MacOS on the iPad would be nice but iPadOS still has its charms

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Originally published at: MacOS on the iPad would be nice but iPadOS still has its charms | Boing Boing

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I read somewhere that it comes down to cooling. Running MacOS on an iPad would require something to keep it from bursting into flames.

Maybe a dry ice iPad stand? The fog would be nice.

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I would settle for caching browser tabs so they don’t have to be reloaded every time. Surely M1 has enough power.

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I agree with your take, Rob. The Verge article completely misses the point about what makes GUIs for tablets and desktops different (and thus suited to their use cases).

Apparently he never used the disaster that was Windows 8 Metro, which did exactly what he’s proposing- slap a desktop OS on everything. It was awful on desktops and tablets.

Apple is clearly moving this direction, they’re just being careful about it so they don’t make the same mistakes. They’ve been slowly unifying the APIs and SDKs for iOS and MacOS for years now, and forking iPadOS was a clear sign of further commitment to this strategy. Unifying the GUI is the hardest part though because good touch UI and good mouse UI demand completely different paradigms, affecting everything from widget sizes to color choices to UX dynamics. Edgelord Verge Guy clearly understands none of this.

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How about multi-user? Could we please just get multi-user?

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I would like to see a “Nintendo Switch” approach, where a mobile device is docked into a setup for working at desk when a person arrives at home or work. Your “home computer” or “desktop computer” would be brainless, so to speak — just a dock with a larger screen, proper keyboard, mouse, many ports etc.

However the processing power, files, etc, would all be on the phone or tablet device which you carry with you.

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So… a laptop with a docking station, then. Or a dock for a Surface 3. :wink:

Also, welcome to the community- there’s a gift basket off to the side.

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Thanks! Clearly not nerdy enough for this bunch! :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

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Completely agreed and also let’s not forget the target audience: my 80+ year-old mother can use an iPad but MacOS…? There are a lot of people alienated by any visible or apparent OS.

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I recall how Apple delayed select, cut and paste on the iPhone until they were satisfied with it, and Apple knows its current user base are, well, spoiled. They would savage Apple even worse for a subpar experience.

My gut tells me that iPadOS will eventually be more beefy, MacOS being offered less to home users. MacBooks and iMacs will be seen as work devices.

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I’m right there with you on the Switch approach. When it’s paired with a mouse or put into a dock, it behaves like a computer; when it’s touched or prodded with a pen it’s a tablet. Hopefully this is where they go.

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