It was much lighter than what I have now, a 2-in-1 with a fold-back keyboard. This opened up possibilities like using a car suction cup mount and a lap desk to get a slightly taller computer while on the couch. Or a lightweight armature.
Plus, vertical orientation on a “laptop” felt really novel and nice. My 2-in-1 can be vertical, but it is clearly an afterthought. The iPad ~4:3 aspect ratio is much nicer for vertical use, and there’s something about the pixel alignment or maybe the screen viewing angles… my laptop screen doesn’t work quite as well sideways.
I switched because I missed i3wm mostly, and generally all of the local Linux software. But no complaints about the hardware.
Not necessarily. The surface line has several hardware fumbles (especially regarding power budgets/efficiency). The A & M series chips could easily whip up most of their competition in the low power (>10 watt) segment, if Apple wanted. AMD and Intel push for high performance at 15-28watts on portables, which is too high for thin tablets.
For maximum contrast: x86 tablets have fans. M1/m2 laptops can be fanless.
(This isn’t to say it’s impossible but rather no company with deep enough pockets cares enough.)
Also the Surface Pro 7 was fanless with x86 processors, plus the small one (surface go, I think) is fanless and x86 but does have performance issues.
Wouldn’t there actually be some popular Linux tablets out there? (I am aware that there are a couple of niche options)
Touch screen interfaces are just not good for programming. Apple already brought all of the useful parts of the iPad to the Mac when they switched to the m series SOCs. Fanless design, long battery life, instant sleep/wake.
An iPad running macOS has some niche appeal for people who want to travel light but I really don’t see it being a game changer at all.