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It does have an analogous feature, the MBP's trackpad is huge and you probably touch it by accident all the time. It's just that Apple's system tries to separa

It does have an analogous feature, the MBP's trackpad is huge and you probably touch it by accident all the time. It's just that Apple's system tries to separate deliberate touches from accidental ones, rather than disabling the trackpad input completely. You used to be able to turn this on and off (it was called "Ignore accidental trackpad input" in the trackpad preference pane) but now it's an always on feature. The trackpad has extended so far into the palm rests that it would be very difficult to use without it, and the feature works well enough that you don't even realize it's happening. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201822 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201822

DennisP 7y ago
Yes, I touch the pad by accident all the time. But why is Apple so good at detecting which touches are accidental, while so many other manufacturers are not?
- the_pwner224 7y ago
  On Linux this works similarly. ~5 years ago my old laptops did the 'disable touchpad when typing' thing, now with libinput the touchpad has excellent and completely invisible (to the user) anti-false-touch functionality. Apple has invested the time to make great trackpad drivers. People have invested time to make libinput a great driver for Linux (in this regard - it does lack customization possible in older drivers). On Windows the manufacturers don't care. IIRC MS is doing a thing where manufacturers can add some property to their touchpad HW/drivers which tells Windows to handle the touchpad entirely on its own, and the result has been that touchpads have been improving significantly over the last few years since MS is investing time in making good drivers. But that depends on your specific touchpad allowing Windows to do its magic, instead of using crappy OEM drivers.
  - DennisP 7y ago
    That is fantastic news about Linux. I bought a System76 four or five years ago and the touchpad was terrible. It wasn't just false touches; it was really hard to accurately click on something, the pointer kept making little jumps. Would you say that's better too? If touchpads are good now, then I might go dedicated Linux again when it's time to upgrade from my aging MBP.
    - the_pwner224 7y ago
      Try making an Ubuntu/Fedora USB and booting from it once on your MBP, that should let you see what it's like. I had to explicitly disable the 'disable touchpad while typing' libinput setting but aside from that everything works great out of the box.
      - DennisP 7y ago
        Cool, thanks!
AbortedLaunch 7y ago
It may work quite often without me knowing, but ever since I got a 2017 Mac I have multiple events per day where my typing ends up in a random location due to phantom clicks. Perhaps I should disable tap to click, even though I really dislike clicking via the force push.

DennisP 7y ago

Yes, I touch the pad by accident all the time. But why is Apple so good at detecting which touches are accidental, while so many other manufacturers are not?

the_pwner224 7y ago
On Linux this works similarly. ~5 years ago my old laptops did the 'disable touchpad when typing' thing, now with libinput the touchpad has excellent and completely invisible (to the user) anti-false-touch functionality. Apple has invested the time to make great trackpad drivers. People have invested time to make libinput a great driver for Linux (in this regard - it does lack customization possible in older drivers). On Windows the manufacturers don't care. IIRC MS is doing a thing where manufacturers can add some property to their touchpad HW/drivers which tells Windows to handle the touchpad entirely on its own, and the result has been that touchpads have been improving significantly over the last few years since MS is investing time in making good drivers. But that depends on your specific touchpad allowing Windows to do its magic, instead of using crappy OEM drivers.
- DennisP 7y ago
  That is fantastic news about Linux. I bought a System76 four or five years ago and the touchpad was terrible. It wasn't just false touches; it was really hard to accurately click on something, the pointer kept making little jumps. Would you say that's better too? If touchpads are good now, then I might go dedicated Linux again when it's time to upgrade from my aging MBP.
  - the_pwner224 7y ago
    Try making an Ubuntu/Fedora USB and booting from it once on your MBP, that should let you see what it's like. I had to explicitly disable the 'disable touchpad while typing' libinput setting but aside from that everything works great out of the box.
    - DennisP 7y ago
      Cool, thanks!

AbortedLaunch 7y ago

It may work quite often without me knowing, but ever since I got a 2017 Mac I have multiple events per day where my typing ends up in a random location due to phantom clicks. Perhaps I should disable tap to click, even though I really dislike clicking via the force push.