Please God let them use this to virtualize macOS inside iPadOS. Not as a daily driver but for the occasional use of a full desktop OS (when plugged into a keyboard/mouse). Then I could stop traveling with two devices once and for all.
If we can’t have native macOS on the iPad this would be the next best thing. Imagine having Linux or macOS on the iPad that is treated like any other app (sans memory limits and etc.). You could have a full blown desktop at the ready when iPadOS isn’t up to the task.
The iPad could finally utilize the m1 processor to its fullest.
FWIW this is how it works on ChromeOS today. From the Linux terminal app (crostini lxc container) qemu launches macOS, Windows and Linux vms. They even support nested virtualization on my Framework Chromebook - so vms can run inside those vms.
I agree if Apple implemented virtualization on iPad/iPhone this same way it would be a huge for unlocking their full usefulness and capabilities while still maintaining host isolation/sandbox.
There is no meaningful performance increase to go to a backwards incompatible version? Three letters: DOA. if not performance then at least we'd need some crazy new feature like good multi threading or perhaps running on a new relevant platform (say ios or android). Otherwise we will be 2.X forever.
It's only when you start doing unicode seriously that you see how broken python2 is. It is not unworkable - but it's a mess that is hard to resolve, and keeps biting you in old code paths that weren't tested with character from this subset rather than that subset.
So, Python 3's killer feature is reasonable Unicode support.
The problem is that reasonable unicode support is a non-issue in many areas were python had a strong competitive advantage over other languages (e.g. data analysis, scientific python).
Actually, there are some minor performance increases, but there are tons of minor improvements, and the new async framework landing in 3.4 is very exciting.
Here is something I don't get: while this project is cool, if cost is the goal, once you add monitor, mouse & keyboard, isn't anyone better off with a combo of eBay laptop + Debian?
>isn't anyone better off with a combo of eBay laptop + Debian?
No, not anyone. Hackers maybe, but not schools. First of all, you won't find 100,000+ cheap-but-quality laptops on ebay, not to mention you'll have to install Debian yourself. Not that it's difficult to install for "us," but these are targeted for school children. The whole point of this project is simplicity.
It is intended to be connected to a television set via Composite or HDMI. I'd assume most families in the UK already have a television set so really the only additional cost is the keyboard+mouse.
I believe the intention is that if you break it, you can just turn it off and on and it's back to normal.
This was true of computers from the golden age of 80s UK home computers (where the R-Pi founders are coming from). It's not so much true of ebay laptops.
The BBC video is great. It reminds me of learning Microsoft "Extended Basic" on a Tandy Color Computer (aka, the CoCo) with a TV as a monitor around 1982-83.
Except back in the day, I had to deal with cassette tapes and only 4K (subsequently upgraded to 16K) of RAM.
30 years ago, I learned code by typing in hundreds of lines of (sometimes buggy) BASIC source code found in print magazines that came out only once a month. Today, all a youngster needs to do is a pull (and in just about any programming language) from Github. Progress is amazing!
I dont see the big deal. Apple is Apple. Hopefully he learned a ton and will take it with him to his next startup where he will be able to blog about it.
One other thing to consider about the big market hypothesis is: how accessible is it to a capital efficient startup. To take an extreme, the power generation market in the US is second only to health care, but it is quite unlikely that you can crack that as an entrepreneur. Similarly, even if you can get into a big market, the amount of margins available to subscale players is often a deterrent in and of itself (you can't for instance become a subscale ISP these days even though Internet access is a huge market as well). Outside of chasing a fad, going after inaccessible markets is the second biggest mistake I see.
