
iPad-only is the new desktop Linux - tdurden
https://medium.com/@chipotlecoyote/ipad-only-is-the-new-desktop-linux-de88b61b6d99
======
niftich
This seems to be making the point that using an iPad is a 'badge of pride'
because it's 'challenging'; trying to make the point that Linux is also
difficult to use. Except, it's not the same type of challenge at all.

Linux usability can actually be pretty good, but it's dependent on
familiarity, the desktop environment, the distro, the choice of installed
applications; everything is customizable, and making most of that
customization requires a willingness to research, understand, tinker.

An iPad is locked down to the point of hurting usability, the 'share' system
is vastly inferior to Android's 'intents', split-screen mode just recently
arrived, mouse support is intentionally missing. Trying to use it as a desktop
replacement is borderline masochism. Frankly, it's nothing like desktop Linux,
even if you're in an unfamiliar desktop environment.

~~~
mikeash
Yes, it's rather silly. Desktop Linux is like having a machine shop. It's a
steep learning curve, but you can do amazing things. Advanced tasks on the
iPad is like a dancing bear: it's impressive that it can even be done, but the
actual dancing sucks.

~~~
teach
I love the dancing bear analogy, but I'd argue that Linux on the desktop isn't
a difficult learning curve. Not in 2016, anyway.

The Linux desktop is _different_ than Windows 10 or the MacOS, but it isn't
harder, IMO.

~~~
soared
For the average user (who uses w10 or osx) linux is miles more difficult. Turn
on your mac, login to apple, and 1 click download anything and it works. Linux
has dependencies, and not-so-straightforward app store, and plenty of little
differences that aren't obvious like osx. Thats what makes it so powerful
though.

~~~
spv
This is going to change with projects like snap and flatpak. Soon every app
will be come bundled with its own dependencies like Windows exe's

~~~
5ilv3r
As someone who remembers apt-get update taking only a couple seconds back in
the debian etch days, That sounds horrible.

------
placeybordeaux
For me the article boils down to this:

> No, hear me out. See, Linux users don’t care how much easier we say it is in
> our non-Linux worlds. Sure, they say it’s because of open access and free as
> in scotch ale and yadda yadda yadda, but really? They like the challenge.

This statement is completely unsubstanicated. If you don't agree with it,
don't bother reading the article, it all henges on it.

~~~
tinco
The article is not actually about desktop Linux. The author tries to draw an
analogy, it does not actually matter much whether it resonates.

The article boils down to: using an iPad for your day to day tasks is possible
but so restrictive you might wonder why people would try to. Much like many
people try (tried) to use Linux for day to day tasks and found it is (was) too
restrictive.

I myself can't argue. My current main os is NixOS and I've found it usable but
as a newbie much more restrictive than for example Ubuntu or Arch. Would I
recommend it? Would you like to use the next generation of more perfect
operating systems? Only if you like a bit of a challenge..

------
wtbob
I don't get this idea that desktop Linux is challenging, not at all. I've been
using a Linux box as my primary desktop since 1999, and as my sole desktop
since 2000. It's not challenging, it just works.

I won't say that there are _never_ challenges, but they are rare and — unlike
Windows and macOS — if I search a little I'll find an answer and am able to
bend the OS to my will.

~~~
coldtea
> _I don 't get this idea that desktop Linux is challenging, not at all. I've
> been using a Linux box as my primary desktop since 1999_

Isn't that fact a huge tell-sign that perhaps you're not the kind of person
for whom desktop Linux would be challenging?

You speak of 2000, but historically even people like ESR, Linus Torvalds, JWZ
etc have found Linux bad at usability and ease of installation.

Of course people used to tinker to e.g. get 3D working, or with basic setups
that don't need anything special driver-wise, won't notice.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHGTs1NSB1s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHGTs1NSB1s)
[http://news.oreilly.com/2008/07/linux-torvalds-on-linux-
dist...](http://news.oreilly.com/2008/07/linux-torvalds-on-linux-distri.html)
[https://plus.google.com/115250422803614415116/posts/hMT5kW8L...](https://plus.google.com/115250422803614415116/posts/hMT5kW8LKJk)
[http://gensho.acc.umu.se/pub/debian-
meetings/2014/debconf14/...](http://gensho.acc.umu.se/pub/debian-
meetings/2014/debconf14/webm/QA_with_Linus_Torvalds.webm)
[http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/cups-
horror.html](http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/cups-horror.html)

[https://www.jwz.org/blog/2005/06/that-was-in-fact-the-
final-...](https://www.jwz.org/blog/2005/06/that-was-in-fact-the-final-straw/)
[https://www.jwz.org/doc/linuxvideo.html](https://www.jwz.org/doc/linuxvideo.html)
[https://www.jwz.org/doc/linux.html](https://www.jwz.org/doc/linux.html)

~~~
wtbob
> Isn't that fact a huge tell-sign that perhaps you're not the kind of person
> for whom desktop Linux would be challenging?

Well, sure — but I didn't spring forth fully-formed from my father's forehead
knowing how to use Linux. As a matter of fact, until I switched I was a _Mac_
user.

And FWIW both my liberal-arts brother and his liberal-arts wife are now using
Linux. My sister-in-law discovered the command line within a week.

I won't deny that there are things which are painful in Linux. But are they
more common than painful things in Windows? I had to get a Windows machine to
do some work on, and it's utterly terrible. I don't just mean the 'this
doesn't work the way I'm used to' stuff: that's to be expected. I mean things
like randomly prompting me for a smartcard PIN over and over again, when Linux
would ask but once. I mean things like wanting to download OS updates as one
large file, rather than many small files — which can mean that it's impossible
to update the OS on a small disk.

I've not used macOS enough in the last decade to really have a critique; every
time I use it, I want to hurl the computer through a window, but I freely
admit that may simply be down to unfamiliarity, which is no more a critique of
macOS than it is of Linux. It is annoying that I can't use a tiling window
manager, though.

------
jdbernard
> See, Linux users don’t care how much easier we say it is in our non-Linux
> worlds. Sure, they say it’s because of open access and free as in scotch ale
> and yadda yadda yadda, but really? They like the challenge. Figuring out how
> to do what they used to do on a Mac or Windows PC is part of the allure.

 _Sigh..._ This again? Figuring out how to do things is not part of the
allure. Linux is my native ecosystem. I never have to "figure out how to do
what they used to do on a Mac or Windows PC." It's the other way around: I
have to figure out how to do what I normally do on Linux elsewhere, and very
often the answer is, "You can't do it, " because Windows and Mac don't provide
the same level of customization. Many of my regular workflows are just not
possible on Windows/Mac.

------
DiabloD3
Except iPads don't run Linux, and iOS is ridiculously locked down and has very
few usable apps for typical desktop needs (Android also has this issue, so I'm
not shitting on iOS only).

~~~
chatmasta
Jailbroken iPad has all the "Linux" essentials you might need. Combined with a
Bluetooth keyboard and SSH to a remote server, you've got a decent dev
machine.

~~~
chmod775
Sorry, but imho a cheap Dell would be more comfortable to work on than some
weird ipad/bluetooth keyboard/whatnot combo.

And decent only starts on the _far_ other side of that spectrum.

~~~
addicted
I think it would be interesting to see the amount of productivity people lose
using their iPads.

In my experience my iPad means I am using my laptop a lot less, but it's
taking me more time to do the same things I did on the laptop on my iPad.

~~~
wutbrodo
With the advent of ultraportable laptops a few years ago, I've almost entirely
stopped using my tablet(s). The upsides of a smartphone's form factor are
self-evident, but a suitably light laptop is (IME) so far superior to a tablet
in comfort, usability, and efficiency that the category has been practically
obsoleted for me.

My current laptop has a 13 inch screen and roughly the dimensions of an 11
inch macbook air. There are very few times I find it less convenient than a 7
inch tablet, and almost none compared to a full-sized tablet.

------
bunderbunder
I think it depends heavily on what you're using your computer for.

One of my parents owns both an iPad and a laptop, and the laptop barely sees
any use anymore. He's got a keyboard case, and, while I hate that keyboard,
he's perfectly happy with it. Email and browsing are about equally good on
iPad as they are on a computer. Browsing might even be better what with the no
flash. It plays video games & runs Netflix, and that's about all that matters.
I don't think he cares two beans about multitasking. The iOS office apps may
or may not be good enough; the last time he cared about document editing was
pre-retirement so I don't know that he's really put them to the test.

Challenging? Nah. I'm pretty sure he settled into it because, for him, it's
easier.

------
Q4Dyslexia
Ive been on the fence about this, with my last two years of schooling coming
up, i really don't want to carry any books, most of which I'm able to find
online. I also have to commute across the bay which takes 90min, can't leave
shit in my car because there is no locked trunk (if i don't take BART)

This 2009 15in literally is the only 15in macbook no to have video card issues
released in the last 10 years? But the downside is that its heavy.

Okay so that leaves 2-3 options realistically. Retina Macbook nice screen,
light weight, downside the keyboard is really small, fingers become cramped,
computation power might become an issue, although a deeper dive into the
benchmarking might give insight into that.

15in Retina, Screen+ , Speed+, Power+, Cost(---): seriously these 15in
computers are baller, but i can buy another car for the price of this
computer.....

iPad Pro + Virtual OS X host - get to have something light weight, easy to do
things with (read,code,surf,roll blunts), downside can't always be online
unless getting cellular, VNC might be destroying data caps, memory also
becomes problematic, as well as what the author stated which was broken
workflows with documents....

Anyone have input to this? What works for y'all?

~~~
Q4Dyslexia
its never going to happen, but OS X on iPadPro would be the solution to all of
this >.>

------
unsignedint
iOS and Android works fairly well if all you are doing is working on one App
at a time. Considering something simple as copying a password from a password
manager to paste on target app is already very awkward process on Android...

Something I can do in less than 5 seconds on desktop takes 30 seconds in
those, so I'm not sure how they can be compared to Linux desktop.

------
VLM
Its fun just to try and list the cultural clashes in the article, like the
linked author tried to include as many as possible.

My school age kids use ipads as their primary computer at school and that
carries over into home use. No matter what the linked article's author
experienced as a professional journalist as "normal", to today's kids the ipad
will be the new "normal". Maybe they'll be a human interest article in a
decade about trying to use old fashioned desktops and laptops to do real work,
instead of professional tablets that everyone uses.

Much like linux is useless on the desktop because no matter how many desktops
its deployed and used upon, if it can't run Excel2013 then the small segment
of the population that uses that software will never shut up about it being
useless to everyone because its useless to them until their itch is scratched.
Just like a skyscraper without parking for every employee is obviously useless
because over 90% of the countries population drives cars to work. You just
can't argue with special snowflakes who refuse to acknowledge they're special
snowflakes.

There is a side dish that when I got started with computers in 1981 the UI was
not user friendly and almost everyone was a noob, and now we have no noobs
left but the UIs are all weird and exclusively noob focused. Its a stereotype
that any discussion of "ease of use" WRT computers isn't a discussion about
actual use, its a discussion about fads and styles in UI design and 99% of
everything has been tried, heavily promoted, and discarded in the past.
Therefore its unsurprising that today's standard sucks because UIs have always
sucked and always will. That makes all this "easier" "harder" stuff just
nonsense. Merely different ways to do things. In the linked article he doesn't
like which directory in dropbox Byword links to, blah blah who cares. For all
past and present and eternity it'll always be possible to complain about UIs
and its completely content free.

~~~
Laforet
The linked post not really about hardware or UI design but how per app
sandboxing and lack of a shared local FS has restricted productivity on the
iPad pro.

I've always likened iOS to living in a bunch of lavishly outfitted tents: they
look great and are really comfortable. However each tent could only be of a
certain size since there is no solid foundation and when the heavens decide to
rain it is impossible to go from your bedroom to the kitchen without getting
wet. The other OS may be an ugly Stalinist house with very small windows and
unpolished concrete floor, but they are objectively better at serving the
purpose of in door dwelling I.e. shielding people from the elements.

------
ajarmst
Still waiting on a terminal-emulator/external keyboard combo that handles alt
and ctrl in an emacs-friendly way (I simply can't retrain my brain to use esc
for M-). If it also allows me to remap caps-lock to ctrl, I'll rename a child
after it.

------
mark_l_watson
I think the author is correct that some people use an iPad as a badge of honor
- I am a little guilty of this.

Both my iPad mini 4 and iPad Pro are fine for writing books in markdown, using
an online publishing platform like leanpub, performing research and note
taking, accessing servers via SSH terms, and consuming content. For work, the
trick is getting really fast at switching between apps and have a good memory
when you can't see things side by side.

Where they fall short is in programming. I do a lot of work on remote servers
and have SSH + term + Emacs set up nicely, but sometimes I really need IDEs
like IntelliJ or RubyMine to be really productive programming. So, I keep a
few Ubuntu laptops around.

------
jcbeard
Used this for awhile on my old iPad when my main laptop was broken. iSSH, a
wireless keyboard + cloud virtual machine and you can pretty much do anything
you need for dev work as long as you have a cellular or wifi connection.

------
bhaak
Windows didn't get the top position in desktop usage because it had such a
good UI. Neither does the iPad really work well as a desktop replacement.

It's all about laziness. If (for whatever reasons) I use this device for most
of my tasks for most of the day, I have an incentive to use it for all of my
tasks.

This might lead to a "challenge" but at least I don't have to start up the
laptop with Windows or boot into Windows to get my tasks done. And sometimes,
you just decide that this "important" task wasn't that important after all and
just work around it.

------
edtechdev
Seems like a good scenario for a Chromebook. You can buy two or more for the
price of one iPad. And install Linux on it if you want.

~~~
waiseristy
I think this would provide another good alternative

[https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/andromium/the-
superbook...](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/andromium/the-superbook-
turn-your-smartphone-into-a-laptop-f)

Who knows how well it would work in practice though

------
znpy
I always found peculiar of computer science in general the fact that once
something has got good enough, people in the field feel the urge to throw
everything out of the window and rebuild the whole thing, just a tiny bit
differently, possibly making the same mistakes that have been done in the
past.

------
xlayn
From the creators of "PC is dead, long live IOS"

Remind me again the argument for using the ipad instead of a... say mac air...
or the macbook? 1 pound? 2?

Sure there are some people for which this is critical... like the guy who is
40 pounds overweight but buys a new 10000$ new road bike because it's 1 pound
lighter...

~~~
rahoulb
11 hour battery life, built in SIM card, drawing UI sketches for clients (not
an Air though, I have a pro)

------
benbristow
I really don't see the hype around the iPad Pro. Doesn't it make sense to get
something like the Surface instead which is a full Intel machine in the same
form-factor running the desktop version of Windows 10; rather than limiting
yourself to Apple's walled garden?

------
jkot
I think that is very bad comparison.

I have an Android tablet with proper Debian desktop installed. With keyboard,
mouse, USB hub... It even runs Java...

~~~
5ilv3r
Is it arm or intel? If it's arm, please give us the model number. I wants.

------
gcb0
someone took 20years to understand what a walled garden design means. I am
trying really hard to not be offensive in this comment...

------
__Duncan__
But linux is easier to use than windows?

~~~
bhaak
Not anymore. You can run bash on Windows now.

------
simbalion
I think the headline and comparison of iOS to Linux shows the author doesn't
really understand the technology being written about.

