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Linux touchpad like a Macbook: goal worth pursuing?

williambharding.com

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

#91

Post by madeofpalk »

maggit wrote: 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…

> As I understand it, the competition is barred from making similar touchpads due to patents

I'm unwilling to believe that Apple discovered the one and only way to make good Trackpad hardware.

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

#92

Post by madeofpalk »

isostatic wrote: post #84
sneak wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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”.

Depends if you think you're moving the document, or moving the viewport. Touchscreen behaviour is touching the document and moving it up, while your view remains the same. Traditional scroll behavior is that you're moving the view of your document down while the document itself doesn't move. Either way, one method is "the original one", the other method is the opposite, or reversed, from the original method.

I don't really care either way - it's a setting so you can use what you prefer.

But the default Apple 'moving the document' setting is extremely consistent with the rest of the trackpad. When you use one finger you move the cursor, not the viewport relative to the cursor. Why would it be different with two fingers?

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

#93

Post by KozmoNau7 »

pizza234 wrote: post #57
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…

I had a Thinkpad x200s, and all in all, nothing came/comes close to it (tolerating the slightly thicker build, which is inevitable for highly serviceable machines). I've been an MBA user as well, for reference. I use the mousepad little to none though. Possibly (but I'm not sure, since I haven't tried) IBM had such capillary distribution to support the quite bizarre use case of selling and repurchasing a new machine…

X220i here, and even though modern browsers and applications do tax its CPU (leading to shorter battery life), I still get at least 5 hours out of a new (and inexpensive) 9-cell battery. Build quality is simply second to none, the hinges are still perfectly tight with no slop, even after 7 years.

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

#94

Post by opportune »

madeofpalk wrote: post #91
maggit wrote: 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…

> As I understand it, the competition is barred from making similar touchpads due to patents I'm unwilling to believe that Apple discovered the one and only way to make good Trackpad hardware.

less "one and only", more "holy shit they have good lawyers and will ruin me if they want to and think they can"

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

#95

Post by ealhad »

qeng-ho wrote: post #83
scandox wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think maybe this is the problem I would pay $100,000 to solve / improve? https://imgur.com/a/7axkPSW

Switch to using numbers for the quick links and you can type the text of the link to narrow down the search for the quick link.

Absolutely! I wonder why this isn't the default...

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

#96

Post by masklinn »

sneak wrote: post #24
isostatic wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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”.

> The original one is the reversed one. Fingers go up, content goes down.

Fingers go up, viewport goes up, as with a scroll wheel. Neither is reversed, they're just different interpretations of the action.

> That’s wrong as anyone who has used a phone or tablet can tell you.

Nonsense. With a phone or tablet, you're manipulating the content itself, directly. Not so with a trackpad or mouse. The display is not under my trackpad.

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

#97

Post by [deleted] »

de_watcher wrote: post #34
sabarasaba wrote: post #4

I used to care a lot about this kind of things about two years ago when I switched from mac to linux. But to be honest, you just kind of get used to it after a while and its not really that much of a deal breaker anymore. I spend most of my time in terminals, and I use i3wm so most of my workflow doesnt involve using the touchpad at all. The only use case i have for it is when using chrome, but even so theres vimium…

I've read the blog post and the comments, nobody says what are the features they're talking about. I've only understood the "cursor nudge".

[deleted]

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

#98

Post by davidandgoliath »

KozmoNau7 wrote: post #93
pizza234 wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a Thinkpad x200s, and all in all, nothing came/comes close to it (tolerating the slightly thicker build, which is inevitable for highly serviceable machines). I've been an MBA user as well, for reference. I use the mousepad little to none though. Possibly (but I'm not sure, since I haven't tried) IBM had such capillary distribution to support the quite bizarre use case of selling and repurchasing a new machine…

X220i here, and even though modern browsers and applications do tax its CPU (leading to shorter battery life), I still get at least 5 hours out of a new (and inexpensive) 9-cell battery. Build quality is simply second to none, the hinges are still perfectly tight with no slop, even after 7 years.

x1 (gen c5) is amazing as well. After almost a decade as a macbook user, i'm impressed by it & back to linux! :)

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

#99

Post by AmericanChopper »

ahartmetz wrote: post #49

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…

The quality of the touchpad combined with the gesture support is a very good experience. The touchpad is very precise (obviously not as precise, but I don’t need that for work), and there’s nothing I struggle to do at all when I’m working with it. If I’m not at my desk with my extra monitors, then I prefer the touchpad. Especially if I’m working across multiple documents/windows where I can swipe between workspaces very easily.

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

#100

Post by masklinn »

isostatic wrote: post #14
lokedhs wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, but you are probably in the minority. I have one on the Dell laptop I'm using (which also has a touchpad). Once in a while I try to use it, but I find it almost impossible control with any kind of precision. Changing the sensitivity doesn't help much. I first tried that device on the first Thinkpads that had it, back in the 90's or whenever it was. I have always had the same reaction to it. How do you use it? Is…

I have no idea how not to use it. Right index finger (I'm right handed) moves it round, right thumb presses the keys. I'm not a classic touch typist, but my fingers tend to be near the home row most of the time, having the pointing device one or two keys away, and the mouse buttons next to space, is a big benefit. Having to shift my left hand to the left, and right hand down 3", just to move the pointer, feels like a…

> I have no idea how not to use it. Right index finger (I'm right handed) moves it round, right thumb presses the keys.

That's completely immaterial to the precision of it, which is why I'm unable to use it: I never managed to aim at something, I take ages to actually reach a button to click on it (either under- or over-shooting it unless I move the cursor extremely slowly) let alone select some characters in the middle of text.

I have that issue on neither trackpad nor mouse, and can use both reliably precisely.

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