Mandate support for alternate OSes, like Asahi Linux on Macbook, https://github.com/AsahiLinux/docs/wiki/Apple-Platform-Secur...
> ipadOS not even one layer of Mac virtualization
iPadOS 17 on M4 has a "Secure Exclave" OS, https://mastodon.social/@_inside/112440596781136013
Perhaps a future PC OEM 2-in-1 will be successful, based on Qualcomm Oryon/Arm SoC from ex-Apple Nuvia.
> software updates are way longer
There's no "longer" for comparison, when there is no competitor.
Old iPads could continue to work for years, running Linux. Apple could unlock the boot after terminating support.
There is no tablet market, there is an iPad market and "other".
May sound harsh, but the Open Source movement is just not capable of producing enough software to make Linux a viable on the desktop, let alone on the tablet.
web browser
IoT control panel
video conferencing
photo frame
e-reader
kioskDoes the Mercedes self-brick after 7 years?
I have an iPad mini 2 and Air 2, which still work after almost a decade of use.
The utility of a working Retina display need not be limited by unsupported and insecure software when connected to public networks.
- mouse support under Linux was a fait accompli on the first device I installed XFree86 on back in 1993, That was back in the time of serial mice with DB9 RS-232 connectors, more than 30 years ago. What you call 'smooth mouse support' is rather vague, if you mean acceleration and the likes that has been around almost as long. Want to use a mouse/trackpad/trackball/trackpoint/whatever with Linux? Plug it in and it will probably work just fine.
- proprietary drivers are the exception to the rule that Linux is free software. One well-known exception here is nVidia which still rides the fence. While this is far less than ideal the drivers they produce are not known for producing 'random crashes'. Random crashes in Linux-land tend to be related to hardware problems and would crash other operating systems as well.
- the 'mass market' does not need convincing to use Linux since they use it daily, mostly without knowing they do so. Most of them don't use it on 'the desktop' (well, those running Chromebooks do but they mostly don't know about it) but there is nothing really keeping them from doing so.
You're living in a fantasy where 'the desktop' is an ivory tower where only the anointed incorporated entities are welcomed. This has never been the case and that will remain true as long as the hardware is (or can be made to be) open. Go ahead and install a distribution, I suspect you'll be surprised just how 'ready' Linux is for the desktop unless you insist on it being a 1-on-1 clone of Windows or MacOS and insist on everything working exactly like those systems. It isn't and it doesn't, things works differently between those systems and between Linux distributions. Choose one which comes closest to your expectations - probably Gnome-based if you're in the Apple world, Mate or KDE-based if you're used to Windows - and give it a try. If you want to do so, that is. If you don't want to try it that's fine as well. In that case I do wonder where your adamant statements about 'smooth mouse support' and 'random crashes' come from though.
One of the things that keeps fascinating me about Apple is how they keep coming out with better and better iPads, even though they don’t seem to have any real competition. Take the new iPad Pro. It’s super thin, got a brand new tandem OLED screen that goes up to 1000 nits and is decent for using outdoors. They even put a new M4 chip in it which has faster single core performance than any desktop chip by Intel or AMD.
I have an old iPad, haven’t been using it so this gave me an idea.
It's fairly stable. Only really run into issues when the internet goes out and then comes back later, sometimes this would make the app stop showing photos.
https://apps.apple.com/no/app/soloslides-for-google-photos/i...
My work ipad pro is 4 years old, and I can't be bothered to replace it (I can upgrade for free at work, at the 'cost' of having to migrate my apps and data etc...)
My personal ipad mini 3 has been travelling with me until last year, as ebook reader. Sure it was heavily handicapped in the sense that I did not get app updates or any new apps really. But I still have my books and goodreader app, and still had VLC, and until very recently also netflix. That thing was 9 years old and I only retired it because work unlocked my work ipad so I only travel with 1 ipad now.
They can still keep their ecosystem. You should be able to unlock it to install alternative operating system.
Unlocking should be explicit to not give an option for theft.
Please respect ancestors!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin_(operating_system)
Darwin is the core Unix operating system of macOS (previously OS X and Mac OS X), iOS, watchOS, tvOS, iPadOS, visionOS, and bridgeOS. It previously existed as an independent open-source operating system, first released by Apple Inc. in 2000. It is composed of code derived from NeXTSTEP, FreeBSD, other BSD operating systems, Mach, and other free software projects' code, as well as code developed by Apple.Your ask violates mine.
https://www.samsung.com/us/apps/dex/
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/surface
Vote with your wallet, if enough people do that, maybe Apple will notice.
Now if you already validated what they are selling is enough to keep the masses happy, then it is as it is.
The first link appears to be... presentation software? I think? It talks a lot about Samsung devices but doesn't appear to be selling a specific device (i.e., not hardware. I don't see how the software would affect sales of the iPad (which is hardware).
(Was there a different link you meant to share instead? :) )
Can you try to do at least the bare minimum of trying to understand the text instead of badly extrapolating from the pretty pictures?
The Snapdragon Elite devices launched so far have been laptops.
The vast, vast majority of iPad users want iPadOS and nothing else.
Hope is not a strategy.
Not give money to Apple, and then complain.
Android is not “just fine”. The hardware available is relatively low quality compared to the iPad.
The solution is to push the green agenda through activism and pressuring politicians/corporations to enact sweeping motions. During this talk, they discussed pushing people to take the bus in place of getting an EV with a series of methods to penalize owning a vehicle.
Its funny how given yesterday's results the talk that happened in the last days of Dec (so just 6 months ago) is now looking obsolete but I saw this over the last 10 years as the promised commitments of COP21 fell by the wayside anyway. I used to joke about how conservatives in the US lived in a bubble. Now I am seeing techies like the OP are also in a bubble.
But I'm sure it feels great to sit around at conferences and discuss "pushing people to take the bus". Heck, it is a whole industry unto itself, isn't it?
P.S. - I do think climate change is a serious issue. Figured I'd mention that before the usual responses that shun and excommunicate me as a "denier".
This will simply not have "political solutions". Realistically the greens are counter productive to the max and always have been. It is simply the self-flagellation remnant bits of defunct religions. Devoid of rationality.
See also: Germany and nuclear power. The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
I personally believe in engineering solutions that are better than the current solutions. With the collapse in prices for EVs, I am drooling over these super cheap electric cars and hope to one day have a backup used car just for fun trips around town. Or maybe just pick up a single long range EV for a little bit more. Right now the repair market is still in its early stages but its getting there. I dream of owning a single EV model that lasts me for 30 years powered by solar. Plus the cost of electricity is trending towards 0. I am always trying to find ways to swap out my lifestyle with something more efficient. Am I an outlier, yes but I see technical solutions coming to the mass market and I remain optimistic a tiny bit.
> Am I an outlier, yes
Nope, normcore to the max. You've been greenwashed.
Your EV won't run on Solar. The cost of electricity is not trending towards zero.
> I am always trying to find ways to swap out my lifestyle with something more efficient.
The best thing you could personally do is squeeze out a few hundreds thousands miles out of a third hand Honda Civic. Not that your personal lifestyle matters one iota.
What should be done? Enjoy life and if you want to promote anything at all promote engineering degrees for young people. And nuclear power.
Unfortunately I am a programmer so I always am thinking of optimizing and efficiency. Sorry but its how my brain is wired! :)
>Your EV won't run on Solar. The cost of electricity is not trending towards zero.
Are you in the US? Because every year I look at prices to install solar panels and it is definitely trending in that direction. Do we have to account for the carbon to produce those panels? Yes but that part of the supply chain is also cleaning up and furthermore we are now seeing the results of the first major solar installs from 25 years ago as they reach their expected end of life. End of life for them means 80-85% of the energy generated when they were new. Given the evidence we have seen, this is definitely not greenwashing...unless you are buying the nonsense expressed in that conference where they talk about greenwashing ;)
>The best thing you could personally do is squeeze out a few hundreds thousands miles out of a third hand Honda Civic. Not that your personal lifestyle matters one iota.
You are right as personal consumption is a drop in the bucket compared to industry. If it does become the norm my hope is that continued supply and labor inflation will force businesses to cut costs wherever they can and once Solar + EV gets to a certain price point, even business will have to adopt to stay competitive.
>Enjoy life and if you want to promote anything at all promote engineering degrees for young people. And nuclear power.
I would love some Nuclear but the ship has sailed. The US has forgotten how to build reactors and China has raced past them in their own custom designs. Now in the US it is just nonsense promoted by the Oil industry pushed down to COnservatives/Libertarians to distract.
I'm annoyed by the media coverage which all imply the Right won seats at the expense of the Left when, as you say, it's mostly the Greens (who, yes, are technically Left) who lost seats.
What's even more annoying though is I need to take a magnifying glass to even see the additional seats won by the Right. The Left still holds majority and haven't even lost an unusually large number of seats.
There obviously are exceptions when looking at the election more microscopically, like in France, but overall it's mainstream misleadia.
What's surprising to me is this disinformation campaign by the media only serves to try and empower the Right, which I always thought was something the media do not want.
This is factually incorrect.
Summing the votes of all parties that could be considered left (Green, S&D and The Left) you get 224 seats, which is about 31% of the European Union Parliament.
Whatever gave you that impression? A significant percentage of all media outlets are owned by very right-leaning businessmen, or otherwise entangled in capitalism to such extent that it may bias their judgement
A large portion of western media is state-funded public broadcasters (the BBC, CBC, PBS, ...), and another large swathe is under the control of various explicitly right-leaning corporations (Murdoch's News Corp and Fox, Sinclair, ...).
While there are indeed numerous liberal-leaning media outlets, it is entirely unclear to me that they have equivalent reach to their conservative counterparts.
If you consider PBS and BBC to somehow be conservative I guess that's why things are entirely unclear to you. What on earth would you like me to cite?
plurality /ploo͝-răl′ĭ-tē/
noun
A large number or amount; a multitude.
Ahem..
If you consider NPR to be far-far left then what is Jezebel, The Young Turks, Jacobin, or Democracy Now? That's not even getting into things like Socialist Alternative or pod casts like Chapo Trap House.
Between the ones I listed and NPR are sites like Slate and Vox which are to the left of NPR but not as far left as Democracy Now.
Probably not by number of outlets, either, not that it would matter.
The dominant Western media position is center-right neoliberal corporate capitalist (unsurprisingly, reflect both the ruling class of Western society and, as its the same class, the class that predominantly owns corporations, including media corps.)
Is The Guardian not socialist enough to your tastes or something? Iskra or bust, eh? ;)
That’s...very much not true. I use terminology more popular with people to the left of my own position because it is the most fit for the purpose.
> Is The Guardian not socialist enough to your tastes or something?
The Guardian is left of the median of major Western media outlets, not a representation of where the Western media is centered.
Instead it really is a unique device with unique use cases as evidenced by todays keynote. Did you watch it? I came away impressed with the cool things they developed just for the iPad.
After which they could run Linux, instead of being e-waste.
> unique use cases as evidenced by todays keynote
Mark Gurman, Bloomberg journalist covering Apple for years, https://x.com/markgurman/status/1800348268385521876?
Apple needs to put 25% of the vigor into iPadOS that it just put into Apple Intelligence because this is getting ridiculous. The iPad Pro gets incredible new hardware and an M4 chip and then iPadOS essentially gets nothing of substance.
There is so much PC based garbage that ends up in the eWaste trash destroyed way before years 7-9 hit and you are complaining about a device that is not even designed to be used in a server/desktop OS configuration?
>iPadOS 18 did get a calculator.
This really does explain it all...Just pure ignorance based on hatred of Apple.
So you're saying people should just accept their old iPads can't have a meaningful life after iPadOS support ends?
And that's because "Apple doesn't want them to", so that's it. No questions asked, just accept the results?
web browser
IoT control panel
video conferencing
photo frame
e-reader
kiosk
For web browsing, a nine year old tablet will arguably be slow as molasses for the content that would be on the web nine years from now. We have seen this with using old desktop computers to browse the web.
Your argument is pretty weak. There is a whole lot of work to make this happen among not only Apple but the OSS community for almost no gain. The community's time time would be better spent getting fundamentals of Linux Desktop working well so that maybe one day in our lives it really will be the Year of the Linux Desktop™.
Anything connected to a network requires security updates. The bottom five require network connectivity.
> Slow as molasses for the content
An old tablet isn't suitable for general Javascript-impaired web browsing, but there is a wide world of static online/offline content accessible to slow web browsers, as well as bespoke static content delivered via HTTP.
> Whole lot of work.. for almost no gain
The heavy lifting work is in device enablement, but that's a one time cost. Applications exist, work on other devices and are already maintained. Linux iPads would only expand the userbase for those applications.
That's not always the case though. ;)
About 3 years ago I got hold of a fully function dual Xeon system from around 2004 (!).
Only really wanted the case (old workstation, built like a tank) but the system itself still powered on and ran Win7 perfectly fine. Each of the two Xeon cpus was a single core thing (this was from before multi core), ran at ~3Ghz, and used about ~100w.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_Xeon_processors_...
... and it played back Youtube videos perfectly fine. I think they were 1080p ones too, rather then 720p.
---
We've seen that in later years (past this example above), computing power become "good enough" so that even old computers are completely workable more than a decade later.
Later model iPads will probably be the same, "good enough" for years after Apple is done with them.
I'm typing this on iPad Air and looking at an iPad Pro, Mac Mini and Macbook Air.
Mark Gurman, long-time Apple journalist, didn't find any iPad-specific features, beyond AI/LLM features coming to all Apple platforms. Here's another article that lists "everything" announced at WWDC, which doesn't list any new iPad features, other than AI/LLM, https://techcrunch.com/2024/06/10/everything-apple-announced...
https://youtu.be/RXeOiIDNNek?t=2584
FYI they even purposely made fun of themselves regarding the calculator app.
iOS: customize home screen + control center
apps: floating tab bar menus
apple apps: animations + doc browser
screen sharing: pencil annotations
calculator: math notes + brett victor animations
apple notes: handwriting digital twin
Windows Home does not ship Hyper-V, but it allows you to run your own hypervisors just fine.
In the case of Windows Home, that's components like Hyper-V. (Imagine taking Windows Home and injecting Hyper-V from a pirated copy of Windows Pro.)
In the case of iPadOS, that's all the components that macOS has that iPadOS doesn't.
The way to "add" those components to iPadOS is different, but the effect would still be the same: having a computer that works like it has the better edition installed, without paying for the better edition.
But it is. Microsoft just doesn't want home users to run Hyper-V, without paying for a (slightly) more expensive Windows Pro license. Home users still can download free VirtualBox or whatever other solution they care to use. They can also upgrade to a Pro license in-place, by paying $100.
This is all perfectly normal.
iPadOS is completely different. Apple does not _allow_ users to run any non-trivial system-level code. If Apple doesn't want you to access virtualization on iPad, you're out of luck. There are no easy workarounds.
In the Windows case, they can enforce your inability to install/enable Hyper-V on Windows Home through simple measures like protecting system files from modification.
But in the iPadOS case, the only way to really prevent you from running a macOS VM, is by preventing you from running any VM.
Due to the Turing-completeness of virtual machines, there's really no lesser measure they can take. You literally cannot create a piece of software that can run arbitrary VMs except for if the VM is semantically macOS. Whatever signal you would look for to blacklist macOS, an adversarial VM creator can mask by modifying the installation. (At an equilibrium point of such a game, the "adversarially-created macOS VM" would end up looking more like a Hackintosh rootfs than like a Mac rootfs — but it'd still look and feel and work like macOS, and that's all users would care about.)
It absolutely is a design choice. Apple wants to control all the code that runs on users' devices. Market segmentation is merely a side-effect.
You have cause and effect reversed
Apple would have liked to lock down macOS, but it's just not feasible (for now).
Of course they do. There's market segmentation between iPhone tiers, between just using the iPhone as a computer (connecting it to a monitor and running macOS on it), differentiating iOS from the much less tightly maintained Android ecosystem (for which "walled garden" is a feature felt as "less hassle, less malware, more secure, mostly just works"), and several other things.
Which is the "better edition": $2000 iPad Pro or $2000 Macbook?
If the goal is to maximize hardware device proliferation, third (and Nth) variants could be created with software-locked differentiation. Why stop at 2 hardware editions?
The one of the two with a lower profit margin for the manufacturer would usually be the one considered to have more "value" in it.
The usual way to measure this, when software editions are locked to particular hardware, is by looking at the cheapest hardware they sell that'll have the given edition of the software installed.
(Another example of this: managed vs unmanaged routers.)
> Why stop at 2 hardware editions?
You're limited by the willingness of your developer ecosystem to develop different versions of the same third-party software for all your different OSes. Nobody wants a device with no third-party app support.
(But that being said, there is actually a third, even-less-capable hardware ecosystem Apple sells, with its own ecosystem of mostly fungible apps: Apple TV!)
Do you mean something like Amazon eero vs generic OpenWRT routers? Eero has a few different hardware editions, usually segmented by WiFi speed. They also have a monthly subscription for additional software features. Presumably they make most of their revenue from subscriptions, with a small margin on the router hardware.
In these product lines, not only do the managed switches cost more than their unmanaged equivalents, but you also only get the option for a managed switch after a certain number of ports.
If Apple made an iPad Ultra with Linux terminal/framebuffer long-running background VMs, alongside interactive iPadOS apps, it would sell like hotcakes.
We'll have to wait for Nuvia devices to show the benefits of this use case, before Apple claims credit for a new iPad Pro customer segment.
Any client user/device using any service on the server requires a client access licence (CAL).
Anything less isn't full ownership.