What Matt said.

I don't even need multiple processes to be doing in-depth number-crunching at the same time. I just want to be able to switch from my SSH app to my email app without having my SSH connection disappear.
  1. Open SSH application.
  2. Select connection and type in long passphrase.
  3. cd /to/a/really/long/path/that/takes/minutes/on/this/tiny/keyboard
  4. Crap. What was the rest of that path again?
  5. Switch to email app, reread path
  6. Switch back to SSH app
  7. Motherfucker! My connection died!
  8. Rinse and repeat.
Copy and paste would certainly help in this situation (did iPhoneOS ever implement that?), but even then, if I have to remember more than one long piece of text....

Part of the problem is that the web has taken over the internet so much that users don't expect long-term connections to work, and that lack of expectation has filtered back into development. Statelessness has become not only the norm, but the only. This is not uniquely Apple's problem, but it is Apple's problem when they think that's going to cut the mustard with a netbook replacement.
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Bitt Faulk