It's sad. I'm a Linux diehard, but during the pandemic I considered buying an iPad to SSH into my office workstation, browse the web, etc. as I got stuck in an awkward accommodation.

Hardware is great, but the keyboard lacks a dedicated ESC, and I was quite uncomfortable with the fact that terminal apps seem like second rate citizens / not well liked by Apple.

IMHO, there's a lot of untapped potential in the iPad as a programming device if Apple was more reasonable. The alternative Android tablet ecosystem, unlike phones, is total a mess. Samsung has a lot of nice offerings, but software is mediocre and they seem to be really unfocused.

I eventually ended up getting a Surface Go, which is quirky is some regards, but supports Linux really well and is a real computer, not a locked appliance.

Lenovo Chromebook Duet, it is an awesone little chromebook tablet that suport android apps and linux containers. 128gb storage and 4gb of ram for about 300 dlls. it was on sale for about 230 last week.

For iPad as a thin client - Blink is great and allows remapping caps lock to escape. That's actually something you can do globally with the magic keyboard.

Upset that ish is being removed - as somebody who has had it since TestFlight came out. I was surprised they got approved for App Store, but once it was on there... seems crazy to have them removed.

Android keyboards also lack Esc. The key in that place implements the go to home functionality (Android's middle button.) My use case is the now deprecated / defunct Linux container in Samsung's Dex. I didn't find a way to configure the keyboard and X11 to map it to an Esc for Linux. I've been using Control [, which is a little pain.

Some keyboards have escape. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.pocketwork...

Check out "Hacker's Keyboard"

I mean a hardware keyboard, usually bluetooth but USB would do.

Did you consider a chromebook? I've been thinking about getting a chromebook as an ssh terminal for a while.

A chromebook can be an excellent SSH terminal. Cheap, light, and a decent keyboard. You can install a Linux container, and inside that, run ssh-agent, so you load up your keys just once.

The one major annoyance is the lack of a caps-lock key, which is replaced by the "do-anything" Google search button. So you have to press that and right-alt to turn on and off caps-lock.

Since they are standard across all chromebooks, I've come to appreciate the dedicated navigation keys, volume, brightness and screen lock. I use those a lot more than I have on a regular laptop that mixes those with the Fn keys.

> I eventually ended up getting a Surface Go, which is quirky is some regards, but supports Linux really well and is a real computer, not a locked appliance.

Doesn’t have working cameras though, right? I was looking into the Surface Go a bit as a Linux tablet recently, but it sounded like I wouldn’t have a working webcam (which I use fairly often these days for videoconferencing) and I’d need to install a kernel fork since some of the hardware isn’t supported yet in mainline Linux.

I’d be glad to be wrong about these, since a lightweight Linux tablet (especially with LTE support!) would be amazing. My criteria for hardware that supports Linux really well these days though is more “works out of the box” and less “requires tinkering.”

iPad keyboard support let’s you remap Caps Lock, CTRL, Cmd, Opt, and Globe key. I’ve remapped Caps Lock to Escape on both iPad Pro Magic Keyboard (and 2018 MacBook Pro 15). Works great in iSH, Shelly, and several other remoting apps.

Where are you remapping the keys reliably on an ipad? (app/settings)

Settings -> general -> keyboard -> hardware keyboard

I concur, the iPad is not yet a good place for development, except for python and JS perhaps if it's reasonably self contained.

I tried with the Pro, the best setup was to remote into a raspberry pi. Editors are becoming better but it's still clunky partly because of the git integration that must be done with another app and the general lack of multi-windowing.

A chromebook with the linux install seems a best choice for now (didn't try but looked viable enough)

I guess you might be interested in PineTab, native GNU/Linux tablet.

i thought termux is going to have issue in latest version of andriod?

This is what we get from monopoly.

The Termux developers have a plan (https://github.com/termux/termux-packages/wiki/Termux-and-An...).

>> This is what we get from monopoly.

Agreed. The Apple / Google mobile OS dualopy leaves few choices.

This is the side effect when people espouse "scaling software" and "software is eating the world". Whoever scales first eats the world.

The few choices are Librem 5 and PinePhone, native GNU/Linux phones.

Android hardware running GNU/Linux distros (such as Sailfish OS) on top of Android blobs via libhybris could be a stopgap solution as well. But indeed, phones running normal Linux distros need to be the norm in this case.

I have Librem pre-ordered but I expect it will be barely usable as an Android replacement (yet). Though it had to start somewhere and I am glad Purism started that. There are many many smaller and bigger things which went into Android or iOS which will need to be re-done from scratch and things like Google Pay probably won't ever be on such a device. Camera will probably be quite bad, etc. On the other hand, there is Andbox which should partly fill in the app gabs in the meantime.

Well.. duopoly.

I think we're witnessing the war on general computation being lost: https://archive.org/details/GeneralComputation

We are losing the war because those who are supposed to fight for general computing are ceding ground to the duopoly due to a myriad of reasons(convenience, "security", ease of use, etc)

They have a workaround, which is to package debs in APKs, which they can generate automatically.

Same here. I run Termux on my Pixel, but I also have an iPad and was really excited to when I installed iSH. I hoped their initial approval of iSH meant that Apple was becoming more liberal.

Hell, I was even wondering if this would make it conceivable for me to switch back to an iPhone at some point if I became unhappy with Android.

Of course, deep down I knew it could not last.

Seriously, f* Apple, and f* the App Store.

I just categorize iOS devices as consoles, analogous to things like Nintendo game systems, and not as true general purpose computers.

I also consider it foolish to attempt to innovate on this platform beyond the narrow confines of what mobile devices typically do, or to put too much engineering work into iOS specific stuff. Apple can and will simply revoke your app for fickle reasons. iOS is a pretty dumb term for cloud apps and the web, and that’s it.

That being said I do have an iPhone... because for my phone that’s all I want and it works well and has better privacy than most Android devices. I basically want web, email, texting, calls, and maps, and maybe occasional apps like Uber or whatever. I don’t use it as a “real computer.” I have a real computer for that.

I use iOS devices specifically because they are consoles, not general purpose computers.

Same. With Termux I was able to set up a rudimentary Node.js dev environment on my device - useful for showing people stuff I was working on which wasn't published.