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After trying out my Magic Trackpad on Pi OS a couple weeks ago, and finding that experience to be somewhat frustrating, I found out about this project and immed

After trying out my Magic Trackpad on Pi OS a couple weeks ago, and finding that experience to be somewhat frustrating, I found out about this project and immediately sponsored it. Even on Windows, trackpad support with my giant Apple trackpad is pretty good. On Linux (at least with Pi OS and XFCE) I couldn't figure out how to get it to have any good acceleration curve or work at all like on my Mac or Windows laptop. Scrolling was pretty smooth, but the cursor control was all over the place, so I had to pull out an old mouse for that day.

dhosek 6y ago
This is one of those things that mark where the Linux desktop experience falls short. I've been a trackpad user since 1997 when I bought a keyboard with a built-in trackpad for my home-built OS/2 system, and the superiority of the experience on Apple hardware has been a significant factor in why I've stuck with Apple as my primary OS since 2001. I've occasionally had to use Windows for work since then and the trackpad experience has gone from unusable to acceptable but it still hasn't caught up to the Mac and Linux hasn't caught up to Windows.
- deleted 6y ago
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- Yetanfou 6y ago
  I've been using trackpads since Cirque launched the GlidePoint, using it first in OS/2 and later in Linux. I have never had problems with these things other than the touch surface wearing through, the things generally 'just work'. I tend to increase the acceleration factor so I can move from left to right in one fell sweep, use two-finger scroll, touch-to-click and sometimes double- and triple-touch to click for button 2 and 3. What are these problems I keep on hearing Apple aficionados talk about which make life on Linux unbearable? Is it fancy gestures? If so, there's tools for that. Is is the size of the pad? Well, just use a bigger one. For me it just works so I don't understand what the problems are, all I read is that 'the experience is bad' and similarly subjective claims. Can you give some objective examples where a Linux-based desktop fails to live up to expectations related to trackpad support?
Yetanfou 6y ago
I've been using a 'magic trackpad' for years now, it is the only piece of Apple-branded equipment I ever bought (by getting it for cheap from the 'net), in Linux, and have not had any problems with acceleration curves or cursor control. It use it with 1/2/3 finger click gestures to substitute for the lack of those other buttons. I configure the thing through xinput since I'm not using a 'desktop environment' (Xmonad, dzen, dmenu, conky and trayer suffice). What are those terrible problems which made you pull out your mouse again?

dhosek 6y ago

This is one of those things that mark where the Linux desktop experience falls short. I've been a trackpad user since 1997 when I bought a keyboard with a built-in trackpad for my home-built OS/2 system, and the superiority of the experience on Apple hardware has been a significant factor in why I've stuck with Apple as my primary OS since 2001. I've occasionally had to use Windows for work since then and the trackpad experience has gone from unusable to acceptable but it still hasn't caught up to the Mac and Linux hasn't caught up to Windows.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
Yetanfou 6y ago
I've been using trackpads since Cirque launched the GlidePoint, using it first in OS/2 and later in Linux. I have never had problems with these things other than the touch surface wearing through, the things generally 'just work'. I tend to increase the acceleration factor so I can move from left to right in one fell sweep, use two-finger scroll, touch-to-click and sometimes double- and triple-touch to click for button 2 and 3. What are these problems I keep on hearing Apple aficionados talk about which make life on Linux unbearable? Is it fancy gestures? If so, there's tools for that. Is is the size of the pad? Well, just use a bigger one. For me it just works so I don't understand what the problems are, all I read is that 'the experience is bad' and similarly subjective claims. Can you give some objective examples where a Linux-based desktop fails to live up to expectations related to trackpad support?

Yetanfou 6y ago

I've been using a 'magic trackpad' for years now, it is the only piece of Apple-branded equipment I ever bought (by getting it for cheap from the 'net), in Linux, and have not had any problems with acceleration curves or cursor control. It use it with 1/2/3 finger click gestures to substitute for the lack of those other buttons. I configure the thing through xinput since I'm not using a 'desktop environment' (Xmonad, dzen, dmenu, conky and trayer suffice). What are those terrible problems which made you pull out your mouse again?