I thought it was going to be perfect since it's much lighter and thinner than a Surface Pro 4.
You need a remote server for this to work, since you won't get access to the underlying shell without jailbreaking. Depending on reliable networks was mistake #1.
Also, while Panic was a good enough terminal emulator, its redrawing was unreliable when switching from app to app. This might have changed with iOS 11, but it bugged me to no end before.
Lastly, I learned that much of the web (and some apps in particular, namely Remote Desktop) still thinks that you have a mouse. I used Cloudcraft when it first came out to draw some diagrams for an interview. I straight-up could not do it without a mouse, and iOS (stubbornly) does not support mousing. This on top of buggy CMD+TAB functionality and some apps straight up not working without a mouse ended the experiment for me.
Not ideal, but it's one option that's out there.
[1]: https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MD821AM/A/lightning-to-us...
The only two things I have not been able to replace is (yup..) the proprietary Xcode for the occasional venture into iOS development, and oddly enough: Sketch. You’d expect that the iPad is the perfect device for a Sketch-type app (bar 3rd-party plugins..), but nothing ticks all the boxes just yet.
An interesting advantage of iOS that I find is the focus gained. It feels as though switching to a different app requires more deliberate thought than on macOS. I used to do 9 things at once and completely lose my train of thought in all of them and I have less of that on iOS. Or I suffer from Stockholm’s Syndrome, that could also be it.
There's some value in using a hybrid approach with a lightweight laptop though the iPad Pro offers a pencil and probably better battery life.
Is this some sort of guerilla marketing for the iPad?