Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Linux touchpad like a Macbook: goal worth pursuing?

williambharding.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 347 posts

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

#141

Post by coldtea »

beaconstudios wrote: post #89
ramijames wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you tell me more about "curl-to-bash"? Setting up my mac can be a matter of days and I hate it.

I think they mean the classic install process of "curl -s | bash", used to download and then execute a bash script. The real question in my opinion is what kind of tools can fully set up an entire environment, including sessions, from a bash script? Homebrew only gets you so far.

>Homebrew only gets you so far.

Homebrew has an app that can also handle installing Mac App Store apps. It also handles installation of third party fonts.

You then download and activate your dotfiles, copy over your data, and that's it.

For sessions, I guess a download of a recent cloud sync of your last tmux state for iTerm2 would do it (haven't tried).

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

#142

Post by ehayes »

harrygeez wrote: post #78
fotcorn wrote: 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…

AFAIK macbook's keyboard and touchpad has a dedicated chip to handle user interactions and is possibly part of the firmware. This explains why it works on Apple EFI level and it works smoothly even on high CPU load.

I use a 1st gen "Magic Trackpad" that works great with my hackintosh. Maybe there's special hardware in a MacBook, but the OS seems to be able to work without it.

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

#143

Post by rezeroed »

pas wrote: post #85
acchow wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I'm using a Dell Latitude E7440 for years now with Linux, and scrolling is effortless. I'm really intrigued by what exactly the MBP scroll does better.

I'm on a latitude 7480 at work. Clunky keyboard, clumsy trackpad, dim screen.

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

#144

Post by bluecalm »

isostatic wrote: post #3

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

I am the same. I don't use touchpad at all on my Thinkpad. Give me a laptop without one but with better keyboard or at least speaker above it any day. Other than being quick to point to things nipple is amazing for scrolling. This is something Mac can't get close to, especially if you need to scroll a lot.

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

#145

Post by jcelerier »

OJFord wrote: post #136
jcelerier wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. Arch on a macbook is a great experience

I tried for a while, and running it natively really hammered the battery, got nowhere close to the same uptime as when running macOS. Running it in a VM was OK on battery, but of course there's CPU/RAM overhead, and the trackpad _feels_ nice, but it still doesn't quite move in the right way.

when using powertop on my MBP 2014 I can get 7-8 hours of battery.

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

#146

Post by princekolt »

Tecuane wrote: post #121
101km wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Continuously the last two years, 30+ countries. :) What kind of details are you looking for? I unbox at the Apple store and: - Temporarily turn off Spotlight & Time Machine (Permanently) because it helpfully tries to index everything and tinker with a handful of system preferences while a memorized curl|bash runs Mostly appearance related. This can also be automated but doesn't seem worth it as it only takes a minute…

>I do forget to remap the esc key each time I do this, or the name of the thingie that helps you do that I don't suppose it's Karabiner[1], is it? This is the one I'm most familiar with, as it's been around under a few names for a very long time. If so, this is in `brew cask`[2], which I am assuming is somewhere in your script's mix. 1. https://pqrs.org/osx/karabiner/ 2. https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-cask/blob…

I'm not sure to which key you want to remap esc to, but if it is to any of Command, Option, Control, fn or Caps Lock, you can do that from the Keyboard Preferences: https://i.imgur.com/whzlIW9.png

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

#147

Post by lindskogen »

Tecuane wrote: post #121
101km wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Continuously the last two years, 30+ countries. :) What kind of details are you looking for? I unbox at the Apple store and: - Temporarily turn off Spotlight & Time Machine (Permanently) because it helpfully tries to index everything and tinker with a handful of system preferences while a memorized curl|bash runs Mostly appearance related. This can also be automated but doesn't seem worth it as it only takes a minute…

>I do forget to remap the esc key each time I do this, or the name of the thingie that helps you do that I don't suppose it's Karabiner[1], is it? This is the one I'm most familiar with, as it's been around under a few names for a very long time. If so, this is in `brew cask`[2], which I am assuming is somewhere in your script's mix. 1. https://pqrs.org/osx/karabiner/ 2. https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-cask/blob…

OS X by default lets you rebind the capslock key to esc :)

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

#148

Post by H1Supreme »

Maybe I'm not as sensitive to the differences, but after using Macbooks since 2009, I recently picked up a 13" Dell Inspiron 7000. I put Ubuntu (Mate) on it first thing, and was actually surprised how well the trackpad worked. I was fully prepared for it to be horrible, but it's really not.

Maybe I got lucky with this purchase? Maybe the driver isn't so bad? I don't know. I have experienced awful trackpads from other models, so I'm not immune to the effects of a bad one. But, this has been smooth sailing so far.

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

#149

Post by taway0707 »

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…

The buyer of your MacBook may be dangerous.

Entering country: buy Macbook and SSD/RAM.

Leaving country: remove/hammer old SSD/RAM, install new, and sell.

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

#150

Post by cuillevel3 »

micheljansen wrote: post #29

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 (…

It would be enough to have excellent touchpad support on one model (or chipset). We could just buy that one. At least the old Linux users were once used to buy hardware that matches their OS.
Post reply on HN