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When/will the iPad get macOS?


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sack_peak

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Even the A12 chips used in the AS Dev machines were custom versions with a lot of extras tacked on to allow for things like virtual swap memory. Apple didn't start supporting
We're on A17 Pro already... 5 generations more advanced than AS Dev.
 

Digitalguy

macrumors 601
Apr 15, 2019
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I am getting PTSD from netbooks watching that.
My surface go 2 is 10.5 and is perfectly usable on the go with full Windows. That fact that a given screen size is too small for YOU, doesn't make it too small for others...
 

sack_peak

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My surface go 2 is 10.5 and is perfectly usable on the go with full Windows. That fact that a given screen size is too small for YOU, doesn't make it too small for others...
And here we are not being given macOS GUI on iPad or iPhone out the box. o_O

Apple llikely did so for a quality user experience that Microsoft does not care for.
 

fw85

macrumors member
Jun 22, 2023
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And here we are not being given macOS GUI on iPad or iPhone out the box. o_O

Apple llikely did so for a quality user experience that Microsoft does not care for.
you're not given macOS on an iPad because that's a ton of additional effort for Apple to achieve what - cannibalizing their mac sales and enabling a few niche use cases?

remember it's not just the GUI you want, it's the actual system itself that can run the wide array of mac apps
 
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sack_peak

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you're not given macOS on an iPad because that's a ton of additional effort for Apple to achieve what - cannibalizing their mac sales and enabling a few niche use cases?

remember it's not just the GUI you want, it's the actual system itself that can run the wide array of mac apps
Samsung has DeX. AFAIK it's just an original GUI for desktop for Android.

That's what is being asked for it as well.

I do agree it will cannibalize sales but it may increase iPhone sales for anyone who does not need M1 performance but Intel performance.
 

darngooddesign

macrumors P6
Jul 4, 2007
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Samsung has DeX. AFAIK it's just an original GUI for desktop for Android.

That's what is being asked for it as well.

I do agree it will cannibalize sales but it may increase iPhone sales for anyone who does not need M1 performance but Intel performance.
Dex is not a desktop OS, so do you want MacOS or do you just want Stage Manager with MacOS style windows and files on the desktop instead of in the Files app, but not MacOS apps?
 
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sack_peak

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Dex is not a desktop OS, so do you want MacOS or do you just want Stage Manager with MacOS style windows and files on the desktop instead of in the Files app, but not MacOS apps?
I want macOS GUI & behavior when an iPad or iPhone is attached to an USB-C display.

I get many here are software devs, engineers and other highly technical application.

Many also just want a device to browse, office suite and watch streaming video on a 5-11" touch screen or a 27-32" USB-C display.
 

sack_peak

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So… an iPad then?
With a macOS GUI front end when connecting to a USB-C display.

Stage Manager's that crudy to discourage Mac defectors to making it their sole desktop.

I used the original Windows CE bar code guns. They shoehorned the Windows 9x GUI onto a hand held inventory device.

It was less than ideal for a screen that tiny.

Many will argue that they loved it but it was a bad user experience.

Apple knows better and never delivered this.

owc_modbook_1.jpg


itab.jpg
 

Ludatyk

macrumors 603
May 27, 2012
5,529
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Stage Manager's that crudy to discourage Mac defectors to making it their sole desktop.
I'm curious... have you used Stage Manager recently? And have you used it with a monitor?

I understand Stage Manager is not macOS, but it's not as if it's unusable in terms of resizing and managing multiple windows. I'm not sure what exactly you want in a desktop environment.

Heck, I have the option to use DeX with my Galaxy Fold... but I prefer using Stage Manager with my portable monitor instead.
 

sack_peak

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I'm curious... have you used Stage Manager recently? And have you used it with a monitor?

I understand Stage Manager is not macOS, but it's not as if it's unusable in terms of resizing and managing multiple windows. I'm not sure what exactly you want in a desktop environment.

Heck, I have the option to use DeX with my Galaxy Fold... but I prefer using Stage Manager with my portable monitor instead.
See my previous post as to why I dont want to relearn the wheel when there is macOS over yonder.

This thread's about macOS on iPad.

My interpretation would be the macOS GUI appears when connected to an external larger than 11" display.
 
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fw85

macrumors member
Jun 22, 2023
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See my previous post as to why I dont want to relearn the wheel when there is macOS over yonder.

This thread's about macOS on iPad.

My interpretation would be the macOS GUI appears when connected to an external larger than 11" display.
And how would the display communicate to the device how large it is? The device knows only about the resolution, not size.
Stage Manager is the least of the problems here, just because you might not have checked it out in its current iteration, does not mean it's necessarily bad.

The main drawback of the iPad and the reason why this thread exists in the first place is the inability to run Mac apps natively on the tablet, which leaves people with the less-than-ideal mobile versions of apps.
Ever since the iPad had access to the M chip, it kind of started making sense to entertain a thought such as: what if macOS apps could run within iPadOS, similarly to how iOS apps run within macOS?
 

darngooddesign

macrumors P6
Jul 4, 2007
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Atlanta, GA
I want macOS GUI & behavior when an iPad or iPhone is attached to an USB-C display.
The problem with using MacOS GUI to control the iPadOS is that MacOS has a menu bar with app controls while iPad apps have all their controls inside the app window.
I get many here are software devs, engineers and other highly technical application.

Many also just want a device to browse, office suite and watch streaming video on a 5-11" touch screen or a 27-32" USB-C display.
You can blame Microsoft for not putting desktop-class Office on the iPad, Microsoft wants to drive people to use a Surface for their tablet, but iPadOS and StageManager are more than capable enough for browsing, Office, and watching videos.
 
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sack_peak

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The problem with using MacOS GUI to control the iPadOS is that MacOS has a menu bar with app controls while iPad apps have all their controls inside the app window.
Again.... macOS GUI appears when attached to external display with keyboard + mouse/trackpad.

iPadOS & iOS GUI appears for built-in multitouch display.

Below is the iOS architecture diagram. Just swap Cocoa Touch Layer with macOS' "Aqua" GUI

maxresdefault.jpg




1280px-Diagram_of_Mac_OS_X_architecture.svg.png
 

sack_peak

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Do you the MacOS GUI controlling iPadOS and iPadOS apps, or do you want the full MacOS running MacOS apps?
Fat binaries could happen for the purpose of that behavior. :)

iPad Pro & Air are destined to refresh to a M3 chip. Why can't it run the macOS GUI when attached to an external display?

A17 Pro is roughly equal to the M1 and is found in iPhones with USB-C ports.

All the chips I mentioned are approaching Xeon Mac performance.
 

darngooddesign

macrumors P6
Jul 4, 2007
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Fat binaries could happen for the purpose of that behavior. :)

iPad Pro & Air are destined to refresh to a M3 chip. Why can't it run the macOS GUI when attached to an external display?

A17 Pro is roughly equal to the M1 and is found in iPhones with USB-C ports.

All the chips I mentioned are approaching Xeon Mac performance.
That doesn't answer my question.

Do you want the MacOS GUI running iPadOS and iPad apps, or do you want MacOS running Mac apps?
 

sack_peak

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That doesn't answer my question.

Do you want the MacOS GUI running iPadOS and iPad apps, or do you want MacOS running Mac apps?
I just want macOS GUI & behavior on iPad or iPhone when I plug it onto an external display.

So for use cases where in a M3 or A18 Pro chips are "good enough" we don't have to buy a redundant Mac.

I change iPhones every 2 years so I'd benefit from this paradigm change.
 

fw85

macrumors member
Jun 22, 2023
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I just want macOS GUI & behavior on iPad or iPhone when I plug it onto an external display.

So for use cases where in a M3 or A18 Pro chips are "good enough" we don't have to buy a redundant Mac.

I change iPhones every 2 years so I'd benefit from this paradigm change.
Mac remains a necessity for people due to professional apps only being available there, or only available there in a fully featured version.
Changing just the GUI layer to mimic the Mac does nothing to address that.
 

darngooddesign

macrumors P6
Jul 4, 2007
18,111
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Atlanta, GA
I just want macOS GUI & behavior on iPad or iPhone when I plug it onto an external display.
So to clarify, you are fine with iPad OS and iPad apps as long was it looks and behaves like MacOS when plugged into a display. This is not a dig, just trying to understand clearly what you want.
So for use cases where in a M3 or A18 Pro chips are "good enough" we don't have to buy a redundant Mac.
You would if you want to run full Mac apps.
I change iPhones every 2 years so I'd benefit from this paradigm change.
Unless iPhones can run iPad apps, all you would have are narrow vertical windows with phone apps instead of something you could fill your screen with.

The first thing to mention is that Apple made it easy to run iOS apps on Macs, but very few developers took advantage of it for a variety of reasons including it costs money to test and support their apps on MacOS and most people aren't willing to buy the same app again just to run it on their Macs. They probably don't want the negative reviews because their apps don't work correctly on MacOS. I would imagine that the same would be true with what you want; unless developers can charge for a version which is only used when plugged into an external display they probably wont take on the added costs. Beyond that, there are no iOS apps which use the MacOS menubar so every app you want to use this way would have to be rewritten just to accommodate the external display limitation.

Humorously, Apple putting MacOS on a tablet is probably easier and more likely than Apple building, and developers supporting, a MacOS GUI for iPadOS which appears only if you plug into a display.
 

sack_peak

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Mac remains a necessity for people due to professional apps only being available there, or only available there in a fully featured version.
Changing just the GUI layer to mimic the Mac does nothing to address that.
I never claimed my user case is universal. I purposefully pointed that out.

Having macOS GUI helps leaps and bounds.

Hardware's there already and data manipualtion is there too.
 

darngooddesign

macrumors P6
Jul 4, 2007
18,111
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I never claimed my user case is universal. I purposefully pointed that out.

Having macOS GUI helps leaps and bounds.
How does it help with apps which aren't written to use the MacOS finder and menubar?
Hardware's there already and data manipualtion is there too.
Except for iPhones not have an M#, I agree that the hardware is capable. But hardware isn't the issue.
 
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sack_peak

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Except for iPhones not have an M#, I agree that the hardware is capable. But hardware isn't the issue.
2020 AS DTK had a A12Z chip used on the iPad & derived from an iPhone chip.

I think someone pointed that out. Just lazy to link back to it.
 

darngooddesign

macrumors P6
Jul 4, 2007
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Atlanta, GA
2020 AS DTK had a A12Z chip used on the iPad & derived from an iPhone chip.

I think someone pointed that out. Just lazy to link back to it.
While its true that the M# is based on the A#, the AS DTK Macs did not use the same A12 as the iPads. They had a lot of custom components tacked on which could enable desktop features like virtual swap memory. No iPhones so far are capable of running a desktop OS.
 
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