When computer is necessary Vs IOS ?

[vanvanvanvan123]

I am rapidly forced to learn as much about car living as I can…. This has come up.
There are particular “things “ you can only do with the computer, Vs iPad or iPhone.
Is there a site that goes into the online activities that function well with an iPad - and things we can only do on the computer? If not at hand , kindly give your solutions to the internet part of van/ car living.
Like most of us, I carry smartphones but in this short amount of time since being “homeless” ( if there is a better term let me know- I’m not thrilled about that term )
I have not figured out the occasions where the computer is vital…
And secondly, the “equipment” ( I’m a 20th century guy - who is just barely computer literate ) needed in a toyota to be able to securely**** go online.
The what - when and the how.
I’m just barely, by the grace **of God, getting by.
**. Are we allowed to say the much feared G word?
**** “secure” online has to be a thread in itself

 

[LeftTown]

Hey, I'm absolutely on the same page as you with language so we might want to take this to private messages.

I've used Unix my entire life and now I'm thrust in this crazy world of iPads and iRack and iHatethistoo.

You can't just trade the G word for a shrink as if they were interchangeable plastic happy meal toys. Ping me.

 

[mpruet]

My work life career was as a software developer. I worked on mainframe systems until the mid 1980s and then switched to Unix based systems - initially HPUX but expanded to other Unix flavors. By the early 2000s I transitioned to Linux (Red Hat). So I have a fairly large background in larger systems. My laptop was high end as well.

But when I retired, I started getting rid of my Linux systems, including the virtual systems on my laptop. I made a conscious decision to try to do all of my work on my iPad because I wanted to spend a lot of time traveling in my RV and the iPad only required a fraction of the power and space that my laptop took. While I still have a laptop, I haven’t even turned it on for over two years.

OK - so what could I do on my laptop that I can’t do on my iPad. Well the only thing that I can think of is to write software - maybe run a virtual system.

Here’s a rundown of what I do on my iPad.

Email

Video streaming

Watch TV

Read books

Read the daily news

Video creation

Web Browsing

Monitor for fires

Monitor the weather

Tax Preparation

Banking

Pay Bills

Monitor a facebook group

Purchase stuff from Amazon

Order medical drugs

Manage investments

Attend Zoom Meetings

As you can see, there is very little, if anything, that I can’t do on my iPad that I could have done on my laptop. Also, I have access in the apple store to a huge store of apps that I can easily download, more often for free, I doubt that I would every go back to a laptop.

 

[LeftTown]

Yeah, what mpruet said.

I have a Pinephone and accessories. That is my soul.

I carry the same piece of crap smartphone everybody else does, but that's just a picture.

I'm only going to use the thing for a router anyway so if some kid named Miguel in North Carolina doesn't know what people are going to think about him when they see him walking around with an iPhone 6, then I'd gladly save his life.....



......with some of this useless information they crammed into my head to keep the education away, if you get my drift.

I do the exact same [language] so who cares. If I want to learn Python to keep my mind sharp, I can read a [language]. One little tin [language] is as good as another, so sex bless you.

Hope to see you around the boards.

ttyl

 

[Camper]

I don't care for my Ipad and never use it.... I prefer a laptop always.

 

[vanvanvanvan123]

Yikes. So as usual in this life. We have two sincere knowledgeable people with - I am tempted to say- opposite views.
I’m not smart enough to understand laptop, or iOS!
I will wait on this topic until others give their ideas that might explain the opposing viewpoints
But thank you to both of you

 

[vanvanvanvan123]

Yeah, what mpruet said.

I have a Pinephone and accessories. That is my soul.

I carry the same piece of crap smartphone everybody else does, but that's just a picture.

I'm only going to use the thing for a router anyway so if some kid named Miguel in North Carolina doesn't know what people are going to think about him when they see him walking around with an iPhone 6, then I'd gladly save his life.....



......with some of this useless information they crammed into my head to keep the education away, if you get my drift.

I do the exact same [language] so who cares. If I want to learn Python to keep my mind sharp, I can read a [language]. One little tin [language] is as good as another, so sex bless you.

Hope to see you around the boards.

ttyl

Pinephone. Hmmm. I’ve heard of that
Is the consensus to move away from Google phones like iPhone?

 

[Happy Camper]

So let's think this through. What things do you, or have you done within the last year or two that require tech?

Phone or tablet can do most anything you "need" to do in most cases. They are light, don't require a lot of power, and don't take up a lot of space.

Laptops can be better for someone that is very used to using a computer, and it's more familiar with them. They also can be light and but require a lot of power. And don't have to take up much space.

The questions after your decide what form factor you want from the above choices are these:

Where will you be using the device?
How will you connect to the internet?
When do you need to connect to the internet?

There is a third option, if you can do everything you need on your phone.

Use your phone for now and decide if you need something more than that after you've been in the field so to speak.

I have two phones, a laptop, a tablet, a smart TV, any just about any other gadget you can think of. And I am a tech guy through and through. Been in and around tech for 40+ years. My first preference is using a computer because it's what's been in my life for so many of those years. A while back I was sick and spilled some medicine on my laptop keyboard. I ordered the replacement keyboard immediately and got it quickly. It's a 5-10 minute repair. That was Sept 6 last year, and I haven't replaced it. I haven't needed to because I do almost everything in my phone. If I had to do big spreadsheets or programing, I'd fix it and use it. My not replacing the keyboard was my way of weaning myself off of being to be in front of that device. And in my daily life, I found that I don't need my laptop nearly as much as I thought I did. It was just a habit.

A tablet is just a bigger phone without the phone, so to speak. And you have to have a way to connect it to the internet.

In the true spirit of this site, I'm sure this thread will devolve into how people connect to the internet. But really, what do you need a device for?

On my phone in this week starting on Monday, I have:

Watched TV
Watched Netflix
Watched Amazon prime video
Listened to music
Read forums and replied
Surfed the web
Crunched some numbers
Took notes
Worked on a simple spreadsheet
Filled out some forms
Checked email and replied
Took pictures
And of course made calls and texted
There are other things I did, but I can't remember at this moment. That's three days of usage. Laptop I haven't touched. The tablet is sitting less than a foot from the laptop. Fully charged and begging me to use it. I don't have a reason to.

Start with what your have. Only spend money if you find you really need to. That's how you will work through this. You are making money working, and saving money by car camping and being smart. You aren't homeless. You are on and aggressive savings plan. Keep building up your money, and then you'll be in a position to decide how you want to do things. It's your narrative. You control it. You got this.

 

[maki2]

I do 3D CAD drafting/design work and the program I prefer is PC based only and it takes a lot more processing power than any tablet has.

But for the average internet browser, photo editing, some game playing, etc user a tablet is adequate.

 

[LeftTown]

I personally download entire .iso files on my moto e6. I always get a warning from the more commercial site that my friend has to use because of political situations in our countries.

But the file actually works fine. I'm only 57 but I've already been decommissioned by our countries' respective political situations.

You and I are NOT homeless. That word is your enemy, NOT the world. The world IS our home, capiche?

And we take care of our own. Full stop. Period. End of (life) sentence.

So the fact is that I am not batman. I am not going to save everything good about Ir*qi culture singlehandedly and neither is the kid.

I don't need dbus to back up my files, I have no idea why my young friend chose to use PureOS instead of Trisquel for his latest release and nobody in my current life knows or cares what I am talking about.

I just miss my kidfriend. Nobody in my current life could care less whether TAILS is actually the same software Edward Snowden used to leak stuff or whether it was wget that Aaron Swartz used.

They just want us to shut up. They figure Angry Birds is just as good as anything else to shut us all up because they can't even tell us apart.

I hate language. Here, let's try this instead:

https://vermaden.wordpress.com/2018/05/21/setup-android-when-its-not-your-phone/
Android 101: it is always someone else's phone. Apple is kind of like a jail or a child's playpen.

If you sell the iThings before you are ready, you could hurt yourself.

I need to virtualize and keep up with kidfriends in warring countries because we already made our choices in life.

We're all family here. I'd keep your brain and a librebooted X60 before buying a Pinephone; the slight security advantage of 64 bit isn't worth it. You can find 32 bit if you know where to find it and want to badly enough.

You need the two hunnert bux 4 gaz.

I've got your back. So do all the Apple geeks. So do all the Microsoft experts.


Pinephone isn't ready yet. It's not for you:

https://invidious.snopyta.org/watch?v=fCKMxzz9cjs
Yet. Because you don't save effing Mos*s. You save the good stuff for (euphemism deleted).

https://floss.social/@alimiracle
Er...uh...um....that must have been a typo. I think what I keep trying to say IS that you save the best of whatever you have for:

https://vanlivingforum.com/members/vanvanvanvan123.5439/
Because we are ALL crust punks now.

 

[egilbe]

Use whatever works and you're comfortable with. Personally I hate apple and iphones with a passion.

 

[user 16179]

Use whatever works and you're comfortable with. Personally I hate apple and iphones with a passion.

I don't hate them at all. I just don't use them. If folks use them fine. If folks don't use them that is fine. It boils down to them being an object that is not worth my time or bother to hate.

 

[dustytrailhead]

“Houseless.” Real estate agents refer to a sales unit as “home.” When I say I’m going home, I think it’s home because I live there. Currently, I live in a van. Is that home? I call it that, but some will disagree, call me homeless.

Tablet with a cell antenna can provide “unlimited” internet connectivity for about $25/month. In addition to streaming, news and shopping, I do my taxes with it, which is probably the most demanding thing I do now. Cursor/pointer manipulation of text and screen objects takes a some time to learn on a tablet. A laptop’s cursor is easier to use. I use a keyboard/trackpad with my tablet, but it does not eliminate the aforementioned problem.

I used to work in IT (seems like there are a lot of us on this forum). When I retired I bought a MacBook Pro with all the options, thinking that I needed a good computer to do “retirement stuff”. I only really used it to do taxes (for 2021 tax year I used a tablet). I installed a Windows 10 .iso using Bootcamp but haven’t used that, either. Now the MacBook is near the end of maintenance. It cost $1800 in 2015. That’s money well misspent.

 

[Ballenxj]

My work life career was as a software developer. I worked on mainframe systems until the mid 1980s and then switched to Unix based systems - initially HPUX but expanded to other Unix flavors. By the early 2000s I transitioned to Linux (Red Hat). So I have a fairly large background in larger systems. My laptop was high end as well.

But when I retired, I started getting rid of my Linux systems, including the virtual systems on my laptop. I made a conscious decision to try to do all of my work on my iPad because I wanted to spend a lot of time traveling in my RV and the iPad only required a fraction of the power and space that my laptop took. While I still have a laptop, I haven’t even turned it on for over two years.

OK - so what could I do on my laptop that I can’t do on my iPad. Well the only thing that I can think of is to write software - maybe run a virtual system.

Here’s a rundown of what I do on my iPad.

Email

Video streaming

Watch TV

Read books

Read the daily news

Video creation

Web Browsing

Monitor for fires

Monitor the weather

Tax Preparation

Banking

Pay Bills

Monitor a facebook group

Purchase stuff from Amazon

Order medical drugs

Manage investments

Attend Zoom Meetings

As you can see, there is very little, if anything, that I can’t do on my iPad that I could have done on my laptop. Also, I have access in the apple store to a huge store of apps that I can easily download, more often for free, I doubt that I would every go back to a laptop.

Nice to see some gurus on here.
Question about Linux. I have a friend that has been telling me he likes Linux Cinnamon Mint. I was thinking about trying this on a lap top. Any advice? Thanks.

 

[Happy Camper]

That is probably a question for it's own thread, as Linux in the topic will get all the gurus attention lol

 

[LeftTown]

Nice to see some gurus on here.
Question about Linux. I have a friend that has been telling me he likes Linux Cinnamon Mint. I was thinking about trying this on a lap top. Any advice? Thanks.

I would like to interject that what you call "Linux" is actually.....

And by the way, I use Arch. On my Pinephone.

The fact that I am not funny has something to do with some MIT employee that they had to let go because of something somebody thought he said, so it's really just "water cooler talk".

Sure, Cinnamon's great. If you're already comfortable with Mint, I think that would be a great choice for you! Much less bloat than KDE and easy peasy. Go for it!

I mostly use window managers, want to brush up on command line, can't stand being stuck on the x86 platform be ause of Intel ME, and would gladly kick Linus to the curb for my ethics, but we're all on the same team now.

Someone else needs to fork the thread. I'll talk your ear off if you let me.

We need cheap, easy, non-technical solutions for an overwhelmed human being on a limited budget.

Let's keep 'em coming.

Who cares about controversies anyway?

 

[egilbe]

Linux isn't bad, I've played with flavors of KDE, Ubuntu, CentOS...it's the only reason I could halfway support Apple products in my past life as a desktop support specialist. I would much rather be a sysadmin with my focus on enterprise security than deal with users again. Sorry, but willfully ignorant users is what drove me to walk out of my cushy IT job and I cringe whenever I think about getting back into the field, as much as I do thinking about working retail again.

Add me to the list of former IT peope

 

[mpruet]

There is nothing wrong with Linux or any other flavor of a Unix based system. However while living a nomadic life, either in my RV or in my condo in Colorado, my main concern is foot print and power consumption — AND the ability to download apps which I find useful. I find the apple App Store to be incredibly rich in fairly inexpensive software that I can quickly download. And I never have to worry about an app not running with my version of the OS and/or platform. It just works.

There are many things that I have gladly given up since I left my software developmental job. I gladly gave up having to deal with IP/Network configurations. I also gladly gave up having to create file systems, backups, constantly searching the web for needed software that might, or might not work on my installation, and all of the other sysadmin work that was required to stay up to date and secure. It seems that everything just works…

My current system is an iPad Air 4 with 256 Gig. The cost of the iPad was much less than a laptop of similar capacity. I’m currently running IOS 15.5. Upon my retirement, I quickly lost focus on what operating system I was running and focused instead of my needs. I care far more about the apps that I run than the OS. I also care about how small my footprint is and how little power it requires.

 

[KarlH]

Sure, Cinnamon's great. If you're already comfortable with Mint, I think that would be a great choice for you! Much less bloat than KDE and easy peasy. Go for it!

KDE is very slow to compile, but only developers need to worry about that. I haven't found it to be slower from an end user perspective.

 

[LeftTown]

My current setup:

1.)Mint Mobile unlimited with Moto e6 I don't care about

2.) Exact same iPad I threw away seven years ago. Technology changed. They have USB drives now that transfer files among apple, Android, and regular USB.

I got it for fitty bux. It's airgapped. I watch movies on it.

3.) Corebooted Lenovo X230 I still need to strip the blobs from and whatever else I can liberate from storage before it's too late.

Eff yea, I run Uruk because I know Ali and he'd never make an innocent/ignorant newbie do anything that wasn't in their own best interest.

BUT

Them be fighting words.

I use i3.

https://wiki.hyperbola.info/doku.php?id=en:start
So I forked us. Meet me at the local off-topic water cooler subforums and kindly rm -rf C:Windows; thank thee.

This has been a test of the dreaded "Amish Virus".

And that, vanvanvan123, is how you keep the Camry AND your sanity.