4 or 5 if you include an iPhone.
I wrote up a reply here before, but erased it and didn’t post (no one needs yet another recounting of how the current gen. of Wacom EMR is working for me on an embarrassingly large number of devices) — the big advantage to my mine for a “MacPad” is that it would reduce the number of devices one would need, and I wouldn’t consider a Surface Studio/iMac class device a “MacPad”, but something quite different (but which I would hope would herald a “real” MacPad).
Ok, ok…you guys are right - FIVE (not including bands, keyboards, cases, INSANE).
But at least their continuum of their ecosystem is well thought out in linking devices to one another that no other device manufacturer or OS maker on the planet has yet to match. A master-of-all-trades unicorn device will likely never come from Apple, but one ecosystem ring to rule them all already has and that gives Apple an edge over others even if they start to lose in performance which is about to happen in the next 2-3 years. The Apple ecosystem admittedly is not the productivity or power user powerhouse of its competitors, but interactions and connectivity all comes together so seamlessly, one can look past this shortcoming and make it work very well.
Spot on…
OK Commander Taggart
Somehow I missed this nugget from Jason Snell in March:
"Sometimes I look back at all the effort Apple has made with the iPad Pro and wonder if it was worth it. All the additions of Mac-ish features have added complexity that’s probably lost on most users of iPadOS, and the power users for whom they were intended are probably well aware of all the ways they don’t really match up the Mac features they’re duplicating.
I want to see what happens when the walls come down. Today’s iPad Pro is powered by the same chip that’s in the MacBook Air. Would it be such a cataclysm if I could simply reboot that iPad into macOS or run macOS inside a virtual machine?"
Ok Timmy, if Jason Snell thinks this, what’s your excuse? Only $$$$$$$$$$$$?
Jason Snell joined Macbreak Weakly a few months ago and I liked him. Unfortunately, I lost all tolerance with that show and stopped listening (among other things, every time Apple gaming was mentioned Alex Lindsay would repeat in great length his claim that computer gaming will go nowhere till it’s a spectator sport similar in scale to NFL football 
). Fortunately, Jason Snell and Myke Hurley have a podcast that’s much better:
A smart show with interesting speculation and insights. (Apple centric.)
As @Desertlap would say - Is the dam breaking?..
This has been DEMANDED by the pro user community ever since the M1 iPad Pro was released, and they drop this in a press release? WWDC must be jam packed with AR c r a p (oops, showing my prejudice there).
Seriously, here’s hoping this is the beginning of the REAL iPad Pro, although I have to say I’m not impressed at all that it is subscription based. However, that could also be a blessing as a way to foster the developer community releasing true professional applications on the iPad Pro - chump change prices for “apps” just won’t cut it for real applications, but it also allows Apple to lay down a benchmark (if it’s $50/yr for Final Cut, can Adobe really charge $395 for iPadOS CC).
Now, if only MS will bring us full Office 365, and Apple gives us a little more of Finder in Files???
Side note: it’s a subscription product. People are saying the pricing is decent, but still, another dang subscription.
Not only does 9to5Mac praise the pricing, but they also suggest that the Mac apps go subscription too. Wonderful world. 
https://9to5mac.com/2023/05/09/final-cut-pro-logic-ipad-subscription-price/
Apple has never charged a sub for content creation apps before. This is indeed the dam breaking, just not how I envisioned it. 
I really hope that the pending ecological disaster of all the Windows 10 devices being abandoned by MS when that OS is e.o.l.'ed results in a tidal wave of Linux installs.
I just wish that I could get Linux onto my Samsung Galaxy Book 12 — that said, if I could pay to get Mac OS or OPENSTEP on it, I’d do so in a heartbeat.
It kills me that Apple won’t revive the Mac OS licensing concept and allow it for hardware of types which they don’t sell — always regretted not getting an Axiotron ModBook, and if Mac OS X 10.6.8 were still viable as an OS, I’d’ve bought one.
That said, I will never sign up for an application which requires month-to-month payments just for licensing out of my pocket (and I still object when my workplaces do so) — it’s different for something like Obsidian which also offers a meaningful hosting service (and I’m still considering that — if someone has a link to a good discussion on that, I’d be grateful).
The intel one? My galaxy book 12 runs ubuntu. It took some effort to get the wifi going and there’s no brightness control, but it works.
Have you written this up somewhere? (installing Linux on a Samsung Galaxy Book 12)
I have not. It involved plugging my phone into the tablet to tether to go online to do some wifi stuff that I found on the forum, but a reboot later and I had working wifi. That was really the only hurdle. Well that, and the fact that it’s blasting 100% brightness at all times. But the display sure is beautiful.
ETA: I have not looked into the brightness issue. I’m too reliant on OneNote for ubuntu to be useful as anything other than something to noodle with when I don’t need to get anything done.
Let me guess - between 11:59pm and midnight?
Lol, that’s way past my bedtime. So many years of getting up through the night with infants ruined my ability to sleep. I get up before everyone and grab some random gadget to sit in my recliner and read while I go through way too much coffee. Then the kids get up and we start school and I realize I need something that actually runs OneNote.
Have to really agree here - M1/M2 iPad Pro is FAR more powerful and versatile than the MacBook 12 (basically a MacBook Air 13 in 2-in-1 clothing) ever was - so why not Apple:
What is good about this piece is it shreds the “keep it simple myth” for the iPad Pro - it is a “PRO” device and deserves a Pro operating system - leave “iPaddiness” for Air and below:
“I think the problem is that the iPad Pro is suffering from an identity crisis: it’s more Mac than iPad, but Apple’s trying to persuade it otherwise. But the iPad Pro isn’t made for or bought for your cherubic kids or game-playing grandmother; it’s a powerhouse for creative professionals. iPadOS was never made for that, and trying to make it a pro-level platform without sacrificing its beginner-friendly simplicity runs the risk of creating something that falls between both goals.”
I think it fixes some of the identity crisis issues with the air as well. What’s the real difference between the Air and the regular iPad these days? In real world application, it’s basically the pencil. Make the Pro have a real OS, while still having capabilities for iPadOS software and the Air suddenly becomes the top of the line model for the everyday iPad use.
Meanwhile, it makes the Pro an actual mobile pro device. Artists can sketch in Procreate, move their art over to Illustrator, or Photoshop, or CSP and do finishing work right on the IPP instead of moving it to a “real computer”. And yeah, I know those are all on the iPad already, but in experience, it’s not the same as the desktop versions. And file management issues are suddenly solved with how that art is shared. The same goes for any other creative with video, photography, etc. Currently most people can limp through and get things done with the IPP with apps as is. But most creatives prefer to move things to the desktop to actually finish them, if they even start them on the IPP. And that’s just creatives. Lots of reasons to do it. Very few not to.
Only $$$$$$$ in Timmy’s pocket…that is the ONLY explanation for no MacPad…
Aside from the overuse of the “Pro” moniker these days, I think most people would agree with your sentiments. The problem is, how to make it more Pro?
People suggest allowing dual-booting or mode switching, but realistically that requires Apple develop and maintain a whole separate MacOS kernel just for IPP. They already have to siphon off resources from iOS for iPadOS.
I think Apple knows this amount of OS fragmentation would be unsustainable (they are already struggling with buggy iOS releases) barring some massive re-org of their development department.
So what option does that leave Apple but to slowly introduce desktop features to iPadOS? Given the lukewarm reception for Stage Manager, this seems to be a long…long road.
How much work can it take to just dual boot MacOS as is? Sure, touch targets would be small, but even on touch optimized Windows 11 touch targets are hit or miss on Surface Go 3. Or if they REALLY want to screw us over, just sell a new MacPad SKU that only loads MacOS and uses iPad apps like a regular M series MacBook does.