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Comment by nextos | Hacker News Reader

It's sad. I'm a Linux diehard, but during the pandemic I considered buying an iPad to SSH into my office workstation, browse the web, etc. as I got stuck in an awkward accommodation.

Hardware is great, but the keyboard lacks a dedicated ESC, and I was quite uncomfortable with the fact that terminal apps seem like second rate citizens / not well liked by Apple.

IMHO, there's a lot of untapped potential in the iPad as a programming device if Apple was more reasonable. The alternative Android tablet ecosystem, unlike phones, is total a mess. Samsung has a lot of nice offerings, but software is mediocre and they seem to be really unfocused.

I eventually ended up getting a Surface Go, which is quirky is some regards, but supports Linux really well and is a real computer, not a locked appliance.

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Lenovo Chromebook Duet, it is an awesone little chromebook tablet that suport android apps and linux containers. 128gb storage and 4gb of ram for about 300 dlls. it was on sale for about 230 last week.

For iPad as a thin client - Blink is great and allows remapping caps lock to escape. That's actually something you can do globally with the magic keyboard.

Upset that ish is being removed - as somebody who has had it since TestFlight came out. I was surprised they got approved for App Store, but once it was on there... seems crazy to have them removed.

Android keyboards also lack Esc. The key in that place implements the go to home functionality (Android's middle button.) My use case is the now deprecated / defunct Linux container in Samsung's Dex. I didn't find a way to configure the keyboard and X11 to map it to an Esc for Linux. I've been using Control [, which is a little pain.

Some keyboards have escape. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.pocketwork...

Check out "Hacker's Keyboard"

I mean a hardware keyboard, usually bluetooth but USB would do.

Did you consider a chromebook? I've been thinking about getting a chromebook as an ssh terminal for a while.

A chromebook can be an excellent SSH terminal. Cheap, light, and a decent keyboard. You can install a Linux container, and inside that, run ssh-agent, so you load up your keys just once.

The one major annoyance is the lack of a caps-lock key, which is replaced by the "do-anything" Google search button. So you have to press that and right-alt to turn on and off caps-lock.

Since they are standard across all chromebooks, I've come to appreciate the dedicated navigation keys, volume, brightness and screen lock. I use those a lot more than I have on a regular laptop that mixes those with the Fn keys.

> I eventually ended up getting a Surface Go, which is quirky is some regards, but supports Linux really well and is a real computer, not a locked appliance.

Doesn’t have working cameras though, right? I was looking into the Surface Go a bit as a Linux tablet recently, but it sounded like I wouldn’t have a working webcam (which I use fairly often these days for videoconferencing) and I’d need to install a kernel fork since some of the hardware isn’t supported yet in mainline Linux.

I’d be glad to be wrong about these, since a lightweight Linux tablet (especially with LTE support!) would be amazing. My criteria for hardware that supports Linux really well these days though is more “works out of the box” and less “requires tinkering.”

iPad keyboard support let’s you remap Caps Lock, CTRL, Cmd, Opt, and Globe key. I’ve remapped Caps Lock to Escape on both iPad Pro Magic Keyboard (and 2018 MacBook Pro 15). Works great in iSH, Shelly, and several other remoting apps.

Where are you remapping the keys reliably on an ipad? (app/settings)

Settings -> general -> keyboard -> hardware keyboard

I concur, the iPad is not yet a good place for development, except for python and JS perhaps if it's reasonably self contained.

I tried with the Pro, the best setup was to remote into a raspberry pi. Editors are becoming better but it's still clunky partly because of the git integration that must be done with another app and the general lack of multi-windowing.

A chromebook with the linux install seems a best choice for now (didn't try but looked viable enough)

I guess you might be interested in PineTab, native GNU/Linux tablet.

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