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Apple has locked me in the same cage Microsoft's built for Windows 10 users

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Re: Apple has locked me in the same cage Microsoft's built for Windows 10 users

#91

Post by austhrow743 »

belorn wrote: post #31
jmull wrote: post #19

I guess this kind of article always gets attention, but they always seem so stupid to me. A thing exists that I don't want. I could: (1) ignore the thing; or (2) complain that the thing isn't something I want (1) seems so obviously the right thing to do. This goes double when the thing you do want does, in fact, exist . But, no, the internet opts for (2). I guess complaining just feels good, even when it's about some…

If ignoring the thing would work then people would do that. The problem is not that anti-consumer products exist along side pro-consumer products. It is that anti-consumer products out compete pro-consumer products to the point that all that remains (within reasons) are anti-consumer products. There are market reasons for this behavior. Asymmetric information in markets (lemon markets), true cost obfuscation, hidden…

Has something changed recently that all of your theoretical concerns are now in play when they weren't for the last 14 years?

Re: Apple has locked me in the same cage Microsoft's built for Windows 10 users

#92

Post by frosting1337 »

kelnos wrote: post #75
frosting1337 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean the author explains his thoughts in the article, you should read it again.

The author's thoughts don't make sense, though. He's expecting a locked-down tablet appliance to suit the same needs and use cases as a laptop running a general-purpose OS. Or at best, he's not expecting that, but is at least complaining about it, which feels a little pointless. He can get what he wants by buying a new Mac, as he suggests. It's not like what he wants doesn't exist. He's just complaining that some oth…

"Even though it's not designed to"

It is designed to, though. That's the thing. The line is arbitrarily drawn at not getting CLI/root access to your iPad.

His point is that over the years, Apple has blurred that line a lot. You can use keyboards and mice. You can do all your daily computing on an iPad - email, spreadsheets, YouTube, whatever.

But it's still locked down, for whatever reason, despite being a perfectly capable computer that doesn't necessarily need to be.

It's honestly really obvious what he's saying. iPads have changed over the last 5 or so years, and people on HN clearly haven't used one in a while. The author isn't _wrong_.

Apple spends all this effort to blur the lines between personal computer and a device you can compute on, and it mildly tricks users who don't necessarily realise there's a difference between the computer and the tablet, especially amongst younger generations who grew up on tablets ("iPad kids").

Re: Apple has locked me in the same cage Microsoft's built for Windows 10 users

#93

Post by mtndew4brkfst »

ForHackernews wrote: post #82
jmull wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would ignoring the ipad not have solved OP's problem? They could have just replaced their old macbook with a new macbook. Not that there's anything wrong with trying something new, IMO. But if you do so without doing any research, and it turns out to not be what you expected, there's nothing to complain about. Hopefully OP just returned the ipad and got a macbook upon realizing their mistake. You seem to be sugge…

All of the limitations of the iPad are coming for your macbook, too. Already, it's difficult (not yet impossible) to install software outside the confines of Apple's app store. Already it's difficult (not yet impossible) to develop software for a mac without paying Apple for the privilege of "signing" your code.

Already, it's difficult (not yet impossible) to install software outside the confines of Apple's app store.

My installation of arbitrary software onto my MacBook via Homebrew, Nix, mise, downloading a DMG or .pkg via browser, or even the dreaded curlbash feel just as uninhibited by MacOS as they felt to me in 2015.

At most I have the one-time check-a-box about unsigned software to contend with, or a per-install approval step if I used more security-conservative settings.

None of this was either difficult or forbidden to me.

Re: Apple has locked me in the same cage Microsoft's built for Windows 10 users

#95

Post by jauntywundrkind »

rad_gruchalski wrote: post #59
jauntywundrkind wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Add a Bluetooth keyboard, & then the two being separate products becomes a farce. I love the new MacBook Air's looks, but I can't help but constantly imagine how much better it would be as a detachable, or as a 2-in-1 convertible. The thing is, the laptop is just a bad format period. Ideally you don't want to be looking just above where you type: good ergonomics requires distance between those two. An elevated tablet…

> The thing is, the laptop is just a bad format period. Ideally you don't want to be looking just above where you type: good ergonomics requires distance between those two. An elevated tablet with a Bluetooth keyboard is a far far better option. I bring a laptop to the office, put it on a stand, plug two external screens and a USB-C hub with a keyboard and mouse. But I can also use it on a train, at an airport, on a…

I also bring a (Linux running x86) tablet with me everywhere. Its fantastically light and I can plug it in to two displays.

It has a very lightweight keyboard folio. More typically, i leave that at home & bring a small light clamp-mount arm that lets me easily mount it to whatever is nearby, tables or desks chairs or whatever. And use the very nice ThinkPad TrackPoint Bluetooth keyboard.

I have strictly more flexibility. And given that Mac has the same chips in both iPad and MacBook Air and Pro, it feels again like the distinction here is mostly arbitrary segmentation, not real. With ultra high end Asus Flow Z13 tablets rocking Strix Halo APUs, there's also proof that tablets can be incredibly power dense, if they want to be.

The laptop is a constrained design. That constraint is not a feature. You can do the same thing without that constraint. Just not on Apple.

Re: Apple has locked me in the same cage Microsoft's built for Windows 10 users

#96

Post by idle_zealot »

threeseed wrote: post #77
frosting1337 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean the author explains his thoughts in the article, you should read it again.

I read it and don't understand it at all. He's bought something whose limitations and target demographic are well known. And then complaining when he hits one of those limitations.

The infuriating thing is that a huge number of those limitations exist as a few bytes that Apple does not let you flip, somewhere in the OS's code or configuration.

It would be unreasonable to buy, say, a flip phone in 2007 and complain that it can't replace a graphics workstation. It didn't have the hardware for that workload. Today, it's the artificial nature of the limitations that make the device akin to a cage.

Re: Apple has locked me in the same cage Microsoft's built for Windows 10 users

#97

Post by threeseed »

idle_zealot wrote: post #96
threeseed wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read it and don't understand it at all. He's bought something whose limitations and target demographic are well known. And then complaining when he hits one of those limitations.

The infuriating thing is that a huge number of those limitations exist as a few bytes that Apple does not let you flip, somewhere in the OS's code or configuration. It would be unreasonable to buy, say, a flip phone in 2007 and complain that it can't replace a graphics workstation. It didn't have the hardware for that workload. Today, it's the artificial nature of the limitations that make the device akin to a cage.

Yes because flipping those bits would make the iPad a Mac.

And the whole point of an iPad is that you have a simple and consistent experience.

Re: Apple has locked me in the same cage Microsoft's built for Windows 10 users

#98

Post by gessha »

futuraperdita wrote: post #85
kcplate wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am an avid iPad Pro user (on #3) but it took me making a concerted effort to unlearn over three decades of my understanding of what a computer is to me, my old standby app favorites, and to be willing to force myself to use the new instead of leaning on the comfortable old. Prior to that I’ll admit that it was an entertainment device. Now it can basically serve all of my computing needs. What caused me to make the…

I bought the iPad Pro 11 (M4) on its release day and did the same thing you did: throwing out what I knew to adjust to new paradigms. I regret its purchase. It is still fundamentally a device that cannot handle code-based workflows, although it's OK for some media creation. For software development, the canonical advice consists of excuses that rely on a "Pro" device to be a thin client. Remoting out to a workstation…

Yeah, I have a 2018 12.9 model and I haven’t really felt the need to upgrade. The tablet still feels snappy and all I do is draw, and markup papers.

I tried programming on it but without a shell and proper file system API, what can you even do?

Re: Apple has locked me in the same cage Microsoft's built for Windows 10 users

#99

Post by gessha »

alp1n3_eth wrote: post #7

I think there's a difference between Microsoft refusing to support completely operational hardware for their new OS, and Apple not adding extra features / support into a pre-existing product just because the underlying tech is now more powerful. It sounds weird, but going OS #1 -> OS #2, you don't expect your hardware to impact it from a computer point of view. But going from iPad #1 -> iPad #2, why would it all of a…

Why would you trust everything on somebody else’s computer?!

Re: Apple has locked me in the same cage Microsoft's built for Windows 10 users

#100

Post by ggm »

Google Pixels are getting something akin to vm's and wsl. More than dex, but less than full visibility to all of the Android fs.

Termux is a halfway house. It's said this will be better.

Maybe iPad OS will do this too in the future? It feels like an air with a detachable keyboard is close.

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