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Unifying iPadOS and macOS

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Re: Unifying iPadOS and macOS

#31

Post by stevenhuang »

simonh wrote: post #7

It's amazing to me that Apple made a very strict distinction between touch UI systems and keyboard/mouse UI systems, right from the start, has maintained that rigorously, and has been right all along. Their competitors and the pundit-sphere saw this as a fatal weakness, but every attempt at unifying touch and keyboard/mouse interfaces failed miserably. So I'm not concerned about Apple trying to merge iPadOS and MacOS…

Is it really amazing? Everyone has been saying the same from the start about wanting separate mobile and desktop UIs.

Re: Unifying iPadOS and macOS

#32

Post by srvmshr »

PaulHoule wrote: post #16

Talk to a CS professor and they will tell you an OS is what is deep inside the machine but not see. Read a review in arstechnica and you would think an OS is about appearances and the exact shape of each UI component, etc. My understanding is that the kernel is basically the same already, it is the services stacked on top that are different.

iOS always ran a stripped down XNU/Darwin based on the original CMU Mach blueprint. Right from the first version.

For a fact, Steve Jobs mentioned that in his iPhone introduction keynote in 2007

Re: Unifying iPadOS and macOS

#33

Post by still_grokking »

mhuffman wrote: post #20
aj3 wrote: post #8

You can hack macOS using macOS, but kids won’t be able to get that level of understanding how OS works on iPadOS. This is bad for IT. Maybe not as dramatic as an existential crisis but it’s certainly a lost opportunity. My friend's daughter is 10 and she could pass job interview for a junior software developer any day simply because her first PC was running Ubuntu (it’s Arch now).

>This is bad for IT. Maybe for how we do IT. But consider the future where 99% of apps are developed on a tablet or phone (for a tablet or phone) using a cloud web interface with mostly low-code or no-code widget drag and drops.

Drag and drop HW drivers, or similar, in a cloud IDE? I'm skeptical.

Re: Unifying iPadOS and macOS

#35

Post by lostgame »

FractalHQ wrote: post #29

I bought an iPad Pro recently, and I hate the fact that I can’t run any of my favorite macOS apps on it despite the fact that the hardware is more than capable. And no web browsers / browser extensions / PWAs? It feels like a toy. Very disappointing.

Return it and get a MacBook for around the same price.

I don’t understand the point of iPad Pros being so powerful when they can’t - y’know - run even Apple’s own Pro software. (Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro)

They’re mind-numbingly expensive toys, for sure.

Re: Unifying iPadOS and macOS

#36

Post by bluescrn »

jbverschoor wrote: post #3
defaulty wrote: post #2

As a power user on MacOS, I dread the merge. I can only suspect that MacOS becomes less power-user friendly in the name of "intuitiveness". I hope I am proven wrong

It's just lazyness / QA problems at Apple that prevent high quality apps

No, it's more about the inherent limitations of touch-centric UIs, combined with limited multitasking (full-screen apps), and trying to hide the filesystem from the user.

Re: Unifying iPadOS and macOS

#37

Post by still_grokking »

jbverschoor wrote: post #3
defaulty wrote: post #2

As a power user on MacOS, I dread the merge. I can only suspect that MacOS becomes less power-user friendly in the name of "intuitiveness". I hope I am proven wrong

It's just lazyness / QA problems at Apple that prevent high quality apps

Maybe they just can't afford QA? Shareholders are demanding sometimes, but end-users aren't mostly.

Re: Unifying iPadOS and macOS

#38

Post by SomeHacker44 »

lostgame wrote: post #35
FractalHQ wrote: post #29

I bought an iPad Pro recently, and I hate the fact that I can’t run any of my favorite macOS apps on it despite the fact that the hardware is more than capable. And no web browsers / browser extensions / PWAs? It feels like a toy. Very disappointing.

Return it and get a MacBook for around the same price. I don’t understand the point of iPad Pros being so powerful when they can’t - y’know - run even Apple’s own Pro software. (Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro) They’re mind-numbingly expensive toys, for sure.

The only use I have for an iPad is Foreflight. If it ran on any other operating system I would not use Apple products. I dislike no fingerprint reader on the iPad Pro too.

Still, it is nice for consuming books, blogs and video.

Re: Unifying iPadOS and macOS

#39

Post by SomeHacker44 »

defaulty wrote: post #2

As a power user on MacOS, I dread the merge. I can only suspect that MacOS becomes less power-user friendly in the name of "intuitiveness". I hope I am proven wrong

I saw this coming in '19 or earlier when they deprecated 32-bit software. I started moving away from Apple then. Now I still have my functioning 2017 Mac but I mostly use newer Windows/WSL computers, and my new work computer is an X1 running Linux. It is not hard to switch except for the lack of emacs keys for cursor control. (Unix user since '88.)

Re: Unifying iPadOS and macOS

#40

Post by np_tedious »

grey-area wrote: post #26

IOS will replace Mac OS, the writing has been on the wall for a while now, iOS is where the money comes in and where most usage is, and maintaining dual development apis is painful and costly. Apple doesn’t need to rush this process, but it is inevitable IMO, and is foreshadowed by actions like allowing iOS apps to run on macOS, moving Mac OS closer in UI to mobile, adding essentials like file handling to the mobile…

Hmm. Seems likely in a way, but I don't see how to square this with the professional crowd like software devs
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