The second you want to branch out and try something different, you are going to be stuck as hell on the iPad. No way to run Fusion 360 for example. Try to work on dropbox documents locally? Just simple stuff like downloading MP3 files and playing them can be a pain.
Unless you are laser focused on one task (like you seem to be)... sure it looks like you have made the necessary adjustments to make it work. For the general computer where your hobbies, desires and programs vary... there are just too many tradeoffs. I mean... running another OS on my macOS device is stupidly easy. I can manipulate any file in almost any manner. I don't have to paw at my screen for text selection... and so on and on.
That all said, I would love an iPad pro with macOS.
How is it not? This entire thread is about comparing iOS to a fully unrestricted desktop operating systems where we all work normally.
> Some obscure CAD package is not exactly the litmus test of how usable an iPad can be.
Actually, it is in this case. That was the entire point which was clearly stated from the first sentence:
> The second you want to branch out and try something different...
So the obscure CAD package itself is not the litmus test for how usable something is, no. However trying to use one or more obscure package is the litmus test for how usable the iPad is in its ability to let you branch out and try obscure things.
> Actually there is...
Well that would have really been some relevant information to reply with.
So what's your solution? Running a virtual machine containing a fully unrestricted OS on your iPad? (EDIT: I see someone below pointed out the "Fusion 360" iOS app which seems like a gimped, ahem I mean mobile, version of the full app.)
I can’t speak about the entire thread, but I didn’t intend to compare iOS to other operating systems. I just wrote that I can “work normally” on an iPad. The kind of work I do allows that.
If I want to “branch out” I have the Chromebook Pixel, and I can get another laptop if I need to. I can run a Mac or Windows system in the cloud — I’ve done that when I need to use tools not available on iOS, from POEdit to Eclipse. I didn’t mean to imply that I would force myself to use an iPad for everything and just throw up my arms if I couldn’t get something to work on it.
I would say "great"... but also, "Why bother?" You did compare iPad Pro and iOS to alternatives, no? Main computer and all that?
The point is "main computer" means main... not secondary or ancillary to my main computer. Your average person does not have a need for several thousands of dollars worth of screens, and would be much better off with a laptop vs. iPad pro. Furthermore, the premise of this "experiment" is extreme navel gazing.
"Hey look at me everybody! I bought a device for almost a thousand dollars then spent a lot more on apps, then wasted a shit pile of time for a gimped UX that sort-of works! You can do it too! Just get your check book out and be prepared to buy another laptop and/or VPS space because you'll need it!"
You can put whatever spin on it you want, I suppose. The iPad has more uses than as my main development machine. I would have bought it anyway for all the reasons people buy tablets. I don’t see it as a waste of money since I use it all the time, for work and non-work.
The few apps I paid for did not cost “a lot more.” A VPS costs $5/month, I already used a VPS anyway, and mostly I work on client systems already in the cloud. I don’t need to buy another laptop, I already have one that has worked fine for more than three years.
I didn’t suggest everyone try this, nor did I intend to evangelize iPads. Lots of people already have iPads or will buy one, and lots of people have expressed interest, for years, in using tablets as laptop replacements.
The author seems to be SSHing most of the time, so it’s more accurate to say that he’s using an iPad Pro as his primary terminal rather than as his primary computer.
Does anyone here who develops on iPad use any of the of the Vim apps, e.g. iVim? [0]
> iVim was inspired by and based on 3 projects:
>
> vim - the official Vim repository
>
> Vim port from Applidium
>
> VimIOS - A port of Vim to iOS 9+
>
> Without them, iVim wouldn't begin.
> In principle, this works with a free developer account. However, the resulting installation of iVim on your iPad will only run for seven days. For this to be actually useful, you will have to pay the 100 dollar yearly membership fee.
Thank you for posting this. I often get the "grass is greener" feeling and an urge to check out swift but this tells me I shouldn't bother. Sigh.
In principle, yes, but for some reason it really bothered me to have to give Apple $100 just to install some open source software on my iPad. I’d much rather have given that money to Nicolas who spent immeasurable effort trying to work around Apples silly restrictions to get a working shell environment onto iOS. Apple are the last people that deserve to get the money for this! It’s the moral issue, not whether spending $100 is a financial burden.
Not really. Apps that are signed with a free account expire after 7 days, which makes the free side loading pretty much useless. With a paid account, they work indefinitely.
Maybe not, I haven't tried that yet. But yeah "indefinitely" was probably not the right word. It might very well depend on some certificate with some expiration date. But it's very manageable.
50% communicating with clients, translating their requirements into actionable, incremental tasks, researching solutions.
25% reading code, my own, legacy code I inherited, and code from programmers I’ve hired.
25% writing and testing code.
The main tools I use on the iPad Pro:
Inbox (GMail client)
Skype and Hangouts
Slack
Blink (ssh client that support mosh, a real timesaver)
Working Copy (local copies of git repositories)
CodeHub (GitHub client)
Textastic (code editor with Working Copy and sftp)
Dash (offline documentation)
Google Drive, Sheets, and Docs
Google Keep, for notes, to-do lists, saving web sites”
Yup, same here. It's a terminal, to my dev and production systems. I only develop on it directly if I'm targeting specific other hardware (arduino, rpi, esp8266, making a linux distro, etc.) and even then I run that in a virtual machine.
I've tried a Surface with NixOS, and a minimalistic setup: XMonad, Emacs, Firefox and URxvt. It's great, except for the fact that most Surfaces are second-class citizens in Linux. I'd like to see an iPad with something closer to macOS.
I run the set up from that article sometimes, which depends mostly on an app to connect to a VPS and running a Docker container with all your tooling there. In the end, that's all there is to it; Blink is a nice terminal app, and you're using it to do the actual work on a linux machine elsewhere.
By the way, I use the the standard wireless magic keyboard instead of the smart keyboard. It has an escape key, which is great for vim, and for me it feels better to type on being a ‘real’ keyboard with some travel and clicky keys.
Thanks for sharing this article. This is exactly what comes to mind for me. I recently came back to this to see if I could set up an old iPad with this setup to see if it would be valuable to buy the iPad Pro.
Amazing how much you are limited without multitasking (as is the case with the old iPads).
Most of the jobs I have worked at required a desktop workstation running Windows 10. While perhaps not a tablet, I’d love to have the sort of work where doing everything over SSH would be possible.
I think it's less that than it is a philosophy; they're still very wedded to the idea that mice = (general purpose) computers, touch = tablets. I wouldn't be surprised if this eventually changes--maybe sooner than we think. Apple also at least claims to be wedded to the idea that the iPad can be an actual laptop replacement; if they mean it, they can't stop where they're at now when it comes to knocking down reasons to prefer a MacBook to an iPad. This is one of the big ones. (And, yes, ultimately I think this will require them allowing users to sideload apps: either the manufacturer gets to dictate how you can use the platform, or it's general purpose, but it can't truly be both simultaneously.)
Also, from a purely revenue standpoint, if they added trackpad/mouse support to iOS, I think they'd just sell more expensive mice and trackpads. :)
iOS doesn't have mouse support. It could be bolted on by simulating touches, but a lot of the interactions just don't make sense on a mouse.
The iOS simulator that comes with Xcode demonstrates this clearly. It just feels unnatural to swipe between homescreen pages on a mouse, for example. You have to hold down the mouse button and drag, which traditionally means drag'n'drop of objects rather than switching pages.
Makes no sense from my point of view. The mouse could be an addition to touch, not a replacement. I certainly understand the concern, but I believe the benefits of supporting a mouse clearly outweigh the drawbacks, especially for business users.
While there doesn't seem mouse support built into iOS, Citrix offers a special mouse for their iPad client - I guess they implemented some custom support for their app.
This tangentially reminds me that when I landed my first software development job I had just a 10in 1gb netbook. It was a remote gig where I supplied my own equipment, so right before I started I got the Acer C720 (4gb ram and added a bigger ssd) and put Ubuntu on it. Luckily I did mostly backend then. Most the frontend devs seemed to need 16gb to spin up Vagrant and all the webpack watch tasks etc.
Edit: not to say that was the way they should have been doing things, haha.
The upcoming version of Blink has some pretty awesome keyboard-based selection/copy/paste: you still tap and hold for the initial selection, but then that selection can be expanded with keyboard shortcuts
The increased rendering accuracy of HiDPI is extremely soothing to my eyes, allowing me to even go with a smaller font (rather, UI scale) than I do on a LoDPI one while improving comfort.
I have a 29" 2560x1080 screen in front of me yet I still regularly unplug it and work on the 13" Retina in spite of the reduced real estate.
That's cool, but oof, that price. I think one of those cheap $200 (just over) laptops you can get on Amazon with USB tethering to my phone would be my choice. Maybe a cheap fabric sleeve case to go with it. Even if I lost one, I could completely replace it and still be under the cost of this setup, and while a small laptop/netbook, it's still very usable. I bought 5 to play with for $DAYJOB the other month, and besides being a pain to get the big windows 10 update on because of low free disk space, they work great.
I own netbook and before that an actual Psion series 5 and series 7. They all really do seem like a great idea. On the netbook I set the text size tiny so I could still get two columns of 80 char lines. But the problem with all of them is the keyboard. It's just too small. If you're used to typing at a high wpm and use emacs like me then you will feel retarded. I never ended up doing anything productive on any of them.
I stuck to netbooks/sublaptops before and it kinda worked for me, last one was a Lenovo Ideapad. Was eyeing 13" MBPs for quite some time but they are really much more in weight/bulk. But last year went for 12" Mac with RAM maxed to 16gb, couldn't be happier. Almost netbook like outer dimensions: still comfortable to use on the bus/plane. Same weight and thinner, usable keyboard. Great battery life, and enough horsepower even with the m3 cpu. Fanless, just like my Ideapad was!
Bluetooth is a bit patchy at the moment (the keyboard drops out occasionally); I'm waiting for a software update to fix that. (Jolla's updates are frequent, so I'm not fretting about this.)
Now, it runs Linux, with a proper terminal, and a suite of software - I'm using Emacs with SBCL and Erlang. (I had to compile Erlang - not a problem at all!)
Going through your list:
- SSH 'out-of-the-box'
- Emacs (or Vim)
- not quite Ubuntu; it's RPM based
- a smaller form factor than iPad Pro, but that's what the tablet will hopefully rectify!
- proper multitasking, unlike Android or iOS
Plus, I get telephony, and VPN support in the OS.
Compared to iPad and Android tablets, this is a breath of fresh air - no idiotic hoops to jump through (rooting the machine); simple to transfer files via SD card, USB, or just use SCP from the terminal. Root access is just a 'su' away.
My ThinkPad X1 Carbon seems to tick all your boxes with the exception of the tablet form factor. I love this thing. I get ~12 hours battery life, can run full-fat Linux and Windows, it has a superb keyboard and trackpad (and TrackPoint!), beautiful screen (I have the HDR model), loads of memory and solid state storage and 4 USB ports! (two type C and two type A). And it only weighs 1.1KG.
I have tried and failed to work on a tablet but they are just too limiting for me as they always rely on a stable internet connection to a VPS which isn't always possible easily and sometimes I just want to get on with work without the internet as a distraction.
The X1 Carbon is a fantastic laptop. The X1 Yoga is basically an X1C that can go tablet or tent mode and has a touch screen. It might be what GP is looking for:
I use a chromebook as a portable terminal in the data center. It's awesome. Termux for ssh sessions and common command line utilities, beagleterm if I need a serial console, and chrome for looking up stuff online. About 2 seconds from opening the cover to being usable, and battery that will last the whole workday.
I use a Chromebook in user mode for development at home. Using Caret for editing and Termux for nodejs stuff actually works quite well, but there are a few slightly annoying things like Chrome refusing to load things from localhost (Firefox for Android will). It's not a replacement for a proper computer but it works for tinkering.
I don't use my iPad as my main computer, but I do use it when traveling. The work I do is mainly command line (development---Unix is my IDE), so using SSH is fine (vSSHD for iOS). Cut-n-paste is a bit of a chore though. My biggest complaint is the keyboard, but then again, short of an IBM model M I'm always going to complain about the keyboard.
My biggest issue with an iPad Pro+Apple Keyboard as the main terminal client:
- Where the "Control" key should be, is the "International Keyboard" key -- and there's no option to remap it. Control-something brings up the "Emoji" keyboard...or the Spanish keyboard (for me)
Yeah, I've had to disable all keyboards except the main (English) one because hitting the globe key accidentally was so frustrating. For Emoji, I'm using an app called Symbols which allows be to copy/paste them (yay for multitasking with a floating app window on iOS11).
The main benefit to me, besides mosh support, of the Blink app mentioned in TFA is that it actually allows you to remap caps lock to be control, because between left shift and tab is where the control key is supposed to live. I have been searching/waiting for half a decade for someone to produce a bluetooth keyboard that allowed me to remap keys the same way I can on my laptop and this software hack in Blink is the closest anyone has come.
This is why I started Blink, seriously. I just wanted to have Cmd as Ctrl and Alt as Meta on my iPad, for emacs.
I even had to go one night to Grand Central's Apple Store and buy an external BT keyboard to run some tests because I realized the Simulator wasn't working properly with the modifier keys. And fortunately I was right, I could make modifier keys work, and it made sense to continue working on Blink.
I did it two years or so ago. You really notice not having a mouse. Copy and pasting was weird. Local development is off the table; your workload will need to be on another box. Panic handled window resizing and rotations weird.
Yeah for tools driven by webpack not having local development is really painful. I tried to make the pixel c my only device and got somewhat further thanks to tmux but ultimately not having chrome developmer tools in the browser made it not work for me.
The big things that would prevent me from using an iPad for work are:
- No window management. No multiple screens. Can't have docs, IDE, browser and Slack open at the same time, for example. Bad crouched-down seating position as a result.
- Text selection sucks on tablets in general.
- Can't install developer tools locally; you're forced to work over SSH. Can't work on a plane, or wherever there's spotty WiFi
- No good IDEs. For PHP, I like PHPStorm, for example. Don't know if web-based IDEs are any good though.
You're now making me imagine setting up a Raspberry Pi as a portable micro-server for your iPad terminal to SSH into, then creating an ad hoc WiFi network on the plane, which you could then connect your iPad Pro to.
Of course that's completely backwards, your terminal has more processing power than the server, plus you'd need a battery for the RPi, and a way to sync your micro-server to your real server.
It would be completely impractical and stupid, but it would be rather funny.
It totally works. The PI just needs a regular USB battery which I travel with for my phone. An added bonus is all the fun wifi Linux tools that aren't available on my Mac or iPad.
> Can't work on a plane, or wherever there's spotty WiFi
When I moved to the iPad-only I thought this would be an issue. Reality is I cannot code without WiFi anyway (checking documentation, doing research, etc...). I understand that may not be the case for everyone though, but coding without WiFi may actually be the exception.
And for spotty-low speed, that's where Mosh shines. I've even worked on spotty 2.5G tethering from a remote place.
iOS has limited multitasking and multiple windows. I can have my terminal open with Slack on the side, for example. I have come to prefer having the entire screen devoted to a single task — fewer distractions. iOS also has keyboard shortcuts for switching apps.
Text selection does suck, as I mentioned in the article.
I’m forced to work over ssh in any case. I work on legacy applications, for multiple clients, and most of them would need a lot of work and stubbing in weird dependencies to run locally. I used to try to run them on a MacBook, and even when I got them to work it was a lot of trouble and never a real duplicate of the production application. Much easier to clone the whole thing into a cloud server for development.
I have tried most of the cloud IDEs. Cloud9 works the best but not with iOS.
I can get all of the source code on the iPad with Working Copy and I can edit code offline with Textastic. I just can’t run it or push to the server until I get back online.
With the cramped economy seats that have become standard these days, the iPad Pro with a SmartKeyboard is pretty much the only thing I can use to work on an airplane (because the keyboard is so short). I wouldn’t be able to fit a full laptop in front of me and be able to type without hitting other passengers in the face with my elbow. But yeah, it’s pretty restricted. No real dev tools. Text editing works fine though. It also requires some thinking ahead, as I need to sync any files I want to work on to local storage on the iPad.
This guy could seriously do well with the Surface Pro, none of the negatives he mentioned exist with all the positives but I’m guessing he’s deliberately Windows free
When I started my first job as a developer a few years back, my boss (non-technical) apparently asked my manager if it was possible for me to do my job on an iPad instead of a Macbook, as iPads are cheaper.
Obviously my manager said no.
I should've taken it as a sign of things to come. My boss wouldn't even pay for my stationary, I had to buy my own pens and paper, let alone get my any peripherals like a monitor or a keyboard.
this kind of marginal cost-cutting at the expense of medium/long-term productivity is commonplace yet baffling to me. even if it doesn't increase productivity, surely it increases retention to some degree, I just don't get why you wouldn't make a small investment here as an owner/manager.
Surely hardware is such a miniscule cost compared to the bodies using it 8 hours a day.
I have never encountered a carpenter whose boss tried to get them to use the cheapest possible tool (especially the wrong kind of tool) for their job. Why would we be different, other than having bosses unfamiliar with the work they are managing.
With these kind of "cost effective" bosses I suggest offering remote work, it usually works beautifully and you don't have to endure their ridiculous attitude 8+ hours a day.
Conveniently my "cost effective" boss worked remotely, so at least I didn't have to tolerate him in person more than once a month.
Everyone else at the job was super cool, I just really didn't gel with the CEO. I think maybe it was because he never saw us he treated us as some abstract cost centre.
I’m sure that isn’t all he is doing — who’d want to suffer through Surface for all the other tasks beyond ssh?
Also the iPad Pro refresh rate is double that of Surface; the screen is significantly better which matters when you spend 8 hours a day looking at small stuff.
iPad Pro is also thinner, lighter and has a far more powerful processor.
I use the iPad for more than ssh to remote servers. I write a lot, for example. I also use it for watching movies and playing games.
I have played with the Surface quite a bit and I know a few developers who use them (or have used them and given up). Partly it comes down to not wanting to use Windows.
I do all of my “office suite” work on the iPad, mainly emails and spreadsheets, but also writing specifications, reviewing issues and PRs in GitHub, etc. No problem with that, the iPad goes beyond mere media consumption.
I think I described that I work on remote servers belonging to my customers, so mainly I use a terminal and a web browser for that. I don’t do native development (anymore), I don’t do embedded programming. I do sometimes do front-end work and I have a Chromebook (and tools like Browserstack) for that.
I don’t try to do everything myself, or have computers that can do everything. I hire a lot of work out.
I would switch in a heartbeat if it had a mouse. This stops me working on presentations which is where most of my time is spent.
Surely it wouldn’t even be that hard to enable and would fit in without compromising a touch based interface? I don’t understand why they wouldn’t do it?
I like the iPad Pro but for that kind of workload it seems an Android (or Windows) tablet would be a better fit.
You get mouse support for proper text selection and with ie. Termux you can work locally without the need to ssh into a server all the time.
I use an old Sony Android tablet with bluetooth mouse+keyboard this way and it has been great while travelling or for any spring time "I want to work in a park" flashes. (It is also water proof which saved it quite an embarrassing number of times already.)
Unfortunately no. I would love a large epaper tablet but so far I just cranked the screen brightness up high and brought a battery pack. Works quite well.
Absolutely. Working mostly on CRUD-Apps in php, python and node locally though, I never missed a faster device that much. You are more limited by your input modes or apps than performance really.
I use a cheap Microsoft Surface clone as my main tablet. It is far slower than a current iPad, but also cheaper.
Con: The app situation is dire. I generally use the browser instead of apps.
Pro: It is an actual computer. You can plug in USB sticks, you can work with files, you can connect to a TV, you can program, you can use command line programs. For me, this outweighs everything else. In a pinch, I can whip out Emacs and write a Python program, or run ffmpeg to convert a video file, or debug a C++ program. All of this will be slow, because these cheap tablets are slow, but none of these are even possible on iOS/Android tablets.
We should choose tools that empower us, not tools that take our power away.
Note that the iPad with a keyboard handles non-English languages relatively bad. There are shortcuts in some applications that simply do not work using a non-US layout.
191 comments
[ 2.8 ms ] story [ 188 ms ] threadUnless you are laser focused on one task (like you seem to be)... sure it looks like you have made the necessary adjustments to make it work. For the general computer where your hobbies, desires and programs vary... there are just too many tradeoffs. I mean... running another OS on my macOS device is stupidly easy. I can manipulate any file in almost any manner. I don't have to paw at my screen for text selection... and so on and on.
That all said, I would love an iPad pro with macOS.
Dropbox docs can be opened in local apps.
I don't think anyone is saying that an iPad is a replacement for all computing tasks. But for many things it could come close.
Actually there is, but how is this relevant? Some obscure CAD package is not exactly the litmus test of how usable an iPad can be.
How is it not? This entire thread is about comparing iOS to a fully unrestricted desktop operating systems where we all work normally.
> Some obscure CAD package is not exactly the litmus test of how usable an iPad can be.
Actually, it is in this case. That was the entire point which was clearly stated from the first sentence:
> The second you want to branch out and try something different...
So the obscure CAD package itself is not the litmus test for how usable something is, no. However trying to use one or more obscure package is the litmus test for how usable the iPad is in its ability to let you branch out and try obscure things.
> Actually there is...
Well that would have really been some relevant information to reply with.
So what's your solution? Running a virtual machine containing a fully unrestricted OS on your iPad? (EDIT: I see someone below pointed out the "Fusion 360" iOS app which seems like a gimped, ahem I mean mobile, version of the full app.)
If I want to “branch out” I have the Chromebook Pixel, and I can get another laptop if I need to. I can run a Mac or Windows system in the cloud — I’ve done that when I need to use tools not available on iOS, from POEdit to Eclipse. I didn’t mean to imply that I would force myself to use an iPad for everything and just throw up my arms if I couldn’t get something to work on it.
The point is "main computer" means main... not secondary or ancillary to my main computer. Your average person does not have a need for several thousands of dollars worth of screens, and would be much better off with a laptop vs. iPad pro. Furthermore, the premise of this "experiment" is extreme navel gazing.
"Hey look at me everybody! I bought a device for almost a thousand dollars then spent a lot more on apps, then wasted a shit pile of time for a gimped UX that sort-of works! You can do it too! Just get your check book out and be prepared to buy another laptop and/or VPS space because you'll need it!"
The few apps I paid for did not cost “a lot more.” A VPS costs $5/month, I already used a VPS anyway, and mostly I work on client systems already in the cloud. I don’t need to buy another laptop, I already have one that has worked fine for more than three years.
I didn’t suggest everyone try this, nor did I intend to evangelize iPads. Lots of people already have iPads or will buy one, and lots of people have expressed interest, for years, in using tablets as laptop replacements.
Does anyone here who develops on iPad use any of the of the Vim apps, e.g. iVim? [0]
[0] https://github.com/terrychou/iVimThank you for posting this. I often get the "grass is greener" feeling and an urge to check out swift but this tells me I shouldn't bother. Sigh.
I can think of a litany of things in the past 12 months I've spend $100 or more on that I probably shouldn't have.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/9to5mac.com/2016/03/27/how-to-c...
50% communicating with clients, translating their requirements into actionable, incremental tasks, researching solutions.
25% reading code, my own, legacy code I inherited, and code from programmers I’ve hired.
25% writing and testing code. The main tools I use on the iPad Pro:
Inbox (GMail client) Skype and Hangouts Slack Blink (ssh client that support mosh, a real timesaver) Working Copy (local copies of git repositories) CodeHub (GitHub client) Textastic (code editor with Working Copy and sftp) Dash (offline documentation) Google Drive, Sheets, and Docs Google Keep, for notes, to-do lists, saving web sites”
So, no, that is not accurate.
I run the set up from that article sometimes, which depends mostly on an app to connect to a VPS and running a Docker container with all your tooling there. In the end, that's all there is to it; Blink is a nice terminal app, and you're using it to do the actual work on a linux machine elsewhere.
By the way, I use the the standard wireless magic keyboard instead of the smart keyboard. It has an escape key, which is great for vim, and for me it feels better to type on being a ‘real’ keyboard with some travel and clicky keys.
Amazing how much you are limited without multitasking (as is the case with the old iPads).
Also, from a purely revenue standpoint, if they added trackpad/mouse support to iOS, I think they'd just sell more expensive mice and trackpads. :)
The iOS simulator that comes with Xcode demonstrates this clearly. It just feels unnatural to swipe between homescreen pages on a mouse, for example. You have to hold down the mouse button and drag, which traditionally means drag'n'drop of objects rather than switching pages.
Edit: not to say that was the way they should have been doing things, haha.
I think this is a really salient point. For those of us still doing Cut and Paste, a tablet isn't going to cut it (pun intentional).
They even show a little cursor when one is plugged.
I have a 29" 2560x1080 screen in front of me yet I still regularly unplug it and work on the 13" Retina in spite of the reduced real estate.
- use SSH
- edit & run code (i.e. python / JS etc.)
- preferable running Ubuntu
- form factor of iPad or iPad Pro
- multitask with browser, terminal and editor
Your article is the closest thing I've found so far. The list of tools that you use are also useful, thank you !
If it had Ubuntu, it would have been a perfect solution for me.
Bluetooth is a bit patchy at the moment (the keyboard drops out occasionally); I'm waiting for a software update to fix that. (Jolla's updates are frequent, so I'm not fretting about this.)
Now, it runs Linux, with a proper terminal, and a suite of software - I'm using Emacs with SBCL and Erlang. (I had to compile Erlang - not a problem at all!)
Going through your list:
- SSH 'out-of-the-box'
- Emacs (or Vim)
- not quite Ubuntu; it's RPM based
- a smaller form factor than iPad Pro, but that's what the tablet will hopefully rectify!
- proper multitasking, unlike Android or iOS
Plus, I get telephony, and VPN support in the OS.
Compared to iPad and Android tablets, this is a breath of fresh air - no idiotic hoops to jump through (rooting the machine); simple to transfer files via SD card, USB, or just use SCP from the terminal. Root access is just a 'su' away.
I have tried and failed to work on a tablet but they are just too limiting for me as they always rely on a stable internet connection to a VPS which isn't always possible easily and sometimes I just want to get on with work without the internet as a distraction.
https://www3.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpad-yoga...
https://github.com/termux/termux-app/issues/250
ipad is still very cripple for development purpose.
- Where the "Control" key should be, is the "International Keyboard" key -- and there's no option to remap it. Control-something brings up the "Emoji" keyboard...or the Spanish keyboard (for me)
Everything else? I can live with.
I even had to go one night to Grand Central's Apple Store and buy an external BT keyboard to run some tests because I realized the Simulator wasn't working properly with the modifier keys. And fortunately I was right, I could make modifier keys work, and it made sense to continue working on Blink.
- No window management. No multiple screens. Can't have docs, IDE, browser and Slack open at the same time, for example. Bad crouched-down seating position as a result.
- Text selection sucks on tablets in general.
- Can't install developer tools locally; you're forced to work over SSH. Can't work on a plane, or wherever there's spotty WiFi
- No good IDEs. For PHP, I like PHPStorm, for example. Don't know if web-based IDEs are any good though.
You're now making me imagine setting up a Raspberry Pi as a portable micro-server for your iPad terminal to SSH into, then creating an ad hoc WiFi network on the plane, which you could then connect your iPad Pro to.
Of course that's completely backwards, your terminal has more processing power than the server, plus you'd need a battery for the RPi, and a way to sync your micro-server to your real server.
It would be completely impractical and stupid, but it would be rather funny.
I'm trying to achieve this result with a solar powered rPi and my Android phone (running Termux), for syncing aren't git and rsync enough?
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207582
When I moved to the iPad-only I thought this would be an issue. Reality is I cannot code without WiFi anyway (checking documentation, doing research, etc...). I understand that may not be the case for everyone though, but coding without WiFi may actually be the exception.
And for spotty-low speed, that's where Mosh shines. I've even worked on spotty 2.5G tethering from a remote place.
Text selection does suck, as I mentioned in the article.
I’m forced to work over ssh in any case. I work on legacy applications, for multiple clients, and most of them would need a lot of work and stubbing in weird dependencies to run locally. I used to try to run them on a MacBook, and even when I got them to work it was a lot of trouble and never a real duplicate of the production application. Much easier to clone the whole thing into a cloud server for development.
I have tried most of the cloud IDEs. Cloud9 works the best but not with iOS.
I can get all of the source code on the iPad with Working Copy and I can edit code offline with Textastic. I just can’t run it or push to the server until I get back online.
With the cramped economy seats that have become standard these days, the iPad Pro with a SmartKeyboard is pretty much the only thing I can use to work on an airplane (because the keyboard is so short). I wouldn’t be able to fit a full laptop in front of me and be able to type without hitting other passengers in the face with my elbow. But yeah, it’s pretty restricted. No real dev tools. Text editing works fine though. It also requires some thinking ahead, as I need to sync any files I want to work on to local storage on the iPad.
Obviously my manager said no.
I should've taken it as a sign of things to come. My boss wouldn't even pay for my stationary, I had to buy my own pens and paper, let alone get my any peripherals like a monitor or a keyboard.
Surely hardware is such a miniscule cost compared to the bodies using it 8 hours a day.
I have never encountered a carpenter whose boss tried to get them to use the cheapest possible tool (especially the wrong kind of tool) for their job. Why would we be different, other than having bosses unfamiliar with the work they are managing.
Everyone else at the job was super cool, I just really didn't gel with the CEO. I think maybe it was because he never saw us he treated us as some abstract cost centre.
Also the iPad Pro refresh rate is double that of Surface; the screen is significantly better which matters when you spend 8 hours a day looking at small stuff.
iPad Pro is also thinner, lighter and has a far more powerful processor.
If you can't install your environment locally, you might as well use a $200 android tablet...
I have played with the Surface quite a bit and I know a few developers who use them (or have used them and given up). Partly it comes down to not wanting to use Windows.
When it comes to development, what's the use case besides a terminal client?
You can't develop anything native, because of iOS.
You cannot do webdev, cause only browser you can have is safari.
Cannot do embedded stuff due to lack of ports.
I think I described that I work on remote servers belonging to my customers, so mainly I use a terminal and a web browser for that. I don’t do native development (anymore), I don’t do embedded programming. I do sometimes do front-end work and I have a Chromebook (and tools like Browserstack) for that.
I don’t try to do everything myself, or have computers that can do everything. I hire a lot of work out.
Surely it wouldn’t even be that hard to enable and would fit in without compromising a touch based interface? I don’t understand why they wouldn’t do it?
You get mouse support for proper text selection and with ie. Termux you can work locally without the need to ssh into a server all the time.
I use an old Sony Android tablet with bluetooth mouse+keyboard this way and it has been great while travelling or for any spring time "I want to work in a park" flashes. (It is also water proof which saved it quite an embarrassing number of times already.)
Con: The app situation is dire. I generally use the browser instead of apps.
Pro: It is an actual computer. You can plug in USB sticks, you can work with files, you can connect to a TV, you can program, you can use command line programs. For me, this outweighs everything else. In a pinch, I can whip out Emacs and write a Python program, or run ffmpeg to convert a video file, or debug a C++ program. All of this will be slow, because these cheap tablets are slow, but none of these are even possible on iOS/Android tablets.
We should choose tools that empower us, not tools that take our power away.