Apple must open iPadOS to sideloading within 6 months, EU says

Almost a decade ago, I bought an iPad Air to try and replace my MacBook Pro. It didn't work and had to resort to laggy online editors with paid subscriptions. And even then, when I was doing Ruby on Rails, it didn't even work out. Ok, so, the technology was new, sure.

Last year I got myself an M series iPad "Pro" thinking things would have changed. Well, VS Code was the only product that allowed me to run a tiny VM to edit and deploy my apps online. It worked really well to its credit despite a little bit of hacks (have to save it as a Safari shortcut) but still, a far cry from replacing my MacBook Pro.

I have the same M series Mac mini back home that I do insane multi-tasking on and something I would claim is easily the best god damn computer ever made for IT devs like myself. That's when I realized, the limitation is in the OS and not the hardware. The iPad "Pro" is really powerful for a lot of other stuff. Photo editing, music creation and what not.

Ironically, I saw someone on YouTube get annoyed with the same problem and use a Raspberry Pi attached with the iPad as a MacBook Pro replacement (it draws power from the iPad itself, so it's a single cable solution). I was amazed and sad at the same time that Apple had to push their neglected audience so far to the point of even bundling our own DIY hardware to make it usable to call it a "Pro". The iPad's "Pro" is such a misnomer.

I am still waiting for the day when I can throw away my MacBook Pro and work from a small factor without carrying a brick to charge a 14", almost 3Kg device in my office bag every day.

Hopefully this changes things.

Yeah, I’ve been doing the “sidecar” approach for a long time. Here’s the latest iteration: https://taoofmac.com/space/blog/2023/10/07/1830

I would also love to run a Linux VM on my iPad Pro, but if we could get third-party app sideloading to work without alternative app stores and other idiocy UTM would fix that for me.

Base on your descriptions MacBook Air would fit your needs the best.

Most people don't need MacBook Pro. Those extra cores just sit idle most of the time if not utilised for heavy computation.

Thanks for sharing, very interesting read!

just buy the starlite tablet https://fr.starlabs.systems/

Install Wayland (easy install now). Enjoy Linux Dev & Android Apps

Why don't you just use a 13" MacBook Air? It seems to solve all of your problems without any hacks.

"work from a small factor without carrying a brick to charge a 14", almost 3Kg device"

13" M2 Air - 15 Hours of battery life and 1.24kg. An iPad + Keyboard case is likely going to weight more than a MacBook Air anyways.

Not who you replied to, but in my case,

I want to be able to take notes with a pen but also use a full browser. If I want a keyboard to type something, I’ll attach one.

Basically a surface pro, but using an iPad.

Thin, light, Apple ecosystem for sharing things.

But I want Firefox with extensions, a good editor, etc.

That's understandable. Having a separate device just for notes works better for me (e-ink preferably). But I certainly get the appeal of having everything all in one device.

I like the flexibility of the iPad. I use it a lot for note taking during meetings. I use it to draw architectural diagrams without having to deal with drag and drop interfaces. Plus, not always I find the need for a keyboard. In fact, my favorite setup was an Apple keyboard plus iPad Pro. It almost solved my use case with VS Codespaces. Almost. I think I may re-visit the Raspberry pi solution for now.

These days, my work is almost mostly AI related, so I am on Google Colab most of the time too. So, the use case for a proper laptop without a touchscreen is diminishing with each day (for me).

Wow, that looks really good. I have never heard of this company personally. I also like the app ecosystem of Apple iPad. But this looks really good if I was going to buy a new tablet. I am at the moment looking for solutions with my existing iPad unfortunately. Thanks for sharing.