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Comment by davely | Hacker News Reader

This is my biggest hang up about the iPad. Hardware is great. The OS is… passable. Sort of.

For me: I can’t do computer things that I want to do (mainly code, but sometimes game, etc).

I ended up buying a used Surface Pro X. A bit slow, but I like that I can run something like VS Code and a Node server, or even a real web browser with network debugging tools, all using a touchscreen while on a bus or in an airplane.

(For my gaming fix, I find that GeForce Now or Moonlight work pretty well for streaming my existing games — not as practical to do on a bus though.)

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I understand what you are saying. The iPad is the best choice for some people and the worst choice for others. I have an older iPad Pro and it’s by far my favorite computer mostly because it doesn’t really feel like a computer.

My favorite apps are Procreate and GoodNotes. For me, either one is a killer app that justifies having an iPad.

I also have a ThinkPad for my personal projects and a desktop workstation for my job. Each machine has its strengths and weaknesses. Each was chosen because it was a great choice for what I need to do with it.

I’m one of the few people that hope the iPad doesn’t get more computer-like. I miss the days when you had an Atari or Amiga or PC or Mac and they were all very different and exciting and in competition with each other. Now we are approaching a very boring endgame where cross platform apps look the same everywhere and there’s nothing fun about any of it.

> I’m one of the few people that hope the iPad doesn’t get more computer-like.

Genuine question; what loss of features or capabilities are you expecting if the iPad does become more computer-like? I don't understand how features like sideloading, compiling or emulating limits your ability to use Procreate and GoodNotes.

While I’d love an iPad running macOS (You know there’s a lucky Apple engineer with one), The worry having the features is that it will require futzing with to get it to work right. Right now an iPad is like a Video game console. You just plug it in and it works. There is an expectation of a very, very smooth user experience. The fear is that in adding computer-like features, it won’t be as smooth anymore. Don’t know if I agree with that, but that’s the concern anyway.

I guess I just don't agree with it either. None of the features I mentioned should have any negative impact on the end-user unless the OEM deliberately implements it wrong.

One solution is to tape a pi to your iPad case. :)

No internet connection required.

This should work for node but not compiled languages. I think that the compilation would happen on the slower Pi but maybe someone can figure out a way to compile but not run on the iPad.

https://magpi.raspberrypi.com/articles/connect-raspberry-pi-...

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