IPad is the new terminal

Having had an iPad for more than half a year now, it is time for an evaluation. In short, it is an incredible productivity booster. If I ponder its place in the continuum that spans from phone to laptop to desktop to server to mainframe, I can only conclude that it has cleared up some misunderstandings I had about what a laptop is for. The main misunderstanding is that the laptop needs the same infrastructure and tools of the desktop; where I previously mirrored compiler levels, server software and database subsystems, the iPad has made it clear that with a portable machine, you can just connect through to your desktop 'in the cloud' and run a terminal on it. I mainly develop NetRexx and Java on Unix and MVS, so with a good ssh client and a good 3270 emulator I am ready to roll. Yesterday evening marked the first time that I ran a mainframe assembly and linkedit sitting in bed; me still believing in character mode screens and commandline compilers helps a lot in this realm. It is perfectly possible to run a logmein session to a graphical screen and run eclipse or netbeans, but it is just not worth the trouble of mousing around a compressed screen image when you can have perfectly clear type on a green screen.

This misunderstanding and the solution the iPad offered has lead to me clearing out a lot of infrastructure on the laptops; even if I sit and do desk work, I have gotten into the habit of punching through to my home machine and run all the stuff there. The bigger laptop screen and the keyboard and mouse combo cause me to do a bit more of gui work this way. Connectivity is everywhere and it hardly ever fails. I am typing this in a hospital café, waiting for my wife and her niece to return from the doctor. For the day job, where I am a manager and am not expected to do any coding, I do not have to bring a laptop anymore; what I need is access to mail, calendar and the company directory and that is expertly handled by the way the iOS apps like mail and calendar interface with exchange.

The new way of handling these things forced me to put more memory in the home desktop; while I got by with 2GB from 2000-2010 (around the turn of the century that was a lot, lately it was laughing stock for IT buddies), I switched to 18 GB two weeks ago. Most of the stuff I use just keeps running, like office apps, pdf viewer and iTunes, as is a TV receiver for KPN's digitenne. Also, several mainframe operating systems, like MVS 3.8, MUSIC/SP and Linux on Z, keep running so I can get to those environments from everywhere. I even keep VM's with Windows and OS/2 around, for those 'just in case' situations, as I do with a Linux on Intel image.

So for the moment, the future is with the iPad and in the cloud. A private cloud for the moment, unless someone makes me a competitive offer.