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At that point it’s not even worth differentiating between the two. Some people use laptops for work, some people use them for entertainment, many people use the

At that point it’s not even worth differentiating between the two. Some people use laptops for work, some people use them for entertainment, many people use them for both. Some people use tablets for work, some people use them for entertainment, many people use them for both. You can’t just say “laptops are for work and tablets are for entertainment” because that’s just not true.

yunusabd 6y ago
That's not what I'm saying though. I'm saying all PCs are general purpose devices, but many tablets aren't. That's why it makes sense to differentiate between the two and not lump them together.
- freehunter 6y ago
  Why aren’t they? Because they can’t be, or because you think they aren’t used in that way? I’ve been using an iPad for nearly 100% of my work over the past two years (until this summer, just a regular 9.7” iPad), and I know of developers who have been doing the same for at least nine years [1]. And these days it’s even more “general purpose”, being able to develop locally on the iPad with things like Play.js and Pythonista running locally. Blink on iPad even has a local shell built in, and of course pretty much all Android devices can drop to their local root shell too. I guess you’re going to have to define what you mean by “general purpose computer” because pretty much every definition I find online includes smartphones and tablets [2][3][4]: > A general purpose computer is built to perform a variety of tasks, including the most frequent computing tasks, in a reasonably efficiently manner. It can store and execute multiple programs in its internal storage. Personal computers such as tablets, smartphones, notebooks and desktops are examples of general purpose computers. The difference it seems like you’re making is that laptops are general purpose computers because you want to define them that way, and phones/tablets are not, again, because that’s how you want to define it. So please, define what “general purpose” means and why your definition doesn’t match anyone else’s definition? What do people get out of gatekeeping the most ridiculous things? Any iPad or Android tablet can install generic applications, browse the web, play games and music and video, do word processing, check email, store and retrieve arbitrary data, edit photos, connect to SSH... you know, general purpose computing. So again... what is the point of differentiating? [1] https://yieldthought.com/post/12239282034/swapped-my-macbook-for-an-ipad https://yieldthought.com/post/12239282034/swapped-my-macbook... [2] https://www.reference.com/world-view/general-purpose-computer-52c09ca46a9e389 https://www.reference.com/world-view/general-purpose-compute... [3] https://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/general-purpose-computer https://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/general-purpose-comp... [4] https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zkrr97h/revision/1 https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zkrr97h/revision/1
  - yunusabd 6y ago
    The guy in [1] is SSHing into a different machine, which is running... Linux. From the same article: >I fundamentally believe that most people don’t want to rearrange windows, babysit their own general purpose computers or back up their data. So for me and apparently also the author, in this context "general purpose" is more of a crutch, to describe something that can do everything a normal computer can do. Most tablets can only do a subset of that. To rephrase my point: There are many tablets that can only be used for media consumption. There are some tablets that come close to general purpose devices. In contrast, all PCs are general purpose devices. Hence it makes sense to list them separately in a statistic.
    - freehunter 6y ago
      I spent all day on my MacBook SSH’d into a remote Linux machine, does that mean the MacBook isn’t a general purpose computer? Does the ability to SSH into another machine mean your computer is not “general purpose”? Because he also used a lot of native apps in those posts. And if you want a local shell on iOS, like I said the app Blink will give you that. You keep saying “many tablets can’t” but which ones? And why? Android and iOS can both be used as general purpose computers as I’ve mentioned. What other tablets are common enough but limited enough to make the distinction? You keep dodging this question and still pushing this complete falsehood even after you’ve been proven wrong. You’ve offered no proof or defense of your theory despite being asked directly and being proven wrong directly. At least iPads and maybe android tablets let you rearrange windows although you don’t have to (which is the point). They let you “babysit” whatever that means, although you don’t have to. They let you back up your own data (my iPad backs up to OneDrive, not iCloud) although you don’t have to. What is this “most tablets” when both Android and iPad allows you to do everything you’ve mentioned? Again... it sounds awfully like “I don’t want them to be computers so I’m going to claim they’re not” which was false when you first said it and now is starting to get pretty ridiculous as I keep showing you that you’re wrong.
      - yunusabd 6y ago
        > Does the ability to SSH into another machine mean your computer is not “general purpose”? Sorry, but this tells me you're not arguing in good faith, so I'll disengage. Peace out.

yunusabd 6y ago

That's not what I'm saying though. I'm saying all PCs are general purpose devices, but many tablets aren't. That's why it makes sense to differentiate between the two and not lump them together.

freehunter 6y ago
Why aren’t they? Because they can’t be, or because you think they aren’t used in that way? I’ve been using an iPad for nearly 100% of my work over the past two years (until this summer, just a regular 9.7” iPad), and I know of developers who have been doing the same for at least nine years [1]. And these days it’s even more “general purpose”, being able to develop locally on the iPad with things like Play.js and Pythonista running locally. Blink on iPad even has a local shell built in, and of course pretty much all Android devices can drop to their local root shell too. I guess you’re going to have to define what you mean by “general purpose computer” because pretty much every definition I find online includes smartphones and tablets [2][3][4]: > A general purpose computer is built to perform a variety of tasks, including the most frequent computing tasks, in a reasonably efficiently manner. It can store and execute multiple programs in its internal storage. Personal computers such as tablets, smartphones, notebooks and desktops are examples of general purpose computers. The difference it seems like you’re making is that laptops are general purpose computers because you want to define them that way, and phones/tablets are not, again, because that’s how you want to define it. So please, define what “general purpose” means and why your definition doesn’t match anyone else’s definition? What do people get out of gatekeeping the most ridiculous things? Any iPad or Android tablet can install generic applications, browse the web, play games and music and video, do word processing, check email, store and retrieve arbitrary data, edit photos, connect to SSH... you know, general purpose computing. So again... what is the point of differentiating? [1] https://yieldthought.com/post/12239282034/swapped-my-macbook-for-an-ipad https://yieldthought.com/post/12239282034/swapped-my-macbook... [2] https://www.reference.com/world-view/general-purpose-computer-52c09ca46a9e389 https://www.reference.com/world-view/general-purpose-compute... [3] https://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/general-purpose-computer https://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/general-purpose-comp... [4] https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zkrr97h/revision/1 https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zkrr97h/revision/1
- yunusabd 6y ago
  The guy in [1] is SSHing into a different machine, which is running... Linux. From the same article: >I fundamentally believe that most people don’t want to rearrange windows, babysit their own general purpose computers or back up their data. So for me and apparently also the author, in this context "general purpose" is more of a crutch, to describe something that can do everything a normal computer can do. Most tablets can only do a subset of that. To rephrase my point: There are many tablets that can only be used for media consumption. There are some tablets that come close to general purpose devices. In contrast, all PCs are general purpose devices. Hence it makes sense to list them separately in a statistic.
  - freehunter 6y ago
    I spent all day on my MacBook SSH’d into a remote Linux machine, does that mean the MacBook isn’t a general purpose computer? Does the ability to SSH into another machine mean your computer is not “general purpose”? Because he also used a lot of native apps in those posts. And if you want a local shell on iOS, like I said the app Blink will give you that. You keep saying “many tablets can’t” but which ones? And why? Android and iOS can both be used as general purpose computers as I’ve mentioned. What other tablets are common enough but limited enough to make the distinction? You keep dodging this question and still pushing this complete falsehood even after you’ve been proven wrong. You’ve offered no proof or defense of your theory despite being asked directly and being proven wrong directly. At least iPads and maybe android tablets let you rearrange windows although you don’t have to (which is the point). They let you “babysit” whatever that means, although you don’t have to. They let you back up your own data (my iPad backs up to OneDrive, not iCloud) although you don’t have to. What is this “most tablets” when both Android and iPad allows you to do everything you’ve mentioned? Again... it sounds awfully like “I don’t want them to be computers so I’m going to claim they’re not” which was false when you first said it and now is starting to get pretty ridiculous as I keep showing you that you’re wrong.
    - yunusabd 6y ago
      > Does the ability to SSH into another machine mean your computer is not “general purpose”? Sorry, but this tells me you're not arguing in good faith, so I'll disengage. Peace out.