I have an excellent Thinkpad T590 running Ubuntu 22.04 — one of the best Linux laptops I’ve had, and yet it’s the worst. I have a snappy iPad Pro that is one of the best tablets I’ve ever used, and yet it’s the worst.
How can a computer be the best and the worst? Each has strengths and weaknesses.
Strengths of the Thinkpad + Ubuntu
- My target deployment platform is Linux, and so developing on Linux is a much closer fit than using Windows or Mac.
- Speedy docker — it’s native. On a Mac, it’s never native because it’s not Linux, and always goes slower — at least 10x slower, sometimes 100x slower, depending on whether the docker image is intel or uses native instructions.
- Intel Iris Pro GPU with in-kernel drivers means that the display just works, including with external monitors. Suspend and resume work as well. It’s way better than with proprietary drivers.
- Command line tools have all the GNU power options I want and to which I am accustomed. I.e things like “grep -P” for perl-style regex.
- Powerful computer, not too heavy, 5 hours of battery life, even after 4 years of use.
- Robust materials. It doesn’t fall apart. Excellent keyboard, including a number pad.
- Matte screen — reducing glare, and nice to look at.
- Chrome. Most critical things I need run pleasingly well in Chrome — Outlook, MS Teams, etc.
- No ads inserted.
- No Microsoft overlord forcing MS Edge on users.
- Gnome desktop. No, it’s not particularly exciting, but it works, and it has great window snapping, very much like Windows.
Weaknesses of the Thinkpad + Ubuntu
- Bluetooth audio. My Bose headphones work far better with my iPhone or iPad than with Linux. Linux bluetooth audio drops randomly, or is lower quality.
- Audio with multiple possible output sources. My MS teams in-a-web-browser audio is always a challenge in this scenario.
- Sometimes audio and/or bluetooth doesn’t work after a suspend/resume cycle, and I have to reboot the computer. Lately, I’m in many more conference calls, and unreliable audio is frustrating. Happily, I can switch to my iPad, where audio just works — every time.
- Anemic built-in speakers, and tinny-sounding audio from built-in microphone. It’s subtle, but low audio quality makes it hard to listen to calls as effectively, and adds stress. This goes for the remote end of the call as well. There’s a reason podcasters invest in quality microphones. In my experience, Apple hardware has much better built-in speakers and microphones than any PC I’ve ever used. That said, purpose built-external mics are always better quality.
- Apps. No WhatsApp for Linux (maybe that’s a good thing!), and same for many other apps that have no web-based option, forcing me to use my smartphone without a physical keyboard.
- No fingerprint reader, no face unlock.
- Viewing of thumbnails in the file explorer stinks compared to Windows or Mac.
Strengths of the iPad Pro
- Instantly available and ready to go, 99.9% of the time, unlike Ubuntu, which is okay, but not as pleasing in this regard.
- FaceId to unlock — so much faster than with a password or a pin.
- Apps — so many to choose from. There’s an app for everything.
- Excellent sound and microphones — great for conference calls, and it can even service an entire team in a conference room doing a remote call with people elsewhere — with its built in capabilities
- Keyboard. Yes, I have one, and it makes my life better.
- Bluetooth: It’s reliable, unlike with Linux — especially important with audio.
- Touch screen.
- Apple pencil.
Weaknesses of the iPad Pro
- The apps for Google docs and Google sheets are surprisingly anemic compared to the web-browser experience — i.e. almost unusable, other than for viewing and simple editing. I’d just use them in Chrome, but Google dumbs down the online in-Chrome experience for iPad, forcing me to use the apps.
- Side-by-side google docs. I often want to look at two documents at the same time, but Google docs doesn’t let me do that. It’s one at a time or nothing. Desktops are so much better.
- Chrome. It’s running on a powerful M2 processor, yet Google disallows the extensions that improve my life. Desktop chrome is so much better.
- Copy and paste within apps. Why is it, that in a web browser, I can copy-and-paste the portions of a conversation that I want (such as just the phone number or just the address), and paste them elsewhere, but within an app, it’s the entire text, or nothing?
- Apple pencil for writing notes. Apple notes places the translated text wherever it pleases.
- Apple pencil capabilities are underutilized. Most apps (Apple Notes, Apple Freeform, Miro, MS Whiteboard, etc.) don’t seem to support the pressure sensitive nature of the pencil.
Operating systems and the hardware they run on are like footwear. Flip flops, running shoes, irrigation boots and ski boots each have their place. That said, I don’t want to be lugging around all at the same time.