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Linux touchpad like a Macbook: goal worth pursuing?

williambharding.com

61–70 of 347 posts

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

#61

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

I love them when doing programming that requires my fingers to rarely leave the keyboard. It's nice to be able to nudge the mouse here or there occasionally without having the context switch of moving my fingers completely off the keyboard.

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

#62
post #53
post #41

I'd certainly contribute to a fund to raise money for a way of making the internet easily browse-able using the keyboard. Then I would not need a pointing or scrolling device at ALL. Which would be heaven.

Have you tried Vimium[0]? It brings vim-like shortcuts to your browser. Despite what the Readme says, I find it perfectly usable on Firefox. [0]: https://github.com/philc/vimium

Thanks I will try that out though my Emacs-hands may get confused.

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

#63
post #48

Yes, please do! I've spent some time researching this as well, and to me it seems like the author has missed one thing; the Mac touchpad hardware is so much better than other touchpad hardware. (As I understand it, the competition is barred from making similar touchpads due to patents) I have been running Linux on MacBook Pros for many years, and the touchpad is a constant source of disappointment. For the effort to…

Microsoft's Surface Book comes very close actually, so while the MBPs are still ahead, the gap is getting smaller!

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

#64
post #19

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

nope, i am thinking about putting an x1 carbon keyboard into a case so i can use it with my desktop :)

Maybe one day these will hit mass production https://mechanicalkeyboards.com/shop/index.php?l=product_lis...

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

#65
post #46

Is the touchpad driver in the macOS kernel? If yes, the kernel itself is open source, would it be crazy to try to extract the driver from there and make it Linux compatible? Other question: When are you actually using the touchpad? I use my notebook 99% of the time with a screen + keyboard/mouse. Next question: Can we get to the level of a Macbook touchpad only with software? Is there no magic sauce inside the hardwa…

I tried running Linux and Windows on a 2009 MacBook. Touchpad felt crap compared to on OS X. Pretty sure the Windows experience was better than the Linux one, though.

So software is certainly a part of it.

Edit: This is just considering basic movement of the cursor.

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

#66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I can see how selling a used MacBook(purchased in the USA from a state without state taxes) could just be sold off as a used item in say Europe, before returning back to the US. The difference in cost could actually be a net positive. Now, if all your files live in the cloud, and you have your setup automated completely, why not?

The keyboard layout is an issue.

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

#67
post #63
post #48

Yes, please do! I've spent some time researching this as well, and to me it seems like the author has missed one thing; the Mac touchpad hardware is so much better than other touchpad hardware. (As I understand it, the competition is barred from making similar touchpads due to patents) I have been running Linux on MacBook Pros for many years, and the touchpad is a constant source of disappointment. For the effort to…

Microsoft's Surface Book comes very close actually, so while the MBPs are still ahead, the gap is getting smaller!

The Dell XPS 13 touchpad hardware isn't too bad either. It should be bigger though.

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

#68

A cheap mouse allows finer and faster control than the best touchpad that currently exists, so... I plug in a mouse. (Don't believe me? Play an FPS game with touchpad against a mouse user.) That said, Synaptics touchpad support on Linux is bad. In my case, it's the touchpad on a Thinkpad T440s. It can run in a legacy/standard protocol mode or a "modern" protocol mode. Linux supposedly supports the latter (where palm…

> but I don't see it being used or palm detection working

Where did you look? Some of that stuff needs to be enabled manually via the synaptics CLI or via xorg.conf, e.g. on my system: https://github.com/majewsky/system-configuration/blob/fec4e0...

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

#69
What I find the biggest advantage is the hardware (as another poster here does), but not only due to its superior capabilities in gesture recognition.

I have yet to find a non-Macbook touchpad which is:

- decently sized: all Windows/Linux laptops I have encountered have ridiculously small touchpads, some not even a quarter of a Macbook touchpad in size. I have huge hands, tiny touchpads are awful when two fingers are wider than the touchpad.

- decent material: AFAIK, Apple is the only manufacturer using a glass overlay on the touchpad. The Windows scene exclusively uses plastic, which gets greasy after a couple of months for me. For the keyboards it's similar, Apple simply uses a material that does not get greasy...

- decent layouting: MBP touchpads are nearly flush with the casing, which means one can use its full surface area including the edges. Windows touchpads all are recessed, worst I had was 5mm - as evidenced by the grease-free borders I lost about 25% of the already small touchpad.

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

#70
post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can see how selling a used MacBook(purchased in the USA from a state without state taxes) could just be sold off as a used item in say Europe, before returning back to the US. The difference in cost could actually be a net positive. Now, if all your files live in the cloud, and you have your setup automated completely, why not?

The keyboard layout is an issue.

Or a benefit, depending on who you ask. (I prefer ANSI keyboards)
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