Linux touchpad like a Macbook: goal worth pursuing? • Hacker News Board

Re: Linux touchpad like a Macbook: goal worth pursuing?

#21

Post by trosi » Tue, Jul 17, 2018, 7:39 AM UTC

101km wrote: post #11

I have been using 12" MacBooks since they came out because I live out of a backpack and travel a lot. I cannot find anything comparable in terms of size/weight/battery and build quality. Especially the trackpad, nothing is remotely close. Otherwise I'd get that and put Arch on it. People complain Apple is expensive, not so sure. The TCO may actually be less because of the high resale value. It is also more convenient…

Wouldn't it be easier to just wipe the drive before TSA?

Re: Linux touchpad like a Macbook: goal worth pursuing?

#22

Post by bengale » Tue, Jul 17, 2018, 7:41 AM UTC

I wonder when he switches back in a year whether the time will feel like a worthwhile investment or just happy to have really showed them and their Touch Bar.

Re: Linux touchpad like a Macbook: goal worth pursuing?

#23

Post by acchow » Tue, Jul 17, 2018, 7:42 AM UTC

isostatic wrote: post #3

Am I the only one who prefers the nipples on thinkpads?

I used thinkpad nipples for 5+ years.

Macbook took a couple months of adjustment. But there is almost no use of muscle whatsoever when moving the mouse on a macbook. Thinkpads feel incredibly straining in comparison now. And scrolling on a macbook...completely effortless. There is nothing like it.

Re: Linux touchpad like a Macbook: goal worth pursuing?

#24

Post by sneak » Tue, Jul 17, 2018, 7:44 AM UTC

isostatic wrote: post #17

sonnyblarney wrote: post #8

The touchpad on my macbook pro is just such an amazing feature, so intuitive. So 'just right' ... and consider that it's a primary form of interface. Everybody should be doing this yesterday, it's one of the most obviously good things going.

> The touchpad on my macbook pro is just such an amazing feature, so intuitive. So 'just right' Do you find the original scrolling mechanism, or the reversed scrolling mechanism, to be "just right"?

The original one is the reversed one. Fingers go up, content goes down. That’s wrong as anyone who has used a phone or tablet can tell you.

They fixed it, so now it is indeed “just right”.

Re: Linux touchpad like a Macbook: goal worth pursuing?

#25

Post by emsy » Tue, Jul 17, 2018, 7:44 AM UTC

Usually when people set me up for high expectations, I end up getting disappointed. In the case of the Macbook touchpad, my expecations were actually exceeded. I use Bootcamp a lot for some of my projects, and the touchpad support in Windows is so bad, I can't wait to go back to Mac Os (other than that, I'm pretty much OS agnostic).

Re: Linux touchpad like a Macbook: goal worth pursuing?

#26

Post by sneak » Tue, Jul 17, 2018, 7:45 AM UTC

It would also be amazing to have a linux distro that has excellent, first-class support for recent Apple computers. No such thing has existed for years. It’s terrible that we are all trusting closed-source FileVault.

I would donate to such an effort.

Re: Linux touchpad like a Macbook: goal worth pursuing?

#27

Post by sz4kerto » Tue, Jul 17, 2018, 7:46 AM UTC

Interesting that touchpad problems affect _many_ users, it's been a source of pain and complaints for many years and the community can't throw together e.g. $100k to pay a dev to develop a good enough driver.

Re: Linux touchpad like a Macbook: goal worth pursuing?

#28

Post by DennisAleynikov » Tue, Jul 17, 2018, 7:50 AM UTC

trosi wrote: post #21

101km wrote: post #11

I have been using 12" MacBooks since they came out because I live out of a backpack and travel a lot. I cannot find anything comparable in terms of size/weight/battery and build quality. Especially the trackpad, nothing is remotely close. Otherwise I'd get that and put Arch on it. People complain Apple is expensive, not so sure. The TCO may actually be less because of the high resale value. It is also more convenient…

Wouldn't it be easier to just wipe the drive before TSA?

yeah if you're going through the trouble of selling and buying a new mac it really seems a drive wipe is more than sufficient but I may be missing something. in general traveling without a computer is easier than travelling with one.

Re: Linux touchpad like a Macbook: goal worth pursuing?

#29

Post by micheljansen » Tue, Jul 17, 2018, 7:51 AM UTC

The touchpad experience of the Mac is where vertical integration really shines. The touchpad is so good precisely because there are not hundreds of hardware variants to support. Just the one that Apple used in their past X years of MacBooks (so never more than a hand-full). And they make their own OS and drivers.

Doing this for all laptops Linux could possibly run on is almost impossible. It’s a shame that touchpad (or laptop) vendors do not see good drivers as a competitive advantage. Sounds like a lot of people would buy a laptop just for its touchpad (though probably not enough to justify investment from manufacturers, so it seems).

Re: Linux touchpad like a Macbook: goal worth pursuing?

#30

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Jul 17, 2018, 7:51 AM UTC

isostatic wrote: post #17

sonnyblarney wrote: post #8

The touchpad on my macbook pro is just such an amazing feature, so intuitive. So 'just right' ... and consider that it's a primary form of interface. Everybody should be doing this yesterday, it's one of the most obviously good things going.

> The touchpad on my macbook pro is just such an amazing feature, so intuitive. So 'just right' Do you find the original scrolling mechanism, or the reversed scrolling mechanism, to be "just right"?

[deleted]