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

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

#341

Post by skinnymuch » Wed, Jul 18, 2018, 2:58 PM UTC

michaelmrose wrote: post #312

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…

Compare https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-mac/macbook https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/ideapad/ideapad-700-ser... Looks like you get twice the ssd for the money and similar performance but you get a better screen on the apple. Of course you could of course spend more and get a model with a better screen as well. 1300 vs 700. Even if you get 25% resale value after 3 years and say 20% for the thinkpad you will have pa…

The resale of a MacBook after 3 years is way more than 25%

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

#342

Post by HeadsUpHigh » Wed, Jul 18, 2018, 5:31 PM UTC

dilap wrote: post #157

HeadsUpHigh wrote: post #153

Absolutely no. I never liked the macbook touchpad. I tried using it a couple times. It really felt like they had to shoehorn every action into a gesture to the point where a lot of them felt extremely cumbersome. For example it took me a few tries until I managed to tile windows. I'm using a regular non-luxury laptop. I'm mostly using it with a mouse because the trackpad goes off every now and then( it's a hardware i…

I think you're definitely a special case. For me the MacBook touchpad is my favorite input method, better than even a mouse -- because it's very precise, and the gestures are very handy! Generally, most people are very fond of mac touchpads. So, I'd say from a linux strategic perspective, or the perspectie of the greater good, the answer is yes!

I really don't know. I'd like more trackpad "resolution" so I can disable or throttle acceleration down in order to get more precision but I definitely don't want a huge trackpad like the new macbooks or the artificial cursor movement both windows and mac have. Also the trackpoint on thinkpads works pretty well in my limited experience.

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

#343

Post by aleph4 » Wed, Jul 18, 2018, 5:51 PM UTC

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…

Same. Maybe it's just my specific track pad (Precision 5520), but libinput works great for me, with really good palm rejection. I never really used the other fancy trackpad features so I got over it pretty quick.

Having said that, before libinput I was ready to return my laptop, because the palm rejection was so horrendous with synaptics.

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

#344

Post by michaelmrose » Wed, Jul 18, 2018, 7:14 PM UTC

skinnymuch wrote: post #341

michaelmrose wrote: post #312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Compare https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-mac/macbook https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/ideapad/ideapad-700-ser... Looks like you get twice the ssd for the money and similar performance but you get a better screen on the apple. Of course you could of course spend more and get a model with a better screen as well. 1300 vs 700. Even if you get 25% resale value after 3 years and say 20% for the thinkpad you will have pa…

The resale of a MacBook after 3 years is way more than 25%

I can find 2015 retina macbook pros with 1tb of storage that originally sold for 1800 for 600 at this point which is aprox 33% resale value after 3 years. This is only slighter higher than prior estimate. There also may be a transactional cost in moving it ebays cut + shipping OR a time cost/risk in selling it yourself via craigslist for cash. This is not counting the cost of refurbishing to make ready for sale for example replacing the battery. If you spend $30 shipping give ebay 50 and pay 80 for a battery and sell at 600 you may only net 440 or around 25%.

Here is an interesting analysis of why used macs may be worth more. Authors thesis seems to be that because apple lacks a low end and has a smaller pool of buyers there is more demand among cost conscious buyers. It also holds back in 2015 that used apple products are worth twice as much as other vendors products in the same portion of their lifecycle but seems to have hard numbers only for phones and from 2013 so not neccesarily relevant to present laptops.

https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/apple-tax-macs-hold-resale-val...

https://gizmodo.com/one-huge-reason-to-not-switch-to-android...

I further hold that resale value is of negligable value to most uers who will either break a device, pass it on to a family member, lose it, or hold onto it until it is effectively of negligable resale value.

It would be disingenious to take maybe money into account when making a purchase unless you specifically plan to upgrade frequently and use the money from said sale to offset the cost of newer models.

For example one could spend 1800 then sell for half in 2 years and put it towards the next 1800 machine. One could spend not much more than 900 per year after the initial investment. So say over 10 one would have purchased 1 machine at 1800 at year zero one for 900 each at year 2 4 6 8 for an average cost per year 540 per year.

Of course people are vastly more likely to say purchase for 500-900 and use for 3-5 years then rinse repeat for a cost of 100-300 per year.

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

#345

Post by koffiezet » Thu, Jul 19, 2018, 9:00 AM UTC

mkirklions wrote: post #109

MrLeftHand wrote: post #81

One of the main reasons I stopped using Linux is the touchpad! It is horrible out of the box experience and the insult to injury is the lack of no good user interface to even set anything. You have to screw around with libinput or xinput with zero documentation on both parts and hope you will hit a sweet spot eventually and hope that any future updates won't break it. I am way past of the tinkerer phase where I would…

We are all talking about desktop? Ubuntu desktop is annoying IMO. Server is the only linux worth running. Windows has a superior desktop experience. Ive made serious attempts to use linux desktops since ubuntu 7 and the annoyance factor of getting things to 'work' and the hostile community is really offputting.

> Server is the only linux worth running

Also:

> Linux is the only server worth running

:P

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

#346

Post by balladeer » Fri, Jul 20, 2018, 3:54 AM UTC

jamroom wrote: post #331

balladeer wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had kept repairability issue aside until I had to go for flash drive replacement of my 2012 13" MacBook Air recently. Apple support (which is a 3rd party in my country) said ~$400 and local repair guys quotes like $350 or so. The new MBA (last year's) is available for ~800 here. Apparently I can't get any other brand's flash drive fit in there. That laptop worked just fine (battery, screen all). I wish I can find a…

Here's what you want: https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/ssd/owc/macbook-air/2012 Just replaced the internal SSD on a 2012 MBA myself - works great now :)

Thank you. I will try to find its equivalent available in my country (IN).

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

#347

Post by imatechguy » Fri, Jul 20, 2018, 2:27 PM UTC

fhood wrote: post #202

bollockitis wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 used to use macbooks exclusively, but for the last 2 years or so I have switched mostly to windows 10 because of work, and I hate it more two years later than I did when I started using it. I am truly trapped. I will buy another macbook, I can't help myself. Even now I can feel myself justifying their flaws in order to propel myself towards the next model. There is no escape.

I'm curious as to what you don't like about Windows 10. I'm in the opposite boat where I'm pretty fond of Windows but have to use a Mac at work and absolutely despise it. No quarter tiling, cmd-tab groups windows and has no option not to, the difference in shortcuts due to a non-standard keyboard, etc. Even the touchpad that everyone likes so much lacks several very basic features (such as triple tap to middle click) that can't be added without paying for a fix. The only things that are annoying about 10 are the spying and the forced updates in my experience. Different strokes for different folks I guess.