4 ms·

The Macbook trackpad is underrated. Well, maybe that's the wrong word. I know I take it for granted until the second I go to use any other laptop. And I'm st

The Macbook trackpad is underrated. Well, maybe that's the wrong word. I know I take it for granted until the second I go to use any other laptop. And I'm still using a 2008 Macbook Unibody. That said, my next machine won't be a Macbook. They are just too expensive, as the alternatives are catching up. It used to be that they were priced well to similarly-spec'ed competitors, but I'm not sure that's true any more.

city41 10y ago
Is it the hardware or software that makes it better? On my Thinkpads, I disable the trackpad in Ubuntu because it's just terrible. But when I boot into Windows 10, it works rather well. The difference seems to be whether unintentional brushings are ignored and how accurately the trackpad is ignored during typing.
- SmellTheGlove 10y ago
  I think it's a combination. The physical quality certainly feels nicer than others, and I think the surface area is larger too. Then, whatever is going on with the software side is great. I know that on mine, it's nicer in OSX than Windows with Bootcamp drivers, so I'm sure software has a lot to do with it. It is the only trackpad that I enjoy using.
  - city41 10y ago
    It's a shame. I've grown disillusioned with Apple, and have largely switched to Ubuntu on Thinkpads. But I really miss Apple's trackpad implementation. I disable the trackpad and only use the pencil nub, which does work very well, but months in and I'm still not completely used to it. Not to mention other people are always disappointed to find my trackpad disabled if they jump on my computer.
- uzoodoo 10y ago
  The Linux touchpad driver is extremely configurable. Try playing around with synclient. https://www.x.org/archive/X11R7.5/doc/man/man1/synclient.1.html https://www.x.org/archive/X11R7.5/doc/man/man1/synclient.1.h... https://www.x.org/archive/X11R7.5/doc/man/man4/synaptics.4.html https://www.x.org/archive/X11R7.5/doc/man/man4/synaptics.4.h...
tdb7893 10y ago
People always rave over the mac trackpads and they seem nice whenever I use them but I generally don't have the problems with windows trackpads so it's not a big deal to me. The main thing I've noticed is that multi-touch gestures seem to work better on a mac

city41 10y ago

Is it the hardware or software that makes it better? On my Thinkpads, I disable the trackpad in Ubuntu because it's just terrible. But when I boot into Windows 10, it works rather well. The difference seems to be whether unintentional brushings are ignored and how accurately the trackpad is ignored during typing.

SmellTheGlove 10y ago
I think it's a combination. The physical quality certainly feels nicer than others, and I think the surface area is larger too. Then, whatever is going on with the software side is great. I know that on mine, it's nicer in OSX than Windows with Bootcamp drivers, so I'm sure software has a lot to do with it. It is the only trackpad that I enjoy using.
- city41 10y ago
  It's a shame. I've grown disillusioned with Apple, and have largely switched to Ubuntu on Thinkpads. But I really miss Apple's trackpad implementation. I disable the trackpad and only use the pencil nub, which does work very well, but months in and I'm still not completely used to it. Not to mention other people are always disappointed to find my trackpad disabled if they jump on my computer.
uzoodoo 10y ago
The Linux touchpad driver is extremely configurable. Try playing around with synclient. https://www.x.org/archive/X11R7.5/doc/man/man1/synclient.1.html https://www.x.org/archive/X11R7.5/doc/man/man1/synclient.1.h... https://www.x.org/archive/X11R7.5/doc/man/man4/synaptics.4.html https://www.x.org/archive/X11R7.5/doc/man/man4/synaptics.4.h...

tdb7893 10y ago

People always rave over the mac trackpads and they seem nice whenever I use them but I generally don't have the problems with windows trackpads so it's not a big deal to me. The main thing I've noticed is that multi-touch gestures seem to work better on a mac