The slide decks and resources from my latest talks have been uploaded and posted today. You can find my last talk at GusDay 2023, titled Leveraging Leadership for our Technology Teams, for your consideration.
Thanks!
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Category: Technology
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Put macOS on the iPad, you cowards
Put macOS on the iPad, you cowards by Monica Chin, The Verge
Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, and I would imagine that what is shared in this article is probably a shared opinion by a good number. Here is the central idea:
But now that the iPad Pro is an M1 system, I don’t see why it can’t run macOS apps.
Not wrong, from a technical point of view. However, Apple, please don’t put macOS on the iPad. Please keep working on the iPad as the unique device that it currently is. I like the iPad where it currently sits.
She mentions the Surface Pro line of devices, and I know many who like them, but the schizophrenic nature of the device causes me more grief than either the iPad or any macOS device. There is a lot of iteration that needs to be done before the final, complete fusion of touch and non-touch devices.
This is, however, just my opinion.
Working in Public: The Making and Maintenance of Open Source Software by Nadia Eghbal
I just finished this book while walking on the treadmill this morning and I am torn. There are definitely parts that I find insightful, especially as an overall look at the struggles open source communities, founders, contributors, maintainer, etc. run into as it pertains to the continual creation and curation of code and other resources, but I find the emphasis on platforms as the savior of these communities somewhat concerning.
That may entirely be my own bias showing, but looking to technology and platforms to fix what are inevitable human and interaction issues seems shortsighted but also quite understandable today. Who doesn’t like the idea that technology will solve our issues!? However, as we continue to place more and more emphasis on platforms and technology, I fear that we begin to lose the human aspect of what we do. If platforms are our savior, they then are almost inevitably our masters.
So. Torn.
While I may not be following the 100 Days To Offload, I am hoping to get back into writing on this blog a little bit more in the future. Luckily, Kev Quirk over at https://kevq.uk IS posting every day and one of his recent posts caught my attention: How Many Devices Is Too Many? This post is my own response to that topic.
I have been spending more time working from home recently and so I have also been splitting my work across an increasing number of devices. On a given day, when I both work from home and on campus, I may use any combination of the following devices:
- Lenovo ThinkPad Carbon X1
- Lenovo ThinkPad T495
- Apple 12″ MacBook
- Apple 9.7″ iPad Pro
- Apple iPhone 11
- Apple Mac mini
- Apple 13″ Retina MacBook Pro
- Microsoft Surface Pro 7
- Intel NUC
- Kindle Paperwhite
That does not include accessories and other smart devices (Apple HomePod) or any devices my wife or kids use during a given day either. Needless to say, I have a goodly number of devices sitting around and I move between any number of them fairly consistently.
I also have started to feel the weight of having all of these devices around. It is almost too much. Some tasks can only be done on certain devices and if I don’t have it nearby, then I need to go find it. In some cases the platform differences mean I spend more time thinking about how I might accomplish a task instead of doing it.
Recently I have started testing a Thunderbolt 3 docking station from Plugable with my ThinkPad Carbon X1 and it has worked pretty well. The hope is that in the future I can eliminate entire swaths of devices and consolidate down to just a few. However, which platform do I ultimately end up using? I am truly torn at the moment.
So … how many? I think I’m past that limit but I am unsure of exactly where I am going to fall in the near future. What I do know is that at the current number I am spending more time thinking about doing work and not the needed time actually getting down to do it. At this point, where the tools are getting in the way, it is time to start making some difficult decisions.
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Between Two Worlds
I have been spending too much time thinking about digital platforms again. It breaks down into two choices at the moment:
- Continue working in Apple’s ecosystem for much of my personal and professional life
- Work to move as much as possible to open source and free software alternatives which may include self-hosting a number of items
I have been able to work with a new ThinkPad T495 over the past months and there is a lot that I like about the machine. While it may be a little larger for a daily-carry device, it is quick, has some paths for upgrading, and is rugged enough to serve day-to-day. If I were going to continue trying to move more and more of my work to open source alternatives, I would probably look at a ThinkPad Carbon X1 as my personal device as the slightly smaller footprint coupled with being around 27% lighter would make a difference.
However, what is holding me back isn’t the device nor is it even the operating system (with openSUSE Tumbleweed continuing to receive updates and serve quite ably) … it is the available software in the community along with the seamlessness of mobile workflows.
This is felt most acutely when it comes to task/todo managers, at least for me. I have been suing OmniFocus for the past 5+ years on macOS, iOS, and iPadOS and it has served me very well. There are a lot of fiddly buttons and options to play around with, but I have fallen into a pretty simple way of handling recurring and then one-off items along with keeping track of different projects or contexts.
However, I have yet to find an equivalent application or option that will work between a Linux distro and any mobile operating system. Of course this is complicated by my want for a competent desktop application. I have looked at Todo.txt a little bit but the need for additional plugins to add recurring tasks and other features included with OmniFocus and the lack of a competent mobile app turns me off from that.
That is just the tip of the iceberg and so I am caught, in a sense, in the Apple ecosystem for the time being as I work to consider what options I may have in the future.
Digital ecosystems are complicated.