/anywhere

I've tried it. The experience was really poor. It does not perform as well on Mobile Safari as other devices. The Terminal also displayed weird on an iPad for a while. Load Times of Interface also take longer. Perhaps it's improved since I last used it, or works better on M1 iPad, as the blog post you linked seems to indicate.

I've been using Textastic or Code (thebaselab.com/code, which is an app with subset of VSCode Functionality, excluding extensions) + Working Copy, and that's been somewhat better.

What would you be willing to pay for such a thing?

"Reasonable" amount. iPad Pro is reasonable.

I think $2k would be reasonable if it is a real laptop.

For the IDE to run on iOS

Is something like Stackblitz not usable?

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