When I finally pull the trigger, a new 13" iPad Pro w/ 16GB RAM, keyboard & stylus is gonna cost me €3,107. It would be by far the most powerful computer I own.
That's more than twice as much as what I paid for the Mac mini I do *all my development on*. It even beats out my high-end gaming PC whose GPU alone was €1800.
All of that goes to waste because it’s paired with a simplified, stripped-down OS using the same technology stack and limitations as a $300 Netflix device for your grandparents
There are 2 ways out:
Either investment in iPadOS is massively expanded to bring the OS & capabilities up to par with macOS (which is still a moving target, not a legacy OS), fixing all the half-working, flakey re-implementations of the last 14 years.
Or iPadOS leans on Apple's virtualization stack to run macOS as an app, with native performance and graphics, a la 'Classic' mode on Mac OS X, immediately ending all the angst you see about iPad, and buying an infinite runway for no. 1 to happen
@stroughtonsmith There are still a few counter arguments.
The biggest (as I articulated elsewhere) is that just giving people macOS in a VM doesn’t actually help existing iPad users who are frustrated by bugs in Files+iCloud and are forced to deal with Stage Manager’s bugs.
Put another way, advocating for a solution (macOS in a VM) that only helps one of the smallest groups of iPad users doesn’t really help most people. It shouldn’t be high on Apple’s priority list.
@stroughtonsmith I’m not actually saying they shouldn’t bring VM support to iPad OS, just that I don’t think it solves many issues. I think it is probably a good way to get mac users to shut up and stop complaining but other than that it won’t actually make the iPad a better platform.
iPad users shouldn’t have to deal with subpar windowing, they shouldn’t have to deal with subpar file management, they shouldn’t have to deal with subpar background task timers etc…
@amonduin @stroughtonsmith Counter to your counter: I think allowing macOS-as-an-app on iPad for the 10% of users who need all that power & flexibility will actually be beneficial even for the 90% of iPad users who would never use it.
Because it will raise the glass ceiling of what an iPad can do. It would put a spotlight on the use cases that are possible and desirable on iPad from a form factor pov but not possible due to OS limitations. It would help point the way forward for iPadOS to grow.
Firstly, this doesn’t address the fact that most users aren’t helped by this and that fixing the problems in iPadOS benefits everyone who uses it. Those who currently use it get a better window manager, a better file manager etc…
Second, you’re not talking 10% of users. The vocal online minority is probably less than 1% of users but neither of us really knows. I doubt millions of people every year are not buying iPads that they don’t think will actually work for them
While I think they should probably bring macOS to iPad via VM I do worry that it will reduce incentive to invest in iPadOS apps.
Personally if Apple said that they will never bring macOS to iPad and that devs need to start really investing in iPad apps that would be nice because it would send a nice clear message.
However bringing macOS to iPad will silence all the mac user complaining and let apple focus on iPadOS in peace … so maybe that would be worth it.
Steve Troughton-Smith
amonduin
MarkV