With the most recent round of “holy shit these new iPad Pros are really powerful” naturally came “I just really wish iPadOS weren’t so limited”. One idea that is currently making the rounds to make iPadOS less limited is to have some sort of virtualized Mac mode a la Mac OS X’s Classic Environment wherein higher end iPads could run macOS when connected to a trackpad and keyboard. I am not opposed to the idea and agree that virtualized macOS would serve as an “escape hatch” of sorts. Instead of physically fleeing to Mac hardware at the first sight of a complicated task, users could merely flee to macOS while using the same iPad hardware. I also think virtualized macOS is a way better idea than using macOS as a tablet OS because it would be a distinct mode where touchability isn’t expected.

That being said, I think supporting of virtualized macOS on iPads would only serve power users who are not necessarily pro users. While the two aren’t mutually exclusive — there are undoubtedly countless pro users on the Mac using things like Homebrew, Applescript, and all sorts of other utilities — I would wager most pro users aren’t power users. To them, the computer is merely a conduit to the apps required to do their job. To non-power users, pro or otherwise, virtualized macOS on iPad would be messy. How do updates work? Can the two environments access each other? What happens to Mac mode when you yank the iPad out of the Magic Keyboard? Would virtualized macOS be allowed to run in the background? I think many power users would recognize and be fine with the trade offs involved, but how would anyone, including Apple, go about explaining them to vanilla iPad users. “Well you can use these other class of apps, but only if you are connected to this $300 accessory. Oh and by the way, these apps are different than the ones you’ve been using on your iPad, even the ones with the same names. No, they don’t talk to each other.”

Virtualized macOS would serve Apple power users rather than raise the limits for professionals using iPadOS.

One of the main arguments for supporting virtualized macOS on iPads is that it would take some of the pressure off of iPadOS to do all the things a Mac does. That’s a fair argument, but I think there are other ways to take the pressure off of iPadOS without introducing a second operating system just for power users. While many of iPadOS’s numerous limitations can and should be addressed across the line — a better files app, sound from multiple apps at once, etc…– there is one foundational limitation that Apple can’t address in software alone, and that is the physical screen size. This is an area where I think Apple could relieve the pressure on iPadOS by changing its constraints.

In an ideal world, iPadOS would somehow deliver professionals and power users an experience that satisfies three requirements:

1. Is information rich enough to support a handful of apps on one screen
2. Remains touch friendly
3. Does the above on an 11-inch screen

If satisfying all three is impossible, and right now it sure seems impossible, what I think Apple should do is try to satisfy just two of those requirements. Virtualized macOS does this inherently. macOS can be information rich on 11 and 13-inch screens specifically because it doesn’t support touch. In theory, iPadOS could also become information rich at the expense of touch friendliness whenever a trackpad and keyboard are connected. Modern iPads already offer display scaling and it’s easy to imagine a future where this sort of scaling could change based on peripherals, orientation, and/or whether Stage Manager is enabled. While I don’t like the idea of diminishing touch in iPadOS, it would still be way better than running an entirely separate OS. Merely toggling scale modes when disconnecting an iPad would be way more elegant than suspending macOS running in a virtual machine.

That being said, what I have been arguing is for Apple to sacrifice number three. Have a “multi-app” mode available only when a Thunderbolt enabled iPad is connected to a large external display and offer what would be an absurdly expensive Studio Display Touch¹. Plugging in an iPad wouldn’t have to switch scaling because the screen would be large enough to be information rich and have touch friendly controls. Power and pro users could work across multiple apps on the same screen or have a single luxuriously large app. Tying multi-app mode to having a display connected naturally lets an unconnected iPad just be an iPad. Apps that are windowed on an external display would merely go back to being full screen when the iPad is disconnected, and a vast majority of people who love their iPad for what it is would likely never see this multi-app mode.

All this isn’t to say I think Apple shouldn’t support virtualized macOS on iPads. My position is more of a “yes, and”. Let high end iPads run virtualized macOS and still address the limitations that exist in iPadOS. Virtualized macOS would delight the minority of power users while go largely unnoticed by vanilla iPad users, pro or otherwise. It would be helpful to some and harmless to most. That said, I also think Apple still has to raise the limits of iPadOS, even if that means revisiting the trade offs inherent in an 11-inch touch first device.