It’s the Future of Computing … Today! ⭐

Now that Apple has unleashed all the power lurking inside the iPad with iPadOS 26, it’s time to consider the impact that this shift will have on personal computing. My bet? It’s going to be profound.
? Resistance is futile
Steven Sinofsky discusses resistance to change in Hardcore Software several times, and as I read and re-read this book, I kept finding myself commiserating with his frustration. But when it comes to resistance, there are garden variety examples, like IT rejecting user interface changes and delaying upgrades as long as possible. And then there is the basement.

The basement is a subset of the technology enthusiast community, the people who test pre-release software for fun, engineers and the like. I’m part of that community, and so are you if you’re reading this. Yes, it sounds negative, but as Sinofsky writes, this term isn’t meant to dehumanize anyone. It’s just another term for fanboy. People in the basement “dislike and distrust change” as much as they love technology, and for obvious reasons: Any change that triggers a shift to something different, something new, something that is not their particular expertise, is a threat.

I see this all the time. I see it with AI. I see it with Snapdragon X and Arm for Windows. And I see it with the iPad now that it’s finally backed by a software platform that can take advantage of its powerful, modern hardware. It’s frustrating, not just because I see the limits of this worldview so clearly, but because the people who feel the strongest about these things are often bitter and irrational and won’t let it rest. They jump into the discussion about any topic they disagree with, where they keep repeating the same misinformation.

What this is, really, is a lack of empathy and an inability to acknowledge that most people don’t have their weird, super-specific preferences or needs. If Windows 11 on Arm can’t use one ancient printer that no one else even owns anymore than it’s crap and doomed to fail. If AI makes one high-profile mistake, then we should just give up on this work, ignore the successes and go back to the old way of doing things. The pushback I see against the iPad now is just as bad. But it’s also wrong.
? The future of computing, then and now
When I started the SuperSite for Windows in 1998, I called it “the future of Windows ... today!” At the time, Microsoft planned to transition the mainstream Windows user base to NT via Windows NT 5.0, which was later renamed to Windows 2000. That didn’t happen, not fully, and the transition wasn’t completed until the next release, Windows XP, which came in Home and Professional versions. But it did happen. And it was quite exciting.

That was a long time ago, but it’s helpful to understand what personal computing was at the time. It was Microsoft and Windows. The Mac was circling the drain and had ceased to be relevant years earlier. Microsoft had beaten every competitor. And so for most people, most of the time, Window...