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It's a very small cohort of people that want to do "whatever they want". Most people do productive stuff within the bounds of what's possible in an iPad - I mea

It's a very small cohort of people that want to do "whatever they want". Most people do productive stuff within the bounds of what's possible in an iPad - I mean Office/Outlook, Social Media, a full fledged browser with most websites supporting mobile mode now, reading apps, video/entertainment apps, games, social media apps, even corporate vpn apps are readily available. My dev environment is the only one I know of that I have to absolutely have a laptop for.

vorpalhex 5y ago
I got a phone call from my nephew a few weeks back asking how to mod an NES rom. My wife pretty frequently wants to do simple room diagrams. I'm hosting a game night for an RPG. Everybody needs a laptop - the player software doesn't work in Safari. I frequently pull and add notes to large passages of text. My notes are kept in markdown and in the cloud. This workflow is basically unusable outside of a real computer. Most people want real computers.
- ubermonkey 5y ago
  Your definition of “most” is wrong. MOST people don’t want or need to do any of the things you mention. BUT let’s talk about them: 1. The ROM. Sure, hardware hacking is probably going to require specialized tools not available in iOS. Most people don’t do this, though. 2. There’s nothing about “simple room diagrams” that suggests this is a task you need a traditional desktop/laptop to do — unless you’re insisting on using a drawing program that only exists on those platforms. No points here. 3. I’m taking your word for it that your software won’t work in Safari, but plenty of us played RPGs for decades without having any computers around at all, and I’ve definitely been party to game nights where an iPad was entirely sufficient. 4. I mostly live in text files, too. You know what works great on my iPad? Text files. No idea what you’ve done to your workflow to make it impossible to do on a tablet, but suffice it to say it’s not an inherent limit to iOS (or, I presume, Android). All that said, nobody is arguing that YOU should switch tools. But it’s hilariously wrong to insist that iPads aren’t “real” computers, or aren’t capable of handling a broad range of general computing tasks that formerly required full-on laptops or desktops.
alerighi 5y ago
Yes, you can use an iPad to connect via remote desktop to a PC somewhere to do serious work. All other things, you can't. Let's talk about office. Try to open a spreadsheet with macros on an iPad, of course you can't, even if Microsoft wants to implement it, that would violate the clause that an application shouldn't run third party code. A lot of companies have spreadsheets with macros to do their administration (I don't say that this is good, I only say that in the real world Excel is abused and that is a fact). Safari doesn't have the same support of Firefox/Chrome. In my country for a couple of sites of some public administration you still need Internet Explorer! Even if the site work on Safari, they are probably not optimized for touchscreens and mostly thought to be used with a keyboard and a mouse. And all the other applications? How about all the management software that is used in all companies? Email clients? Too basic compared on the one for PC. Other specific applications? The one on iOS are more basic. Specific kind of software to talk to specific equipment? Doesn't exist. Support for external USB OTG devices? Practically not existent on iOS.
- ubermonkey 5y ago
  The argument isn't that iOS offers everything that a traditional computer does. The argument is that, for many many people and many many use cases, it offers ENOUGH while offering significant advantages over the traditional laptop. Macros are a corner case. Sure, I use them sometimes, but they're only present in a small minority of my overall spreadsheets. I don't need them on the iPad. Word functions BEAUTIFULLY on the iPad. I use it ALL THE TIME. Ditto PowerPoint. "In my country for a couple of sites of some public administration you still need Internet Explorer!" This is not a problem with the iPad. Complaining about the email client on the iPad is REALLY rich considering most folks use a webmail client that is even MORE limited. I use iOS mail quite often, and while it can't do everything Outlook can do, it's more than sufficient for most people, and more than sufficient for ME most of the time. You've made more of a case for "alerighi doesn't like iOS" than you have for "iOS isn't useful for real work," in other words.

vorpalhex 5y ago

I got a phone call from my nephew a few weeks back asking how to mod an NES rom. My wife pretty frequently wants to do simple room diagrams. I'm hosting a game night for an RPG. Everybody needs a laptop - the player software doesn't work in Safari. I frequently pull and add notes to large passages of text. My notes are kept in markdown and in the cloud. This workflow is basically unusable outside of a real computer. Most people want real computers.

ubermonkey 5y ago
Your definition of “most” is wrong. MOST people don’t want or need to do any of the things you mention. BUT let’s talk about them: 1. The ROM. Sure, hardware hacking is probably going to require specialized tools not available in iOS. Most people don’t do this, though. 2. There’s nothing about “simple room diagrams” that suggests this is a task you need a traditional desktop/laptop to do — unless you’re insisting on using a drawing program that only exists on those platforms. No points here. 3. I’m taking your word for it that your software won’t work in Safari, but plenty of us played RPGs for decades without having any computers around at all, and I’ve definitely been party to game nights where an iPad was entirely sufficient. 4. I mostly live in text files, too. You know what works great on my iPad? Text files. No idea what you’ve done to your workflow to make it impossible to do on a tablet, but suffice it to say it’s not an inherent limit to iOS (or, I presume, Android). All that said, nobody is arguing that YOU should switch tools. But it’s hilariously wrong to insist that iPads aren’t “real” computers, or aren’t capable of handling a broad range of general computing tasks that formerly required full-on laptops or desktops.

alerighi 5y ago

Yes, you can use an iPad to connect via remote desktop to a PC somewhere to do serious work. All other things, you can't. Let's talk about office. Try to open a spreadsheet with macros on an iPad, of course you can't, even if Microsoft wants to implement it, that would violate the clause that an application shouldn't run third party code. A lot of companies have spreadsheets with macros to do their administration (I don't say that this is good, I only say that in the real world Excel is abused and that is a fact). Safari doesn't have the same support of Firefox/Chrome. In my country for a couple of sites of some public administration you still need Internet Explorer! Even if the site work on Safari, they are probably not optimized for touchscreens and mostly thought to be used with a keyboard and a mouse. And all the other applications? How about all the management software that is used in all companies? Email clients? Too basic compared on the one for PC. Other specific applications? The one on iOS are more basic. Specific kind of software to talk to specific equipment? Doesn't exist. Support for external USB OTG devices? Practically not existent on iOS.

ubermonkey 5y ago
The argument isn't that iOS offers everything that a traditional computer does. The argument is that, for many many people and many many use cases, it offers ENOUGH while offering significant advantages over the traditional laptop. Macros are a corner case. Sure, I use them sometimes, but they're only present in a small minority of my overall spreadsheets. I don't need them on the iPad. Word functions BEAUTIFULLY on the iPad. I use it ALL THE TIME. Ditto PowerPoint. "In my country for a couple of sites of some public administration you still need Internet Explorer!" This is not a problem with the iPad. Complaining about the email client on the iPad is REALLY rich considering most folks use a webmail client that is even MORE limited. I use iOS mail quite often, and while it can't do everything Outlook can do, it's more than sufficient for most people, and more than sufficient for ME most of the time. You've made more of a case for "alerighi doesn't like iOS" than you have for "iOS isn't useful for real work," in other words.