This is becoming more and more tempting...
For me it's basically pornography: a beautiful fantasy that I love pretending is real but is actually completely unrealistic (at least in my case). The idea of ditching my laptop and traveling the city with a thin client, not caring if it breaks or gets corrupted because all the data is sitting somewhere up in the cloud, backed up and taken care of. No fans, no worries of processor power or RAM, incredibly flexible form factor, instant-on and everything full screen by default, notifications that just work and work in a unified and consistent way. No distractions, just zen working in a park with a fountain and a chocolate croissant.
Problem is I do web development and app development, neither of which are terribly feasible on a tablet. A man can dream though. A man can dream.
You could even install ubuntu on an android tablet.
If what you want is the form factor and speedyness of solid state everything, you could get a tablet that isn't an ipad. Lenovo makes some that would be trivial to swap out for Ubuntu or whatever https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/tablets/c/TABLETS
Not having a mouse may be cumbersome sometimes, but I’m starting to really get used to the touchscreen to the point that I almost find myself trying to touch my MBP’s screen.
iPad Pro also supports the Smart Keyboard (which in itself is great to type on) as well as regular USB keyboards (with the Lightning/USB-C to USB adapter). I was able to use my Pok3r keyboard just fine.
For shell access, definitely check out Blink. Even using VI isn’t bad as you can remap your `~ key to ESC. Most of my work is done remotely anyway.
The only downsides are the occasional apps that don’t support full iPad screen scaling - so they appear like iPhone apps.
The limitations of a tablet form factor force UI designers to be thoughtful, and the limitations of iOS force app developers to all converge on the same solutions.
I want my hardware and OS to just get out of my way so I can get my work done. Chromebooks and iPads get this right in my opinion. I feel like Android still gives me too much freedom, and I invariably always break something because I am an irresponsible child when I get bored.
When I'm working, I want to think about my work, not about my OS or hardware.
Of course that’s still just a dream. But it is a beautiful dream for me.
For those times when I really need to, I can always split screen.