Android keeps having problems because Google is unable to drive the ecosystem to actually care, what a surprise.
There are plenty of countries where iPads are out of reach for regular consumer, and Android Tablets are in practice phones with bigger screens, given how little the ecosystem cares about them, so that leaves Windows devices as only choice for consumers.
How do iPads differ?
I can’t stand them, but those that have them seem to love them.
I could read my shitter news on any device with a screen, as well as control my smart home.
When coupled with keyboard, office like workflows, coupled with the pen to do the drawings instead of trying to use the mouse as pencil since many users have done during the last couple of decades.
Programming on the go with environments like Playgrounds, Pythonista, Continuous, Shaderific.
Isn't that what they said? They stated that one of the reasons to create a new OS is that Apple is a closed platform. You can't blame them to go further than that in a marketing video, it's not like they're posting anonymous comments on an internet forum.
Speaking as a hacker or a consumer?
“Apple's domination of the global tablet market continued in the third quarter of 2020, according to market research firm Canalys, with iPad shipments seeing an estimated 47% year-over-year growth rate thanks to coronavirus trends.”
The market is speaking, and consumers don’t care about what the OS is. They never have, and never will.
https://appleinsider.com/articles/20/11/12/apple-extends-mas...
Just not pure GNU/Linux or BSDs (other than those packaged by Apple and Sony).
> iPadOS-like UI and UX
And WRT your other comments, you're probably not the target for this. I run dozens of Linux machines for work stuff but everything in my personal ecosystem is Apple because I don't find config fun. Different horses for different courses.
This isn't an A vs B thing to me, it's just that comparing to an ipad says something to a lot of users, and quickly. If this project succeeds, it will give some alternatives to closed-ecosystem things, to new/other people (with a cheaper cost to them). So the reservations about Apple are actually reasons to support this project, in that way. Thoughts?
I am longing for a Linux alternative, but any Android tablets of similarly high quality are just so much more expensive, and actual Linux is still far away in terms of usability.
What I want is an iPad, but with Linux. I'm sure I'm not the only one, and Jingling knows that.
Android is already a Linux tablet OS. It's like they ignored the elephant in the room. Ubuntu also runs on tablets. (edit: this is based in Ubuntu!)
Besides that point, Apple is pretty much the opposite of free computing. It's a gross comparison.
Edit: Looking at their Reddit timeline, it appears as though they've made a lot of progress in a few short months, so I applaud that. I just wish people would stop trying to copy Apple at everything. It's a turn off.