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

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

#261

Post by ninkendo » Tue, Jul 17, 2018, 4:01 PM UTC

trash_panda wrote: post #181

MrLeftHand wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel your pain. Ubuntu Desktop was my preferred go to distro not too long ago. Using 16.10 was nice and I managed to get the touchpad working in a reasonable way with xinput. Then 18 came along and everything went to hell. All the properties changed and some even disappeared. And of course the ones missing were the ones I actually needed to make my touchpad work in a way that it was comfortable to use. After that I…

Reading this thread makes me wonder if I live in the same universe as HN. I'm amazed at the level of exquisiteness of the requirements of the HN crowd. I mean, I've been using computers all my life and used almost every Linux, Windows and OS X systems. I do get that Macbook touchpads are god-tier and unrivaled so far by other hardware manufacturers. That being said, I rather have my old Lenovo x220 with an external m…

> No touchpad is as good as a decent external mouse (decent != expensive, mine is $30).

Funny, on both my work and home mac desktops, I use the Magic Touchpad as my primary input device even while sitting at a desk. So I suppose I disagree with this statement.

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

#262

Post by prepend » Tue, Jul 17, 2018, 4:03 PM UTC

bollockitis wrote: post #126

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…

> There is no alternative. I feel trapped. This is ironic, considering that you live out of a backpack! Honestly though, there are alternatives, but that's the problem with luxuries: once we have been spoiled, human pyschology makes it difficult to accept "less." We tend to describe things we want as things we "need." It seems that many Apple power users, myself included, tend to be perfectionists when it comes to co…

I like how you view this as a luxury and you’re right. But efficiency and near optimization are more virtuous luxuries, to me, than things I frequently think of like sugar or diamonds.

Having an efficient interface with which to work is really important to me. I suppose it’s a luxury to not have to wait 500ms between keystrokes in vim, but I want instantaneous response.

The MacBook touchpad is really useful and using another slows me down both physically as well as mentally since I know there’s a better option.

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

#263

Post by driverdan » Tue, Jul 17, 2018, 4:03 PM UTC

mkirklions wrote: post #112

opdahl wrote: post #2

If someone could actually make this, I would gladly pay an annual subscription to access it. Almost the only reason I'm still buying MacBooks is because of the touchpad, and if I could get that on Linux I probably would just switch to a normal PC.

Who is on this website? I thought these were mostly programmers, but I cannot picture a programmer using a touchpad instead of a mouse.

To take that a step further, who would use a touchpad or a mouse over a keyboard?

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

#264

Post by bovine3dom » Tue, Jul 17, 2018, 4:04 PM UTC

loser777 wrote: post #64

tty7 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

I have one of these. It's fantastic. The trackpoint is even better (in terms of "dpi") than those on the ThinkPads.

I wish that they made a full size version of it - I miss the extra keys.

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

#265

Post by jeswin » Tue, Jul 17, 2018, 4:04 PM UTC

nerdponx wrote: post #169

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…

Agreed. Apple makes the best consumer mobile computer hardware by far, repairability issues aside. The touchpad is originally what sold me on my first MacBook (2013 13" Retina) and it is still the feature I miss the most on other laptops.

Apple makes the best looking consumer computer hardware, but a Thinkpad destroys it in every department except the Trackpad. Keyboard (no contest), upgradability, RAM, ruggedness, even price.

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

#266

Post by newscracker » Tue, Jul 17, 2018, 4:08 PM UTC

When I switched to Linux (because the Mac was old enough not to get updates from Apple), the thing I missed most was support for the external Magic Trackpad (the first version with the removable batteries). I searched around and found some solutions, but they were all outdated and/or abandoned, and none of them could get me all the features and gestures that Apple supported natively since about 8-9 years ago.

Though Linux drivers have improved a lot over time, there are still some areas like this that don't get attention. Not that there isn't a large enough user base, but for many other reasons. I would gladly support a crowd funded project by reliable people on such things.

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

#267

Post by PaulHoule » Tue, Jul 17, 2018, 4:08 PM UTC

inapis wrote: post #82

walrus01 wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Really depends on their comfort/paranoia level. If the device is taken out of their sight for more than a few minutes, they'd be highly suspicious. If your expected adversary is a nation-state intelligence agency, what do you expect to do? Take your laptop with you everywhere you go, all the time? Leave in your apartment for a theoretical attacker to execute an evil maid attack on it? FDE is highly useful against o…

You are considering only the extremes. There's also a ground between ordinary adversaries and nation-state agencies. Take for example China. There are plenty of rumours about business executives taking throw-away electronics while crossing the border or how China installs some random software on people's devices when crossing a border neighbouring a certain province[1] FDE can also lead to increased suspicion when cr…

A nation-state also has a gap between the most advanced capabilities and what can be used on a routine basis.

For instance a TSA screener is not going to have access to the latest and greatest because information about it gets leaked people will take counter measures.

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

#268

Post by bovine3dom » Tue, Jul 17, 2018, 4:17 PM UTC

scandox wrote: post #73

scandox wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

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

If you switch to Tridactyl [1], our buggier, less popular, and less user friendly competitor to Vimium, you can pass hints CSS selectors.

E.g, `hint -c a+a+a` only highlights comments on the HN homepage (and every third link in a row on other pages). I have it bound with `bind ;c hint -c [class*="expand"],[class="togg"],a+a+a` which also lets me toggle comments on HN and reddit.

[1]: https://github.com/cmcaine/tridactyl

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

#269

Post by rayiner » Tue, Jul 17, 2018, 4:19 PM UTC

yunyu wrote: post #259

rayiner wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hate to be negative, but what makes you think you can do in two months what Microsoft has failed to do in several years (Microsoft's Precision Touchpad is still a ways away from a Mac touchpad).

Really? Outside of the lack of force touch, I haven't found the Surface touchpads to be any worse than Macbook ones in terms of accuracy.

I haven’t spent much time with the Surface touchpad. On my X1C, which has the Precision touhpad driver, little things are off. E.g. moving the cursor with one finger while others are resting on the touchpad will hiccup a bit.

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

#270

Post by trash_panda » Tue, Jul 17, 2018, 4:19 PM UTC

ninkendo wrote: post #261

trash_panda wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reading this thread makes me wonder if I live in the same universe as HN. I'm amazed at the level of exquisiteness of the requirements of the HN crowd. I mean, I've been using computers all my life and used almost every Linux, Windows and OS X systems. I do get that Macbook touchpads are god-tier and unrivaled so far by other hardware manufacturers. That being said, I rather have my old Lenovo x220 with an external m…

> No touchpad is as good as a decent external mouse (decent != expensive, mine is $30). Funny, on both my work and home mac desktops, I use the Magic Touchpad as my primary input device even while sitting at a desk. So I suppose I disagree with this statement.

Yes, I think using one of those instead of an external mouse is a good idea. In my case I find a regular mouse more comfortable than ANY touchpad.

What about precision? do you think that the touchpad is more precise than a good mouse on a good mousepad? I'm not asking you if YOU are more "productive" using a touchpad, I'm asking you if you think that if we compare a proficient regular mouse user vs a proficient Mac touchpad user we'll notice a significant difference that'll make us think that Mac touchpads are the way to go?

I don't think so. I think the factor that weighs more is user preference, heavily influenced by marketing.