5 ms·

I’ve never missed having buttons on the macbook trackpad lol How are they slower/impossible?

by iknowstuff 1y ago

aaomidi 1y ago
Because the macbook trackpad is good.
ksec 1y ago
Problem is none of the trackpad on PC are as good as the Apple trackpad
- nottorp 1y ago
  ... it's a software problem afaik. The trackpad may be slightly better quality, but it's the drivers and the OS integration that make even some games playable without a mouse on Mac OS. Don't think any one x86 laptop manufacturer can fix it.
- kibwen 1y ago
  Hardware-wise, no, I've had plenty of PC trackpads that are better than Apple trackpads. But MacOS tends to have better built-in support for advanced gestures, which seem to be impossible on Windows and must be manually configured on Linux (but gives you enormous power once you do).
  - dismalaf 1y ago
    GNOME on Wayland has lots of useful gestures out of the box. It's part of the DE though, so lots of DEs don't have them.
  - kzrdude 1y ago
    Using Gnome (for whatever reason), I'm used to two finger scrolling and three finger swiping just working by default.
  - danudey 1y ago
    Apple's palm rejection is also top tier, though other systems have been getting better. My current Dell seems fine so far, but at my last company the Dell I had was almost unusable due to my cursor just teleporting around my document randomly if my hands got too close to the trackpad (which is where they have to be to type). Not sure if it's a hardware (Dell) or software (Ubuntu) improvement, but thank god.
    - silon42 1y ago
      Even Apple's palm rejection is not good enough for me. I really hated the huge touchpad when I was using a Mac.
- madmod 1y ago
  You could try putting a trackpad from a macbook into the framework. AFAIK the palm rejection is all in the firmware. The apple trackpad is USB. If you look at the code for Asahi Linux it could tell you more.
jayd16 1y ago
I assume some gestures are simply not possible. Like click-to-drag and scroll simultaneously. Not every app handles gutter-hover-to-scroll in a usable way. On a mouse or a pad with buttons, you can keep the left click held down and scroll with the wheel or gesture. Uni-pads make this impossible.
- panzerboiler 1y ago
  You assume it wrong. You can click-to-drag and scroll simultaneously without issues on an Apple trackpad.
  - ezst 1y ago
    How does that work? You've got to tap the touchpad to trigger the initial click, don't you? For some reason, I really HATE tapping a touchpad (let that be an Apple or otherwise), it breaks my flow, I suppose? (like, you have to pause at the cursor's location, lift, tap twice to initiate a dragging event, then finally move on) whereas on the ThinkPad I daily drive I do all the cursor movement/scrolling with my right hand and the selection/clicking with my left thumb on the physical key that sits on the top of the touchpad sensitive area. That makes click&drag workflows super efficient, I find.
    - panzerboiler 1y ago
      You click and drag with one finger and you are free to scroll with two other fingers during the drag. It is a multitouch gesture. (I don't use "tap to click" since I always found it cumbersome)
      - ezst 1y ago
        Just for me to understand, you navigate to that thing you want to drag, then press harder (without the double-tap+move in short sequence, do there's that), and that registers a drag event? Could you do the "press harder" part with, e.g. a thumb in an other region of the touchpad instead of the finger that did the navigation?
JoshTriplett 1y ago
I've missed them every time I've been in the unfortunate position of dealing with someone else's macOS system. It's all a matter of what you're accustomed to.
- iknowstuff 1y ago
  They said the mac solution is slower than discrete buttons, I’m contesting that part specifically
  - JoshTriplett 1y ago
    I stand by what I said. It may not be slower for you.

I’ve never missed having buttons on the macbook trackpad lol How are they slower/impossible?

aaomidi 1y ago

Because the macbook trackpad is good.

ksec 1y ago

Problem is none of the trackpad on PC are as good as the Apple trackpad

nottorp 1y ago
... it's a software problem afaik. The trackpad may be slightly better quality, but it's the drivers and the OS integration that make even some games playable without a mouse on Mac OS. Don't think any one x86 laptop manufacturer can fix it.
kibwen 1y ago
Hardware-wise, no, I've had plenty of PC trackpads that are better than Apple trackpads. But MacOS tends to have better built-in support for advanced gestures, which seem to be impossible on Windows and must be manually configured on Linux (but gives you enormous power once you do).
- dismalaf 1y ago
  GNOME on Wayland has lots of useful gestures out of the box. It's part of the DE though, so lots of DEs don't have them.
- kzrdude 1y ago
  Using Gnome (for whatever reason), I'm used to two finger scrolling and three finger swiping just working by default.
- danudey 1y ago
  Apple's palm rejection is also top tier, though other systems have been getting better. My current Dell seems fine so far, but at my last company the Dell I had was almost unusable due to my cursor just teleporting around my document randomly if my hands got too close to the trackpad (which is where they have to be to type). Not sure if it's a hardware (Dell) or software (Ubuntu) improvement, but thank god.
  - silon42 1y ago
    Even Apple's palm rejection is not good enough for me. I really hated the huge touchpad when I was using a Mac.
madmod 1y ago
You could try putting a trackpad from a macbook into the framework. AFAIK the palm rejection is all in the firmware. The apple trackpad is USB. If you look at the code for Asahi Linux it could tell you more.

jayd16 1y ago

I assume some gestures are simply not possible. Like click-to-drag and scroll simultaneously. Not every app handles gutter-hover-to-scroll in a usable way. On a mouse or a pad with buttons, you can keep the left click held down and scroll with the wheel or gesture. Uni-pads make this impossible.

panzerboiler 1y ago
You assume it wrong. You can click-to-drag and scroll simultaneously without issues on an Apple trackpad.
- ezst 1y ago
  How does that work? You've got to tap the touchpad to trigger the initial click, don't you? For some reason, I really HATE tapping a touchpad (let that be an Apple or otherwise), it breaks my flow, I suppose? (like, you have to pause at the cursor's location, lift, tap twice to initiate a dragging event, then finally move on) whereas on the ThinkPad I daily drive I do all the cursor movement/scrolling with my right hand and the selection/clicking with my left thumb on the physical key that sits on the top of the touchpad sensitive area. That makes click&drag workflows super efficient, I find.
  - panzerboiler 1y ago
    You click and drag with one finger and you are free to scroll with two other fingers during the drag. It is a multitouch gesture. (I don't use "tap to click" since I always found it cumbersome)
    - ezst 1y ago
      Just for me to understand, you navigate to that thing you want to drag, then press harder (without the double-tap+move in short sequence, do there's that), and that registers a drag event? Could you do the "press harder" part with, e.g. a thumb in an other region of the touchpad instead of the finger that did the navigation?

JoshTriplett 1y ago

I've missed them every time I've been in the unfortunate position of dealing with someone else's macOS system. It's all a matter of what you're accustomed to.

iknowstuff 1y ago
They said the mac solution is slower than discrete buttons, I’m contesting that part specifically
- JoshTriplett 1y ago
  I stand by what I said. It may not be slower for you.