iPad Why does iPadOS not feel like true OS?

[Kal Madda]

icloud drive is not a backup solution. icloud backup (what you are referring to) is a limited backup solution. but also truly not a real backup solution because icloud backup doesn't actually backup stuff in your icloud drive.

the reason why icloud drive is not a backup solution is because it's a synching solution. ti's main goal is to make sure all your files are carried over across all your devices. If you delete a file / edit a file, it will carry over all those changes across all your devices. a true backup solution will backup a snapshot in time so even if you deleted that file or something bad happens to it like it gets corrupted, irreversible edits, etc, you can still access your backup for the original file. icloud drive does not allow you to do this, it's main purpose is to carryover your edits across ALL your devices with no versioning support. and because icloud backup does not backup files in your synched folders, it's also not a complete backup solution.

You can easily go to the Recently Deleted section and restore any files you accidentally delete. It doesn’t actually completely remove it from cloud for 30 days. You’d have to accidentally delete the file, and then accidentally go to the Recently Deleted section to accidentally delete it from there, oh, and also accidentally select yes when the prompt asks you “do you want to permanently delete x file?”. I don‘t think even Jar Jar Binks could make that many concurrent accidents…

 

[UnlikelyLass]

I posted this elsewhere, but the thing that makes ipadOS not feel like a real OS, to me, is that it is designed like an appliance OS. It lacks a whole bunch of very specific general purpose OS features:

1. You can’t build software to run *on* the OS *in* the OS -- you have to use a tool suite on another OS.
2. You can’t install software onto the device except from one repository, and that repository has very strict rules about functionality that is permitted in packages it hosts. There are whole classes of software that are ”not present” on iPads not because ipadOS can’t run them, but because Apple’s App Store rules prevent them from being offered to iPad users to install. And the EU alternate app stores still allow Apple to arbitrarily control what software *those* stores offer (see the example of UTM, which uses a JIT)
3. You can’t modify most of the OS behavior via modules or plugins or extensions, and what you can modify requires explicit blessing and agreement from Apple. This is tied to #2, but is at a different layer. Think fonts or printer drivers or mouse button remapping. There are clumsy OS level abstractions for bits of this in ipadOS, but it’s more limited than in most general purpose OSes.
4. Interprocess communication and data access (ie, file system stuff) is very different than most general purpose OSes.
5. You have no arbitrary background processes — everything is killed at a moments notice when not in focus or when the device is slept. This blocks server processes — which is also part of the rules in #2 — and requires awkward workarounds in the few places it’s allowed to exist at all.

Additionally, you can’t run any non-Apple-blessed arbitrary OS on their hardware, even if you want to. They control when the device is obsolete, not you, based on when they stop supporting OS updates on it. Which a MacBook, you can install Linux or BSD or something on it when Apple stops supporting it. Not so with iPads. They effectively become e-waste en masse.

There are reasons for all these limitations — some security, some business, some “user experience” — but the fact they exist, and there is literally no way around them, makes ipadOS work very differently than a general purpose OS.

Very broadly, iPads work like games consoles — you need specialized hardware to write software for them, and you need to have a business relationship with Apple to sell that software, and their rules control what you the user or you the developer can do with the machines and the OS. Apple being Apple, many of their rules are far more restrictive or arbitrary than most of the games consoles (as I understand them).

All of that is Very Different from pretty much any general purpose OS.

 

[Kal Madda]

I posted this elsewhere, but the thing that makes ipadOS not feel like a real OS, to me, is that it is designed like an appliance OS. It lacks a whole bunch of very specific general purpose OS features:

1. You can’t build software to run *on* the OS *in* the OS -- you have to use a tool suite on another OS.
2. You can’t install software onto the device except from one repository, and that repository has very strict rules about functionality that is permitted in packages it hosts. There are whole classes of software that are ”not present” on iPads not because ipadOS can’t run them, but because Apple’s App Store rules prevent them from being offered to iPad users to install. And the EU alternate app stores still allow Apple to arbitrarily control what software *those* stores offer (see the example of UTM, which uses a JIT)
3. You can’t modify most of the OS behavior via modules or plugins or extensions, and what you can modify requires explicit blessing and agreement from Apple. This is tied to #2, but is at a different layer. Think fonts or printer drivers or mouse button remapping. There are clumsy OS level abstractions for bits of this in ipadOS, but it’s more limited than in most general purpose OSes.
4. Interprocess communication and data access (ie, file system stuff) is very different than most general purpose OSes.
5. You have no arbitrary background processes — everything is killed at a moments notice when not in focus or when the device is slept. This blocks server processes — which is also part of the rules in #2 — and requires awkward workarounds in the few places it’s allowed to exist at all.

Additionally, you can’t run any non-Apple-blessed arbitrary OS on their hardware, even if you want to. They control when the device is obsolete, not you, based on when they stop supporting OS updates on it. Which a MacBook, you can install Linux or BSD or something on it when Apple stops supporting it. Not so with iPads. They effectively become e-waste en masse.

There are reasons for all these limitations — some security, some business, some “user experience” — but the fact they exist, and there is literally no way around them, makes ipadOS work very differently than a general purpose OS.

Very broadly, iPads work like games consoles — you need specialized hardware to write software for them, and you need to have a business relationship with Apple to sell that software, and their rules control what you the user or you the developer can do with the machines and the OS. Apple being Apple, many of their rules are far more restrictive or arbitrary than most of the games consoles (as I understand them).

All of that is Very Different from pretty much any general purpose OS.

1. Swift Playgrounds allows for development and deployment of apps to the App Store on the iPad.
2. Most people don’t want to get software from other repositories. Even on my Mac, I hate it when a developer makes me have to sideload their app from a website rather than be able to just download it and update it from the App Store. App Store distribution is way safer because everything‘s actually vetted, sideloading, nothing’s vetted, so you run much higher risk of installing malware or getting scammed.
3. Another great security feature.
4. It’s also easier and more intuitive.
5. Better for power efficiency. And this is a lot different with M-Series iPads, I’ve run plenty of processes in the background just fine without them pausing or closing.

 

[UnlikelyLass]

1. Swift Playgrounds allows for development and deployment of apps to the App Store on the iPad.
2. Most people don’t want to get software from other repositories. Even on my Mac, I hate it when a developer makes me have to sideload their app from a website rather than be able to just download it and update it from the App Store. App Store distribution is way safer because everything‘s actually vetted, sideloading, nothing’s vetted, so you run much higher risk of installing malware or getting scammed.
3. Another great security feature.
4. It’s also easier and more intuitive.
5. Better for power efficiency. And this is a lot different with M-Series iPads, I’ve run plenty of processes in the background just fine without them pausing or closing.

You are entirely missing my point. Virtually everything you said is the same thing I said here:
There are reasons for all these limitations — some security, some business, some “user experience” — but the fact they exist, and there is literally no way around them, makes ipadOS work very differently than a general purpose OS.

and what I said here:
the thing that makes ipadOS not feel like a real OS, to me, is that it is designed like an appliance OS. It lacks a whole bunch of very specific general purpose OS features:

I am not trying to argue that ipadOS needs to be different than it is (although do think that), I am trying to explain why it isn’t a general purpose OS. I already know why Apple has designed it this way.

And, additionally, Swift Playgrounds does not let me build a C++ app for ipadOS. Xcode on MacOS does.

 

[iPadified]

I posted this elsewhere, but the thing that makes ipadOS not feel like a real OS, to me, is that it is designed like an appliance OS. It lacks a whole bunch of very specific general purpose OS features:

1. You can’t build software to run *on* the OS *in* the OS -- you have to use a tool suite on another OS.
2. You can’t install software onto the device except from one repository, and that repository has very strict rules about functionality that is permitted in packages it hosts. There are whole classes of software that are ”not present” on iPads not because ipadOS can’t run them, but because Apple’s App Store rules prevent them from being offered to iPad users to install. And the EU alternate app stores still allow Apple to arbitrarily control what software *those* stores offer (see the example of UTM, which uses a JIT)
3. You can’t modify most of the OS behavior via modules or plugins or extensions, and what you can modify requires explicit blessing and agreement from Apple. This is tied to #2, but is at a different layer. Think fonts or printer drivers or mouse button remapping. There are clumsy OS level abstractions for bits of this in ipadOS, but it’s more limited than in most general purpose OSes.
4. Interprocess communication and data access (ie, file system stuff) is very different than most general purpose OSes.
5. You have no arbitrary background processes — everything is killed at a moments notice when not in focus or when the device is slept. This blocks server processes — which is also part of the rules in #2 — and requires awkward workarounds in the few places it’s allowed to exist at all.

Additionally, you can’t run any non-Apple-blessed arbitrary OS on their hardware, even if you want to. They control when the device is obsolete, not you, based on when they stop supporting OS updates on it. Which a MacBook, you can install Linux or BSD or something on it when Apple stops supporting it. Not so with iPads. They effectively become e-waste en masse.

There are reasons for all these limitations — some security, some business, some “user experience” — but the fact they exist, and there is literally no way around them, makes ipadOS work very differently than a general purpose OS.

Very broadly, iPads work like games consoles — you need specialized hardware to write software for them, and you need to have a business relationship with Apple to sell that software, and their rules control what you the user or you the developer can do with the machines and the OS. Apple being Apple, many of their rules are far more restrictive or arbitrary than most of the games consoles (as I understand them).

All of that is Very Different from pretty much any general purpose OS.

"not a general purpose OS" is a good description and considering the intended user group a wise decision from Apple.

It is the word "real" that is confusing. At least in my native language "real" is problematic. Consider "He is a real man". What does "real" provide? A man is determined by genetics but in this case "real" suggest some particular properties of a man (muscular, aggressive or whatever else that describe a "real" man). Most of us men are not muscular and aggressive but still men by a genetic definition that can reproduce, raise kids, go to work etc. Ie we have all function needed without being a "real" man. I think the same thinking applies to various OSs.

 

[Bubble99]

4. Interprocess communication and data access (ie, file system stuff) is very different than most general purpose OSes.

What do you mean by this?

"not a general purpose OS" is a good description and considering the intended user group a wise decision from Apple.

You mean you can’t install windows or Linux on it?

 

[Runaway Train]

We don’t really need a “new file system” or “new file manager”. Files is great, it’s basically the same as Finder. There’s only a couple of features I’ve heard mentioned that are still different such as setting a default app for opening a certain file format, but most of the major functionality of Finder is there with Files, at least from my perspective.

Not sure I can agree. Example: I want to Tag files both within « On my iPad » as well as associated or similar files within say the PDF Expert « App container ». I create a favorite to the files within the PDF Expert container. From there I can see those files from within Files. It even gives me an action choice to write a file Tag to those files or directories. They don’t stick. The issues within iPad OS having separate App-centric containers where you want say, a group of disparate files associated to that project could be circumvented via a Tag-based work around, however it appears you cannot even do that. Result, if I want a traditional-based files structure, I have to scrape all of those files « natively« out of the App containers and place them manually all into directory structure I created within « On My iPad ». At least enabling an across the board, file Tagging system from within Files would be nice. Just One example where Files is not « basicly the same as Finder«. One may prefer one over the other, but they are not identical.

I’d be happy to have someone point out I am doing something wrong, in that case, problem solved.

 

[Kal Madda]

Not sure I can agree. Example: I want to Tag files both within « On my iPad » as well as associated or similar files within say the PDF Expert « App container ». I create a favorite to the files within the PDF Expert container. From there I can see those files from within Files. It even gives me an action choice to write a file Tag to those files or directories. They don’t stick. The issues within iPad OS having separate App-centric containers where you want say, a group of disparate files associated to that project could be circumvented via a Tag-based work around, however it appears you cannot even do that. Result, if I want a traditional-based files structure, I have to scrape all of those files « natively« out of the App containers and place them manually all into directory structure I created within « On My iPad ». At least enabling an across the board, file Tagging system from within Files would be nice. Just One example where Files is not « basicly the same as Finder«. One may prefer one over the other, but they are not identical.

I’d be happy to have someone point out I am doing something wrong, in that case, problem solved.

Why not just save files to that consolidated folder in the first place? Most iPadOS apps have a “Save to Files” option which gives you a mini window of files and allows you to name your file and choose the destination where you want to save it, just like on the Mac with Finder. So with the vast majority of iPad apps, you don’t even need to save your files in the app’s folder. Most of the files stored in the app folders are files used by that app itself, such as templates or other assets that the app uses.