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Comment by QML | Hacker News Reader

I would love to see one day iPad Pros with the capability of being plugged into an external GPU and running desktop-grade applications instead of the meek productivity tools that the Apple App Store is constrained to. As a college student, I recently bought an iPad to take notes, and the one thing that's stopping me from selling my laptop is the lack of connectivity and full MacOS. But then where's the future of MacBooks if tablets overtake them in utility?

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> plugged into an external GPU and running desktop-grade applications

Games?

I have a hard time envisioning what would require a GPU beyond what's available on an iPad.

My NeXT cube had a 25 MHz single core CPU, no GPU and a megapixel display and was pretty darn "desktop grade" or rather "workstation grade". OK, higher resolution, color. But also a 2+ GHz dual core (later: hexacore) 64 bit CPU and a pretty darn powerful GPU. Where are all these cycles going?

http://blog.metaobject.com/2011/02/only-1-ghz.html

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This product already exists, its called Microsoft SurfaceBook. The screen works as a detachable tablet, the keyboard contains more battery and a relatively powerful GPU.

It is also expensive as hell.

The SurfaceBook should be thought of as a laptop and not a tablet imo. I have the surface pro and it a terrible tablet. Well, it's good if you are an artist and doing sketches/artwork but not for the casual programmer. I've used tablet mode under 10 times (I have a nexus 7 which is much better as a tablet) and was unimpressed every time.

This just shows that a laptop is much better suited for programming than a tablet. Not a huge surprise really. Rudy Huyn uses a Surface Pro for development. I highly doubt he has even once started Visual Studio in tablet mode.

But back to OP, he clearly stated that he wanted to run desktop grade software. I think SurfaceBook fits his requirements.

What specifically do you need to connect? And what's missing from full MacOS for note taking purposes?

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