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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?

#51

Post by yabb »

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 macbook touchpad is so good that after a few months of practice, I routinely used to top the leaderboard in cod4 hardcore free for all using double tap to aim down the sight, shoot with index finger and aim with middle finger. I even got good at quickscoping with the Barrett 50 Cal, again using only the macbook touchpad. Even mile high club on veteran was not out of reach

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

#52

Post by walrus01 »

trosi wrote: post #21
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…

Wouldn't it be easier to just wipe the drive before TSA?

I think people are really confusing TSA with border control. TSA cares about people bringing knives and bombs on planes. US CBP/ICE or similar is a very different thing from TSA. I've never heard of TSA asking for any more detailed inspection of a laptop than swabbing it for chemical residue, and asking that it be powered on to confirm it's a real working laptop. CBP/ICE on the other hand are a totally different story (as documented extensively by the EFF, etc).

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

#53

Post by ealhad »

scandox wrote: post #41

I'd certainly contribute to a fund to raise money for a way of making the internet easily browse-able using the keyboard. Then I would not need a pointing or scrolling device at ALL. Which would be heaven.

Have you tried Vimium[0]?

It brings vim-like shortcuts to your browser. Despite what the Readme says, I find it perfectly usable on Firefox.

[0]: https://github.com/philc/vimium

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

#54

Post by Rovanion »

lokedhs wrote: post #32
chx wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Dell ones are vastly inferior to the ThinkPad ones. While I do not know the ones in the 20, the last ten or so years I worked solely with TrackPoint first under Linux now under Windows 10. Under Windows 10, there's a Mouse tab in Control Panel, there's a sensitivity slider and I found it's best to have it just one notch below fastest. The default makes me feel I am wrestling with my laptop.

I see. I haven't tried the Thinkpads since before they were sold to Lenovo, so perhaps they are superior. I am in the market for a new laptop, so perhaps I should give them a chance. Not really for the pointers, but they do seem to be fine laptops overall.

Yeah. I got a Dell for my day job and unfortunately the nipple is entirely unusable. I miss my ThinkPad :/

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

#56

Post by nottorp »

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…

Item 1: It's undeniable that the mouse is more precise, but it tethers you to a desk. One with enough space for a mouse. Not always feasible.

Item 2: You're mentioning Thinkpads. Try a touchpad on OS X, then come back. The difference is enormous. You can actually use the GUI without a mouse and without being annoyed, it's the only laptop/OS combination where that works.

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

#57

Post by pizza234 »

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 every few months.

Sadly, the line is over, and this type of build is obsolete nowadays.

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

#58

Post by J0-nas »

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…

No idea.

I can only speak for myself. But in now 7 years I never connected a keyboard or mouse to my 2011 MBA. It's keyboard+Touchpad is just so good that I don't need it. Even when I connect to an external display.

I'd say no. In my experience other Companies aren't even able to recreate the smooth surface + 'clicking feel' of the Apple touchpad, which is what I value the most. I suspect that they can, but aren't legally allowed due to patterns.

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

#59

Post by 101km »

null0pointer wrote: post #43
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…

How frequently are you traveling? And is it usually for extended periods of time? I'm curious for more details, if you can share. I'd also like to know more about your config restoration process. Is it literally just running your script? What other things does it do? My process is fairly streamlined as is, with most things except software installs done automatically. But I'm always on the lookout for improvements.

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 don't use iCloud.

- Selective sync with Dropbox (which was just installed for me), mostly for the 1Password folder, while the rest of the script runs. Read HN or better yet about the new surroundings.

- Manually run software update and reboot into my now familiar machine

- Turn spotlight back on

I do forget to remap the esc key each time I do this, or the name of the thingie that helps you do that, that's about the only noticeable difference between old and new machines.

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