That is scary to me, an entire generation growing up within the walled garden and perceiving only Apple's products as what is possible for computers to accomplish. These computers are confining, as much as their constriction liberates the user in its simplicity, it is a real constriction. To me, that's exactly what the FLOSS movement hoped to avoid, and failed to do so by advocating for a purist f/open stance rather than winning smaller battles with open source at least staying in the war for market share.
Not just the walled garden. iPads are simply less capable as productivity devices than a laptop is.
Right now, for instance, I have this page open in a web browser, which has youtube playing in one tab, twitter in another, and this in yet another. I also have an iPhone simulator running behind this browser, a terminal window tail -f ing a logfile, and vscode in another window.
All of this stuff is open at the same time. I can hear audio from all of it, access all of it, see all of it, all at the same time. This is not possible on an iPad.
When was the last time you used iPadOS? It can run multiple programs, and can display two side-by-side just fine. Yeah that means it's a little clunky if you need to switch between three or more apps, but it's not like it can't have apps in the background when you can't see them. (Plus, no need to simulate anything, you're on a real iOS device.) There's still no Xcode for iOS, though there is Swift Playgrounds if you're an iOS developer, and VScode still hasn't made it to the App store, but it's got a keyboard and a mouse so if you squint a little, it's fine for a large segment of users.
Sure there are limitations; you can't hit F12 and drop into developer tools in Chrome, plus iOS Chrome is just reskinned Safari anyway. Oh and the sound thing. I'm not saying a full laptop doesn't have more, but the lost capabilities simply aren't showstoppers for everyone, especially if you're not a developer. In fact, because they can have build in cell-modems and macbook air's don't, combined with the fact that there are decent SSH clients, it's actually a better device for some.
Right, but some people do. And the people who do, used to be people who don't. And those people became people who do because it was possible. It is a bit worrying to me that so many people will be growing up with devices with such a low "skill ceiling"; devices which don't let your interest in technology bloom but rather restrict what can be imagined.
> And the people who do, used to be people who don't.
Yep. Walled gardens kill curiosity.
Curiosity is what got me into this industry, way before I knew it could be a career. Playing around, messing with files that ran my games, making web forums and learning to change how they look.
There is also very little digital knowledge for them to gain as they already handle their phones better than their parents. As a technically aligned kid I would have hated an iPad. Well, I still do...
