That’s not quite correct. I think what you mean is that once jailbroken you can install whatever you want on the iPhone (and by extension the iPad). That’s true. But two things: that does not - as you likely know - imply that iOS itself is [effectively] open sourced (other than the bits open sourced explicitly by Apple). More importantly, it does not mean that the big software vendors, who build the apps that Wojtek is interested in (such as Excel, SAS, etc) are going to release software for the iPad in the hope that users will jailbreak it.
To restate the last point: these big guys would rather go through the Apple app store to release their products than independently sell their software for jailbroken iOS devices. Neither Microsoft nor SAS seem to have ported all their Office and analysis tools to iOS yet, but they most likely will (at least in some pared down version). Apple sells their own Office equivalent suite called iWorks, which works splendidly for my needs (when some suit sends me a Word or Powerpoint document that he insists I have to view or comment on), but might not have offer enough compatibility for power users.
I do agree with Wojtek that if you are using the device primarily for this sort of thing, then you are better off with a laptop. I just got a new MBP a few months ago to replace my 4+ year old MacBook. I did not even consider the iPad an alternative.
—ravi
> On Mon, Aug 22, 2011 at 10:57 AM, Wojtek S <wsoko52 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>> BTW - how do you run applications like Excel, SAS or SPSS on an ipad?
>> How do you store large data sets on it? I thought Apple restricts
>> what apps you can you on their devices, it is a pretty much closed
>> shop, no?