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Linux touchpad: preliminary project funding, survey results

bill.harding.blog

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Re: Linux touchpad: preliminary project funding, survey results

#51

Post by jorvi »

nitrogen wrote: post #33
Answerawake wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For people that are highly invested in their work, the computer is more than just a tool, it is an extension of themselves as it is their link to their deep-seated passion. I feel for the author as I have had to deal with terrible technology hampering me at bad moments as well. I wonder what is preventing them from trying something like a Mac. I have three computers under my desk (Windows, Mac, and Linux) and I alway…

Years ago when I had to switch from Linux to Mac for work, the different keyboard shortcuts for simple things like copy, paste, word left, move selection with cursor, etc. killed me. There are ways to change some of them, but Electron apps and various websites have hard coded emulations of the defaults. My coworkers simply refused to empathize with my frustration, but it's seriously like having a malfunctioning limb…

Now imagine coming from years of Mac use to Linux or Windows, and discovering to your horror that because the modifier key on those platforms isn't cmd but ctrl you cannot do many of the default shortcuts you're used to in the terminal.

Re: Linux touchpad: preliminary project funding, survey results

#52

Post by WalterGR »

viseztrance wrote: post #32

I can hardly tell the difference between my razer stealth linux touchpad and my workprovided macbook. Even based on the feedback, it seems that most people are okay with their touchpad experience and are more interested in advanced features like multitouch. Having this said, for myself this is a tough sell. I'm concerned that I would donate and I won't be able to tell the difference between this and some placebo driv…

I can hardly tell the difference between my razer stealth linux touchpad and my workprovided macbook.

How much of the surface of the Linux touchpad is clickable? I.e. how much of it depresses when you press on it, vs. the MacBook?

I’ve never seen a non-Apple touchpad that didn’t have a big dead zone in the back (closest to the display) 1/4 to 1/3 of the surface.

Re: Linux touchpad: preliminary project funding, survey results

#53

Post by nanna »

phoe-krk wrote: post #2

> There's currently a gaping chasm between the 35 sponsors who have supported the project on GitHub so far (thank you!!!) and the 309 poll respondents who indicated they would donate to this cause.

For me the problem is that the minimum of $5 per month is just too much. I would like to see this work done, but not for $60 a year (plus fees?). I fall into the category of being alright with the state of my trackpad, so $60 is just more than I will give.

Edit: I'd gladly donate $2 or $3 per month.

Re: Linux touchpad: preliminary project funding, survey results

#54

Post by abrowne »

WalterGR wrote: post #52
viseztrance wrote: post #32

I can hardly tell the difference between my razer stealth linux touchpad and my workprovided macbook. Even based on the feedback, it seems that most people are okay with their touchpad experience and are more interested in advanced features like multitouch. Having this said, for myself this is a tough sell. I'm concerned that I would donate and I won't be able to tell the difference between this and some placebo driv…

I can hardly tell the difference between my razer stealth linux touchpad and my workprovided macbook. How much of the surface of the Linux touchpad is clickable? I.e. how much of it depresses when you press on it, vs. the MacBook? I’ve never seen a non-Apple touchpad that didn’t have a big dead zone in the back (closest to the display) 1/4 to 1/3 of the surface.

Do you click with your "aiming" finger? I usually have tap-to-click turned on and do tap that way, but on any touchpad, MacBooks primarily until recently, I always click with my thumb on the bottom quarter, where older touchpads had a separate button. Is this only because I started on those old-style touchpads?

Re: Linux touchpad: preliminary project funding, survey results

#55

Post by ChuckNorris89 »

nanna wrote: post #53
phoe-krk wrote: post #2

> There's currently a gaping chasm between the 35 sponsors who have supported the project on GitHub so far (thank you!!!) and the 309 poll respondents who indicated they would donate to this cause.

For me the problem is that the minimum of $5 per month is just too much. I would like to see this work done, but not for $60 a year (plus fees?). I fall into the category of being alright with the state of my trackpad, so $60 is just more than I will give. Edit: I'd gladly donate $2 or $3 per month.

Damn, for $60 you can get one bangin' mouse to carry with you and problem solved.

Re: Linux touchpad: preliminary project funding, survey results

#56

Post by mschuster91 »

nitrogen wrote: post #31
squid_demon wrote: post #30

Will Linux fix their mouse support as part of this project?

Came here to say the same thing. Every Linux distro release the mouse finds a new way to break -- different acceleration profile, impossibly slow followed by impossibly fast, etc. -- and I have to update my fix_mouse.sh autorun script to scan for whatever the new xinput parameter names are. It's unfortunately distressingly common in software, but especially Linux GUIs, to fix one thing by breaking three others instea…

> The Linux kernel does seem to be good at that last part, but not the desktop projects.

That's because there are a shitload of them, there's way more than just the big players KDE and Gnome. Then the stack is highly complex with technology in the mix that is decades old (X11 dates back to 1987, that stuff is older than me!), and political infighting between competing (corporate or personal) interests doesn't help this either.

Android has multitouch solved, but at the cost of building everything from scratch and lots of stuff still being kept in proprietary firmware blobs for touch controllers. And there is only one Android stack, not two dozen...

Re: Linux touchpad: preliminary project funding, survey results

#57

Post by renewiltord »

BiteCode_dev wrote: post #21
trombonechamp wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The poll respondents did not indicate they would be willing to donate to the cause. They indicated they would be willing to donate to "fix it". There is a very big difference between paying to fix a problem and paying for a stranger to work on a project that may end up fixing the problem one day.

Honestly at this point I wouldn't care. Give me a kickstarter link with a the poll author as the champion, and I would insta send money. I can afford a few bucks to help somebody to attempt to solve the problem. I'm even ok with failure as long as it's an honest attempt.

I think a successful way to do this is Neovim's BountySource which was perfectly run, imho. There was a "if it hits $x tarruda will work on it" thing which is all I wanted.

Re: Linux touchpad: preliminary project funding, survey results

#58

Post by WesolyKubeczek »

wegs wrote: post #16
phoe-krk wrote: post #2

> There's currently a gaping chasm between the 35 sponsors who have supported the project on GitHub so far (thank you!!!) and the 309 poll respondents who indicated they would donate to this cause.

Well, let me put it this way. I would donate $250 to fix it. I think that's how much working support for touch, trackpad, and pen input would be worth it to me. I would donate $0 for a stranger on the internet to try to fix it themselves. I would donate $0 and advise others not to donate with an approach where there isn't even a developer driving this themselves ("Give us money, and we'll hire someone to fix it" appr…

> With open source, it's easy to find people to do the fun, modular bits (acceleration curves, palm rejection, etc.).

If that were true, there wouldn't be crowds of people telling that palm rejection in Linux sucks balls. Seriously.

As someone who did dabble in libinput for my own needs, I probably qualify to tell you where exactly you can shove your $250 and your condescending ignorant attitude, and how deep you can shove it, too, along with the horse you rode in on.

Re: Linux touchpad: preliminary project funding, survey results

#59

Post by nanna »

ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #55
nanna wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me the problem is that the minimum of $5 per month is just too much. I would like to see this work done, but not for $60 a year (plus fees?). I fall into the category of being alright with the state of my trackpad, so $60 is just more than I will give. Edit: I'd gladly donate $2 or $3 per month.

Damn, for $60 you can get one bangin' mouse to carry with you and problem solved.

Maybe so, but there'd still be so many problems left! And they need money too.

Re: Linux touchpad: preliminary project funding, survey results

#60

Post by cycloptic »

zozbot234 wrote: post #18
wegs wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, let me put it this way. I would donate $250 to fix it. I think that's how much working support for touch, trackpad, and pen input would be worth it to me. I would donate $0 for a stranger on the internet to try to fix it themselves. I would donate $0 and advise others not to donate with an approach where there isn't even a developer driving this themselves ("Give us money, and we'll hire someone to fix it" appr…

> If OP were to create a pipeline which: ... That would solve the problem. The libinput project and pipeline was developed as a way of pursuing these goals, but it doesn't even have all the features of the legacy synaptics driver. It's not hard to see where the work should be going: start with bringing libinput up to feature parity (and fork the project if maintainers won't accept your changes upstream), then go furt…

Forking libinput is unwise and would likely not be productive choice. The maintainer of libinput and the synaptics driver are the same person, and he has blogged several times about why the synaptics driver was a mess and was impossible to test and maintain. https://who-t.blogspot.com/2016/04/why-libinput-doesnt-have-...
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