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I SSH into a local XEON server homelab, or one of several Hetzner servers over Wireguard (which runs in a Proxmox container). Symmetrical 1gbit fiber connection helps. Only disadvantage is that it doesnt work on (long) flights.

For me, MacBook Air M1 is just a "dumb terminal", with VSCode and its remove development server it doesnt matter where all the stuff is.



My only problem with this is that Apple form factors/OS choices are limited.

I want a tablet dumb terminal because:

- when I'm working I'm plugged into a monitor 99% of the time (with dedicated keyboard/mouse) - when I'm traveling/consuming media/couch surfing/shopping with wife - tablet is much more convenient

But I can't really use iOS for work - iPad pro would be perfect otherwise.


"when I'm traveling/consuming media/couch surfing/shopping with wife - tablet is much more convenient"

I hear people say this but I really disagree. I have never found a tablet more convenient.

With a tablet you either have to hold it up with one hand, while you use your other hand to navigate, or you have some sort of case with a built-in stand that is never as stabile as a laptop. You also have to be very careful holding the tablet, because otherwise you'll touch the screen and unintentionally open or close the app you're using. Also when you use a case with a tablet it often makes it as heavy as an actual laptop.

Not to mention all the keyboard shortcuts that make navigating the OS faster than a touch-based OS. I just don't really "get" tablets. I've tried iPads and Android tablets but I always grab my laptop instead.


I feel like a Samsung tablet would work really well there. DeX for your desktop work with Termux and the like and Android for the rest. I know people say Android has no tablet apps and while it's definitely missing stuff like Procreate it is still good for web browsing, watching streaming services etc. And Samsung's version of Android is very good at multitasking allowing things like having 4 apps running split screen, windowed apps etc. Way better than what iOS allows.


I'd still miss a "proper" OS - for example I can't run IntelliJ remote development client on Android. It's sad that Windows is so bad at this point, and Linux tablet support was 0 last time I checked.


There is the JingPad A1 at least. A ChromeOS tablet might be another avenue as well.


I've actually seen some students use ChromeOS for development but haven't thought much about it. Do you know if there are some decent ChromeOS 2in1s ?


The store is down.. :(


I’ve been using an iPad Pro with the blink shell app for almost a whole year now. I just use mosh to connect to my homelab development environment, and it works really great!

But yeah, if work doesn’t quite fit with just needing a terminal, and a few web sites or iOS apps, then it’s not going to work.


I’ve been looking into buying Surface Pro, but the battery is somewhat disappointing. And then there’s Windows. I’ve been using it on my gaming machine and i don’t enjoy a single minute of it.

But yeah, I wish there’s was a good 2 in 1 as well.


Yeah - using Windows 11 on my desktop for the last month or so - it's downright ridiculous what it devolved to


> Only disadvantage is that it doesnt work on (long) flights.

mosh?


> For me, MacBook Air M1 is just a "dumb terminal"

A $1000 dumb terminal? Wouldn't a cheaper laptop be perfectly sufficient then? Or, if the performance is not that important, something like an asus laptop with an oled, pro-motion, higher res, ... screen (same price)?


Gotto go through this again?

- Battery life - Trackpad - No keyboard flex - Superb screen and superb handling of the high dpi - M1 is superior to anything intel or Amd.

It's not fanboy'ism it is what it is.


Read the above post again? You are arguing about an entirely different question.

> M1 is superior to anything intel or Amd.

Agreed, but the above post explicitly said "dumb terminal" -> not relevant.

> Superb screen and superb handling of the high dpi

Again, yeah, but "dumb terminal" and 120Hz, oled, more pixels, ... is better. Normally you could argue that the M1 makes it worth the trade off, but if that is not in consideration....

> It's not fanboy'ism it is what it is.

Yeah,... so please stop that. Again "macbook air is a good laptop" is pretty uncontroversial; "For a dumb terminal the macbook air is the best/natural/../adjective choice", maybe, maybe not.




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