4 ms·

If a keyboard (and a decent-sized screen) can be added, definitely a mouse and a mouse-centric interface. I have tried using an iPad Pro for productivity, and

If a keyboard (and a decent-sized screen) can be added, definitely a mouse and a mouse-centric interface. I have tried using an iPad Pro for productivity, and it's living hell.

seandougall 8y ago
> definitely a mouse and a mouse-centric interface. Wouldn’t that mean most servers aren’t computers? Not to mention the DOS machines I grew up with, or everything made before the Xerox Alto? > I have tried using an iPad Pro for productivity, and it's living hell. Not going to disagree with you there. But that doesn’t make it not-a-computer.
- nkkollaw 8y ago
  Those are servers. If we want to classify devices, we need to group them somehow. Otherwise we call them devices and call it a day.
  - icebraining 8y ago
    Servers are still computers. We already classify them: smartphones, tablets, laptops, desktops, servers are all groups of computers.
  - zingmars 8y ago
    His old DOS machines certainly weren't servers. Not having a GUI does not make a machine a server and having a GUI does not make a computer not-a-server (especially since we have graphics chips inside CPUs now).
mc808 8y ago
Even though you're technically wrong (the best kind of wrong), I can see where you're coming from. Even microcontroller ICs without enough memory to store this comment are real computers and are silent, but if you say you've built a silent computer and then unveil some Arduino contraption, expect eyes to roll. That said, I still think smartphones qualify as computers even by your productivity definition. Newer smartphones would sit somewhere above older netbooks on a ranking of overall utility.
annabellish 8y ago
I don't know about iDevices, but this is very much supported on a lot of Android phones. Samsung's lineup even has it as a bullet point feature, and they sell docks which let you connect your phone to a screen, peripherals, and switch to a mouse-oriented UI without having to do _anything_ weird. At that point, you're running a mouse-centric, multi-window OS with a wide array of software, that can run basically whatever you want. So that's a computer, definitely, right? When does it stop being a computer? If you disconnect the display? Is it using a stylus instead of a mouse? Maybe the software keyboard instead of a hardware keyboard? (But then is the MS Surface not a computer when you detach the keyboard case?)

If a keyboard (and a decent-sized screen) can be added, definitely a mouse and a mouse-centric interface. I have tried using an iPad Pro for productivity, and it's living hell.

seandougall 8y ago

> definitely a mouse and a mouse-centric interface. Wouldn’t that mean most servers aren’t computers? Not to mention the DOS machines I grew up with, or everything made before the Xerox Alto? > I have tried using an iPad Pro for productivity, and it's living hell. Not going to disagree with you there. But that doesn’t make it not-a-computer.

nkkollaw 8y ago
Those are servers. If we want to classify devices, we need to group them somehow. Otherwise we call them devices and call it a day.
- icebraining 8y ago
  Servers are still computers. We already classify them: smartphones, tablets, laptops, desktops, servers are all groups of computers.
- zingmars 8y ago
  His old DOS machines certainly weren't servers. Not having a GUI does not make a machine a server and having a GUI does not make a computer not-a-server (especially since we have graphics chips inside CPUs now).

mc808 8y ago

Even though you're technically wrong (the best kind of wrong), I can see where you're coming from. Even microcontroller ICs without enough memory to store this comment are real computers and are silent, but if you say you've built a silent computer and then unveil some Arduino contraption, expect eyes to roll. That said, I still think smartphones qualify as computers even by your productivity definition. Newer smartphones would sit somewhere above older netbooks on a ranking of overall utility.

annabellish 8y ago

I don't know about iDevices, but this is very much supported on a lot of Android phones. Samsung's lineup even has it as a bullet point feature, and they sell docks which let you connect your phone to a screen, peripherals, and switch to a mouse-oriented UI without having to do _anything_ weird. At that point, you're running a mouse-centric, multi-window OS with a wide array of software, that can run basically whatever you want. So that's a computer, definitely, right? When does it stop being a computer? If you disconnect the display? Is it using a stylus instead of a mouse? Maybe the software keyboard instead of a hardware keyboard? (But then is the MS Surface not a computer when you detach the keyboard case?)