IPad limitations? Is it really a Mac?

Question

Hi,
I just got an iPad last week, and am trying to learn to like it.
So far, it's limitations seem to outweigh it's strengths. First, it doesn't really work like a Mac. There is no dock, no Finder, no 'drag and drop'. There is Mail, but it really doesn't work like Mail; there is Safari, but it really doesn't work like Safari; there is iPhoto, but it really doesn't work like iPhoto.
Let's take iPhoto for example. With the iPad untethered to another computer, I can not - from iPhoto within iPad alone - create 'albums', re-group events', move images from one event to a new event, etc. There may be work-arounds -- because there sure are a lot of apps available! But doesn't that itself say something telling about the limits of iPad? That you have to add dozens of apps to make it work like you want it to doesn't seem to me to be a good thing.
Over the years one of the best things about Mac's was that they just worked -- right out of the box! And they all worked the same way!
Not so with iPad, or so it seems to me.
What am I missing?
Haly2k1

Answer 1

Thanks for your thoughtful reply.
Looking back, I can see I did vent a bit -- well, maybe more than a bit:-) -- but it was my frustration with myself that was that target. I was just reporting my impressions, which were -- that for the specific purpose that I got it for, e.g., to use as a portable lightweight stand alone'computer' on my trip to Italy, the iPad is going to be provide a little less functionality than I'd anticipated.  I knew that the OS wasn't the full OS; that the interface was different from the rest of their computers, but I thought that I could find enough 'work-arounds' to fill the gaps.
In fact, I couldn't help teasing myself over the weekend.  I think I must be getting old! (This may take a bit of explanation, so bear with me.)  Back when iMovie first came out,  in 1999, it was like a miracle had occurred.  Up until then, video editing software -- Avid and Media Composer, or something like that, STARTED at half a million bucks, and up!  iMovie had limited functionality, sort of like the iPad, but what it could do, it did exceptionally well.  Even better, almost immediately, third party producers started creating 'plug-ins', which when I think of it were sort of like the apps of their day.  I got really interested in iMovie, and particularly a company called Gee Three, which made some of the best plug-ins available, and pretty soon had tailored an editing system, using iMovie as a base, that could do just about anything you wanted to do with video editing, all for practically nothing!  In fact, all that energy and enthusiasm that led to the creation of an iMovie user group, later, the iLife user group, and eventually as a branch, the Digital Photography user group.
Anyway, I've decided to take a different attitude about the iPad2 -- not to whine so much about what it won't do, but to build on what it can do! I'll keep playing with it, because there is a lot about it to like!.  It does have a gorgeous screen, and the images themselves look great. I'll get my camera to iPad interface/gadget today, I hope, and can then start importing photos from the camera. 
Only then will I be able to get a feel for what I can and cannot do.
Thanks again,
Haly2k1