@stroughtonsmith Assuming this is made possible by running macOS apps in virtualisation. Would you rather macOS ran in full screen on iPad and the Mac apps can only be used while the full macOS desktop is displayed, or the macOS apps run in their own windows alongside other iPadOS apps (like parallels coherence mode)?
@stroughtonsmith But iPad apps on the Mac are a last resort. Yes technically they are a Mac App in a single window, but the lack of touch in macOS makes them not fit in. It will be the same for macOS apps on iPadOS, and you can already tell by using Sidecar and Apple Pencil to interact with Mac apps.
@caseyneiba that's the point? macOS apps on iPad would be a last resort. But it's the last resort that justifies the price and performance of the top end iPads, and gives users the tools they need for complex workflows
@stroughtonsmith Although the flip side to that is that the Mac runs iPad apps badly, for the most part. There are exceptions but the vast majority to me feel like crap on the Mac. Not sure how things would work in reverse. I also wonder at what point iPadOS just… goes away, if Apple loses even more focus on it.
@stroughtonsmith I would add “to run mac apps like on a mac" otherwise they might get the idea we just want audio hijack but it's okay to kill the app when you switch to a safari window🥴
@stroughtonsmith I love macOS. My favourite platform to write for is macOS. I want to continue to use macOS for decades to come.
My feeling on iPad running macOS is that it just squanders what iPad could be. They’ve certainly yet to find their groove. And macOS would unlock the hardware potential in more ways than currently available. But, for me, it’d be a sad day and capitulation. An acknowledgment that they couldn’t come up with a truly new paradigm for the incredible hardware
@Gte how can you be 14 years into something and yet to find your groove? 😅 I think it's super wishful thinking that iPad will get the resources it needs to reach that potential. I think virtualized macOS buys that runway — touch apps will always be better on it, so there's incentive to innovate there, but there is a fallback that justifies the price point. Vision Pro has that same fallback today, an escape hatch that a lot of people say is the best feature of the device
@stroughtonsmith I guess my position is that I don’t care as much about making the iPad a compelling product. That’s not my department. I want one of the last technology companies in the world with the talent and money to do something entirely new to use the platform to just go for it. Flex their imagination rather than grudgingly adopting the limits of POSIX and stuffing it into a riff on iOS.
@stroughtonsmith Given how down you are on the idea that Apple will invest in more capabilities for iPad OS why do you think they will invest in porting AppKit to iPad?
"I think they have neither the will nor the engineering capacity to fix iPadOS, and they've already shifted their top talent & attention to their next platform (visionOS). I fully expect the next decade of iPad software to be dire, like the Mac's lost decade post iPhone" https://mastodon.social/@stroughtonsmith/112397136321285753
I was not critiquing the idea of a VM, I was saying that given your past statements I would think that you would think App Kit on iPadOS (a reverse Mac Catalyst) is unlikely.
@stroughtonsmith would you prefer the iPad to run Mac apps or macOS in general? I’d replace my MacBook with a 14" iPad that could also run macOS, in an instant. I don’t see a business problem as long as the iPad + keyboard would be expensive enough
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