
Working on an iPad Pro as my main computer - gregjor
http://typicalprogrammer.com/working-on-an-ipad-pro-as-my-main-computer
======
fipple
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.

~~~
delhanty
Right!

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.
    

[0] [https://github.com/terrychou/iVim](https://github.com/terrychou/iVim)

~~~
goerz
I do, but it's useful mostly with the addition of shell utilities from Nicolas
Holzschuch's fork
[[https://github.com/holzschu/iVim](https://github.com/holzschu/iVim)]. At the
moment, this still requires sideloading (with a paid Apple Dev account). I
mostly use it for LaTeX editing; the whole setup is outlined here:
[https://michaelgoerz.net/notes/editing-latex-on-the-ipad-
wit...](https://michaelgoerz.net/notes/editing-latex-on-the-ipad-with-
ivim.html)

~~~
mcny
> 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.

~~~
TheSpiceIsLife
I don't understand this attitude.

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.

~~~
goerz
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.

------
carlosrg
A friendly reminder: there's no reason the iPad couldn't have things like a
local shell, emacs or whatever local program you like, only the artificial
barriers Apple imposes to limit what you can do with your own device.

Until these barriers are lifted, I think I will stick to old and boring laptop
computers.

~~~
briandear
You could equally remind people that those “barriers” also carry significant
benefit to the vast majority of users.

~~~
HiroshiSan
Not sure why it has to be one or the other.

~~~
sbarker
Security yo.

~~~
lisper
There is no reason Apple could not allow users to install their own
certificates, or even to just provide an "easy jailbreak" that was not
accessible remotely, without compromising security for users who elected not
to use these features.

~~~
cm2187
I keep hearing that Apple's direction of travel is to sunset MacOS for iOS. If
that's the case, Apple will need to provide developers a path to develop for
iOS on iOS. So there will be a need for an "expert / developer mode".

~~~
snowwrestler
I hear a lot of people say that too, but Apple itself has repeatedly said that
iOS and macOS serve different purposes and they will remain separate products.

What we do see Apple doing is consolidating some aspects of iOS and macOS
development. That makes sense since iOS was originally built on the OS X
kernel, but then allowed to diverge.

------
jwr
I'm a heavy iPad user (I use the 12" pro). I'd be willing to pay $100 for a
good, working Emacs. That said, I find that the experience of working on an
iPad is less than optimal, because of keyboards.

IPad Keyboards almost universally suck, for various reasons. I actually used
Apple's aluminum bluetooth keyboard for a while, because it was the least
sucky. The Apple smart keyboard is an improvement, but it also sucks in
various ways. There is always a problem with remapping caps lock to control,
which is essential, and I can't remap other keys and use them because of the
limitations of either the keyboard, the OS, or the terminal. I'd like to be
able to use Emacs as I do everyday, with a Control, Alt, Command and Super
modifiers, but once all the limitations are in place you end up with an Emacs
where even Alt (Meta) doesn't work and you have to type esc-something, and you
might not even have an esc key.

~~~
whywhywhywhy
With all these downsides to keyboard input on the platform and wanting to use
Emacs, I'm just curious what do you actually like about working on the iPad
over something like a Macbook, Surface or the small MBP?

~~~
actsasbuffoon
As someone with a 12 inch iPad Pro, Macbook Pro, and Surface Pro tablet, I can
weigh in.

A Macbook Pro is significantly more expensive than any of the other options,
and frankly, I despise the redesigned MBP. The touch bar hinders my
productivity, and the new keyboard tends to malfunction. The key travel is so
low that the keys often get stuck. Simply put, I love Apple products, but the
new MBP breaks my heart. It sucks. It's one of the worst Apple products I've
ever used. Apple urgently needs to put out a new MBP based on the previous
design. Get rid of the touch bar, bring back the ports, bring back Mag-Safe,
and pretend this terrible laptop never happened.

The Surface Pro is interesting. It's almost useless as a tablet. I basically
treat it as a very small laptop. I've tried using it without a mouse, but the
Windows UI isn't designed for it. I'm constantly struggling to click on UI
elements that are way too small. A lot of Windows apps are not prepared for
the high DPI screen, and are insanely tiny. You pretty much need a magnifying
glass to use them. As an ultra-portable laptop, it's decent. It weighs very
little, and the construction quality is decent (though not as good as an
iPad). The keyboard for the Surface Pro is pretty good. It's slightly flimsy,
so you have to keep it on a semi-solid surface, or the keyboard can start to
buckle and cause some issues. The stylus on the previous model wasn't very
good, but the new one is great. It's almost as good as the Apple Pencil, which
is high praise. As for development, it runs Windows. If you're a C# or Java
developer then that's great, otherwise it's not so good. You can run a VM, or
the Linux subsystem, but that eats into the Surface's already extremely poor
battery life.

The iPad Pro (especially the full size version) is just stunning. It has the
nicest screen I've ever laid eyes on. I'm not just talking about pixel
density. Images pop off the screen. The whole device is really solid, and it
feels great in your hands. Battery life is good, usability for daily tasks is
superb. The stylus is the best in the business (I strongly prefer it over a
Wacom Cintiq). Unfortunately the keyboard is a problem, and the inability to
run development software is a showstopper.

So I'd say the iPad Pro is the best hardware out there, but it's hampered by
software support. In my dreams, I can run Emacs, Ruby, Haskell, and all of my
other development tools right on my iPad. Since that's not possible, I use a
Surface Pro for Windows related development (working on a 3D indie game), and
an MBP for web development.

~~~
jkmcf
Replace the surface with a 2015 (wife's primary) and 2009 MBP (my non-work
backup), and I'm the same as you.

The 2015 MBP is almost perfect, and the 2017 would be extra perfect if they
hadn't changed the keyboard (it's like they didn't test it on people who type
for a living...)

I love my 2017 iPad Pro, and I hope to someday use it for local dev. I've
tried using it for dev work w/ an external keyboard, but you really need a
table, whereas a laptop can be used in your lap... The lack of mouse
integration is a bit annoying too, but most apps have good keyboard shortcuts.
Of course, you end up SSH'ing and then it's just easier to switch to my 2009
MBP. It doesn't have the latest OS, only has 8GB of memory, but still chugs
along nicely and is more dev friendly than a tablet.

------
monkmartinez
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.

~~~
coldtea
> _No way to run Fusion 360 for example._

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.

~~~
hungerstrike
> ...how is this relevant?

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.)

~~~
gregjor
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.

~~~
monkmartinez
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!"

~~~
gregjor
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.

------
stfwn
Another interesting take on exactly this topic, also using Blink to SSH (Mosh)
into a VPS: [https://jann.is/ipad-pro-for-programming/](https://jann.is/ipad-
pro-for-programming/)

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.

~~~
n_parks
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).

------
ams6110
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.

~~~
onion2k
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.

------
jwilliams
> Awkward text selection. If I didn’t mainly use vim over ssh I would have
> given up on iOS for this reason alone.

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).

~~~
pjmlp
Android and W10 tablets support mices.

They even show a little cursor when one is plugged.

~~~
disordinary
Even the Blackberry Playbook supported a mouse, really surprising that iOS
doesn't.

------
gregjor
Wow, I didn’t expect so many comments.

Thanks for the constructive ideas and discussion. I noticed that the skeptical
comments fall into two broad categories:

1\. I can’t do my work on an iPad because I need to use tools that don’t work
on iOS. Therefore I don’t understand how anyone could use an iPad.

2\. The iPad seems so obviously unsuited to software development the author
must suffer from masochism, or need to prove something, or suffers from Apple
fan boy disease.

I didn’t write the article to evangelize iPads for development. I described my
experience using an iPad Pro for my own work, which just happens to fit pretty
well with a tablet and keyboard because I work remotely on code I can’t easily
run locally, and I prefer using Unix (actually Linux) as my IDE. That won’t
work for everyone. Not everyone needs a pickup truck to do their job, that
doesn’t mean people who don’t own a truck made a mistake or want to punish
themselves.

~~~
skiman10
Good point. A lot of people are criticizing you for "preaching" about using an
iPad for their work, when in fact you are just sharing your dev setup for us
to read. It won't work for everyone, but it works for you so who are we to
criticize you?

Anyway, you have an interesting setup and I want to thank you for sharing!

Aside, I also run a Pixel LS with Crouton and love it still.

~~~
gregjor
I wrote this because I had told a few people I can use an iPad for work and
they asked me to write up the details because they would like to do it. A
quick Google search shows quite a bit of interest in using tablets instead of
laptops. I think I clearly made the point that this won’t work for a lot of
people, and iOS gets close to a good developer experience but has some
frustrating issues.

Haters gonna hate, the subject doesn’t even matter. If I wrote about my
favorite work chair I would get replies about better chairs and lectures about
how I should stand or walk on a treadmill. If I wrote about my motorcycle a
lot of people would tell me what a piece of crap I ride. When I switched from
a Macbook to the Chromebook Pixel, after a lot of research, I was told by
other developers that I couldn’t work on a Chromebook.

~~~
skiman10
That's really cool people were interested in reading about how you do it! I
always have a fascination about how other people live their lives and that
includes setups and other such things.

I enjoy my Pixel LS so much, it really is an incredible machine. It has some
pains for development work, but for me the pros outweigh the cons. I just
really don't like MacOS or Windows because they get in my way. Chrome OS
doesn't get in my way.

------
rcarmo
Those of you looking for a mouse that works with Remote Desktop on iOS can
check out my review of the Citrix X1:

[http://taoofmac.com/space/blog/2016/11/06/1930](http://taoofmac.com/space/blog/2016/11/06/1930)

Otherwise, I'm totally on board with this kind of approach - it works really
well, except that I can't really use Blink until it has ssh-agent (and
slightly better SSH key handling - it's still a bit clunky, so I use Prompt
instead).

OTOH, my work machine is now a Surface Pro, which does everything just fine.

------
nunez
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.

~~~
shams93
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.

------
inertial
I've been searching for a light & thin computing device for intermittent
travel needs where I can

\- 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.

~~~
nrp
I haven't gotten mine yet, but the Planet Computers Gemini is a modern take on
the Psion 5 that probably meets your requirements:
[https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/gemini-pda-android-
linux-...](https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/gemini-pda-android-linux-
keyboard-mobile-device--2#/)

~~~
cup-of-tea
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.

~~~
varjag
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!

------
iliaznk
Just a tip: it wasn't officially advertised, but with iPads 2 and 3 (and
probably 4 as well, those with the wide connector before the lightning
connector was released) you could use ANY USB keyboard connected via the so
called camera-kit connector (or whatever it was called, basically just a USB
adapter). That could still hold true if there any USB adapters out there
available for these new connectors).

~~~
AckSyn
Lightning to usb is the "camera" adapter and I use it on an iPad Pro. It
definitely still works

------
spc476
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.

------
awiesenhofer
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.)

~~~
Synaesthesia
Performance wise though, the iPad is totally gonna best any Android tablet out
there right now.

~~~
Drakim
Does that matter in this context? All I see here is talk of SSH and vim.

------
fredsted
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.

~~~
toomanybeersies
> Can't work on a plane

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.

~~~
nkristoffersen
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.

------
spraak
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.

------
toomanybeersies
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.

~~~
neilmock
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.

~~~
croon
I've had the same recurring thoughts.

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.

------
_ph_
I have made similar experience with my 13 inch iPad Pro. The hardware is just
great - perhaps with an exception for the missing keys on the smart keyboard.
But what really holds it back is the software. Working remotely on a Linux box
works around some of the restrictions - I have been struggling with various
ssh clients, I really have to give Blink a try. But the iPad Pro could be the
ultimate mobile device, if Apple would put a stronger emphasis on developers
needs. A sandboxed version of termux would just be great - perhaps even a
complete virtualisation app, which allows to boot a linux inside the apps
container.

------
wffurr
The sticking point for me with Android or iOS is always the web browser
devtools. I write all my code on a remote server, so a decent terminal
emulator is sufficient for that, but without local browser debugging tools, I
am way less productive. I don't get why the mobile browsers are crippled
versions of the desktop ones in that regard.

It's also the greatest thing about Chromebooks. They have real desktop Chrome.
I have other gripes with the OS just like I do with Android or iOS in terms of
usability vs MacOS, Ubuntu, or Windows, but it's the best "mobile OS"
currently.

~~~
gregjor
Yes, I miss Chrome dev tools more than a mouse. I have a Chromebook for the
relatively infrequent episodes of HTML/CSS/JS debugging and experimenting,
since I don’t do a lot of front-end work.

------
danbolt
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.

------
VectorLock
He has "old eyes" but can work okay for hours on end on a 10" screen? I wonder
what font size he runs his terminals at.

~~~
lloeki
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.

------
imroot
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)

Everything else? I can live with.

~~~
carloscabanero
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.

------
nkristoffersen
For the folks worried about the limited iPad keyboards:

You can use most any bluetooth or USB keyboard with the iPad. I use a Code
keyboard with cherry switches connected to my iPad via USB if I am doing
anything serious. Just need the little Camera -> Lighting adapter.

~~~
whywhywhywhy
At that point why not just use a laptop? You're carrying around an iPad, some
way to stand it up, a USB keyboard and a dongle.

Just seems to be getting a little silly imho the amount of cruft people are
willing to carry around to try and fulfil Tim's vision that the iPad is a
laptop replacement.

------
nextos
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.

------
teach
Can you not use a bluetooth mouse/touchpad with an iPad? This honestly
surprises me.

~~~
pjmlp
You can on Android and W10 tablets, though.

~~~
iagooar
Nobody wants to use Android or W10.

~~~
pjmlp
Not everyone wants to use an iPad.

------
jpalomaki
For those considering iPad for work, I would recommend also testing Macbook.
Before switching to Windows I was traveling with Macbook and found it pretty
convenient. No need to play with SSH or alternatives as you can run the actual
tools. Depending on stuff you do, syncing via Dropbox may make it possible to
easily work on a more powerful computer when at home/office.

Not perfect of course. In some cases, it would be nice to have the tablet
mode, for example reading docs in plane (no need to stash away for
takeoff/landing). With Macbook touchpad I did not really miss touch screen.
Can't remember how it was with battery life in real life.

------
regularlanguage
I use my iPad Pro for taking note taking during lectures and for reading. I
would love to be able to use it for LaTeX too, however ShareLaTeX has a bug
[0] making it impossible to navigate text using the arrow keys.

For programming and other more technical things I do not see any reason to use
the iPad. MacBooks are lightweight and more competent machines – the only
thing worrying me is Apple's recent lack of interest for macOS and the Mac
overall.

[0] [https://github.com/sharelatex/web-
sharelatex/issues/611](https://github.com/sharelatex/web-
sharelatex/issues/611)

~~~
goerz
The (offline) LaTeX situation on the iPad is pretty good, actually. There’s
Texpad and Tex Writer, both of which are pretty good. Personally, I use a fork
of iVim that contains a Texlive distribution
([https://michaelgoerz.net/notes/editing-latex-on-the-ipad-
wit...](https://michaelgoerz.net/notes/editing-latex-on-the-ipad-with-
ivim.html), as mentioned in my earlier comment)

------
thestephen
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.

------
tluyben2
I am looking for ways to do this: ssh is not enough for my workload so I am
building a slew of apps to run on iOS/Android that let me do all my dev work
on them. I am very close to that point now; hopefully in the next few months I
reach the point where I only have to bring a gdp pocket or Pyra or Gemini and
an ipad pro on travels to do everything I need to do. Where 90% happens on the
iPad and 10% on the tiny laptop.

------
blunte
I would like to see a series of articles describing/teaching his client
communication and organization process.

He illustrates that it takes about 50% of his time, and that sounds about
right for my experience. However, he clearly has a system for managing his 50%
that I don't have (but need).

~~~
gregjor
I have written about it a little bit, in my articles about freelancing, on my
site typicalprogrammer.com.

I mostly use email because my clients mostly use email. If I can get them to
use Slack or report/track issues in GitHub, great, but usually they use email.
I have five active customers most of the time. I use Google Inbox for
organizing and finding emails, Google Keep for notes and lists, and GitHub
issues for tracking bugs and programming tasks.

I got into the Google Drive/Keep/Inbox world because I used a Chromebook for
three years as my main computer (still use it fairly often) and was on Android
before that.

------
nkkollaw
I really don't get it.

My mom can use an iPad as her primary computer, and I can use an iPad as my
primary computer on the beach on vacation, but why would I hate myself so much
to use an iPad as my primary computer?

I think Apple's vision is--once again--completely wrong when talking about pro
users.

~~~
wilsonnb
The fact that Apple hasn't released an IDE for iOS that can develop iOS apps
is a pretty clear indicator that the iPad is not meant for professional
software development, even if some people (myself included) try it anyways
just to see how well it works.

However, there are plenty of other professional users who could probably use
the iPad as their primary computer now. Photographers, graphic designers,
visual artists, and musicians could probably make the switch now and iOS will
only get better for them in the future.

I think that Apple's vision for pro users is correct as long as we consider
more than just software developers as pro users.

~~~
nkkollaw
It still doesn't make any sense to me.

Why would I buy an overpriced tablet that is stuck to being a tablet, while
there are many two-in-ones that are 1/2 of the price and not only work just as
great as the iPad in their tablet form, but can become an actual computer if
one needs them to..?

Microsoft's Surface Book is absolutely stunning, and can become a tablet with
great battery life, or be a perfect laptop if you need to type and want to use
a mouse.

~~~
wilsonnb
Well for starters, the Surface Book starts at $1500. The 10.5" iPad Pro with
keyboard starts at $800, and the 12.9" with keyboard starts at $1000.

A better comparison would be the Surface Pro, which starts at about the same
price as the 12.9" iPad Pro with keyboard. However, that configuration has a
core m3 processor and 4GB of RAM. I'm pretty sure the iPad Pro will outperform
the Surface Pro pretty handily until you get a model with 8GB of RAM, which
will put you back about the same price as the Surface Book ($1500).

If you can point me towards a two-in-one that's half the price of the 10.5"
iPad Pro with keyboard and performs as well, I'll be very impressed. $400
dollars doesn't buy a lot of computer. Even if you can find one, I'm 100% sure
you won't find one that has the same build quality and battery life that the
iPad Pro does.

I'd also be impressed if you could point be towards any non iOS tablet that
works just as well as an iPad. Using iOS on a tablet is far, far superior in
my opinion to Android or Windows. Android has nowhere near the app selection
and Windows still feels like you should be using a keyboard and mouse for most
things.

The real issue here, though, is that more and more people have absolutely no
need for an "actual computer" and so they don't care if the iPad fits that
definition or not. For some it's actually a negative because of the added
complexity.

------
benjaminwootton
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?

------
lhuser123
Controlling Ubuntu Remote Desktop with an iPad is kind of cool. Maybe not full
time.

------
blunte
I'm not a Windows fan, but the Surface Pro like looks very attractive and
super small and light.

Unfortunately, I need something that can run Primiere and Illustrator as well
as the easy vim and terminals.

~~~
rcarmo
I have an i7 with 16GB of RAM, and an acquaintance with an identical config
runs Illustrator on it without complaint.

~~~
blunte
I wonder why Illustrator performance on my Dell XPS 15 with i7, 32GB RAM, and
1050GX GPU is so much slower scrolling in Illustrator than my old i7 MBP with
much older GPU?

I assumed that the Surface Pro, which at least through model 4 was Intel GPU
only, would be even worse...

~~~
dawnerd
I tried an xps last year with an i7 and it was slow as well. Turns out it was
thermal throttling like crazy. Returned it right away and just stuck with a
MacBook Pro. Do miss all that ram though.

~~~
blunte
Thanks for this tip. I did some digging and found that even on AC power, the
thing was set by default to throttle down to 5% CPU power whenever possible. I
guess there's some ramp-up latency when demand hits, and that was creating the
performance problems I had. After setting the min CPU at 100%, it performs
almost as well as my 3 year older MBP.

------
kjullien
Why not just go for a Surface Pro and get the best of both worlds ?

~~~
tonyedgecombe
Or is it the worst of both worlds, I tried one earlier this year but couldn't
get on with it, it was just too compromised.

~~~
izacus
I don't understand, what's compromised there? He's literally running only ssh
client and a browser. What stops you from using the surface in this way?

~~~
briandear
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.

~~~
wor3q
What advantage does faster processor give when you have to offload any dev
work to external machine?

If you can't install your environment locally, you might as well use a $200
android tablet...

~~~
gregjor
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.

~~~
wor3q
You use your iPad as it was intended to. Multimedia consumption, light
internet browsing, some simpler office suite work.

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.

~~~
gregjor
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.

------
tuananh
even for a terminal only, i still rather use a chromebook.

ipad is still very cripple for development purpose.

------
qaq
If there was some pen optimized IDE might be an interesting option

~~~
gregjor
Yes I am hoping to see Pencil support in developer tools. The Pencil does work
for clicking on things and selecting text but unless you need to draw or use
handwriting it doesn’t work that much better than a finger.

~~~
qaq
it would be easier for clicking on [+] to expand code section. With proper
infrastructure might actually be usable for writing code.

------
nnq
Does anyone have a similar guide but Android oriented?

------
ezconnect
I once used a Nokia 80 to fix a problem on a website.

~~~
romanovcode
You should write a similar article then!

------
memsom
re: creating iOS Apps on an iPad - I've been using Continuous IDE for doing
this. It includes Xamarin Forms, as well as native bindings. I've created a
few non trivial apps in it. The benefit is that you can bootstrap the app
really quickly in code and if you really want to scale it up, move it to the
Mac to clean up. You can also _almost_ take the code from a VS Mac projects
and run it directly on an iPad.. it just needs a few hoops to be jumped
through at the moment to get the files on the device.

------
tr4cefl0w
What’s a computer?

------
hartator
Wonder which iPad size is he using?

~~~
Polyphonie
In the 2nd paragraph of the article:

> A few months ago I bought an iPad Pro 10.5” with Apple Smart Keyboard to try
> to use it as my main work computer.

------
elvirs
just get a Chromebook then

~~~
gregjor
If you read the article you would know that I have a Chromebook Pixel LS, and
that has been my main (only) computer for almost three years. I still use it
for things the iPad can’t do, or can’t do well enough.

