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Comment by wbharding | Hacker News Reader

Wow, this community is so good. Three hours after posting and I've already got a few interested emails from experienced devs looking to lend a hand here. So, it _looks_ like we should have the opp to move forward with something in the weeks to come. Would still be nice to get a couple more emails from knowledge-heavy Linux devs, since that's not a strength of mine. (bill -at- staticobject.com)

I also haven't heard from anyone with connections to OSS projects at Google/MS. I've assumed (perhaps incorrectly) there are departments at smart tech cos that selectively contribute to high impact OSS projects (dev resources or other)? Even if not for contributing resources, would be valuable to get a bit of talk time from those that have successfully executed a project like this before.

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For those who would like to follow this project as it unfolds, we intend to work from https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/wbharding/libinput

I'll also setup an easy means subscribe to text updates about this project soon. Check https://bill.harding.blog for updates on that.

Although not exactly relevant I remember reading that some devs at google were looking to mainline Magic Trackpad Support because I was so disappointed in the trackpad functionality on a brand new laptop with Linux installed, I was planning to just carry a Magic Trackpad everywhere. It really is a world of difference, the way the Mac trackpads feel in comparison.

https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2018/09/google-working-on-apple-...

Hi,

Thank you for your efforts. Could you explain what exactly is better about the MacOS touchpad?

Just to warn I've used Linux on a cheap PC notebook for the last ten years. I have only very occasionally used a macbook and generally found the touchpad unpleasant due a relatively slow movement (which also might make it more accurate but still doesn't enthrall me). I never particularly had a problem with the touchpad until recently - the current drivers get the location "lost" and needs a reboot about once a week (unloading and reloading with modprobe doesn't work. Also, the current touchpad simulates a three button mouse on a pad with no visible buttons, an effect that generally makes both the center and right buttons hard to use plus the keyboard has no right click button, complain-complain, minor stuff altogether and machine remains usable).

Which is to say that you may be confronted with continual Linux desktop problem the your ideal of UI performance not being everyone's ideal (remember how everyone hated on the Gnome Shell? I still hate on the Gnome Shell). My own idiosyncratic UI ideal is more like older-Windows than Mac (I use Ubuntu Mate).

Still, best of luck.

I find the MacBook precision remains just as good at higher pointer acceleration settings. In addition the same precision is normally present with all the various gestures with no loss of precision using multitouch inputs. Did you adjust any of the MacBooks you used to better fit your preferences? The slow default is the first setting I adjust because I agree the default pointer acceleration is far to slow for my tastes.

I crank it all the way up, myself.

But I wanted to point out that this is a spot to be careful about decisions. The natural choice is to pick a default that you like yourself, but that's probably a choice that would ultimately hinder adoption of Linux as a desktop OS.

Geeks like a faster setting, but geeks also universally know that this sort of thing can be customized, and can easily figure out how to change it. Non-geeks are more likely to find a fast setting to be frustrating or unusable, and are also less likely to know that they have an option to slow it down.

If the movement is too slow for you on a Mac trackpad, just take a few seconds and go adjust the settings. You can tweak the tracking speed however you want.

I wish that I had the time or money to help out on this. This is the last thing holding me back from buying a Linux laptop for when I upgrade or when I get a job next year and have to choose between a Macbook or Linux laptop.

Any way to keep up to date on this? (And really only this, no newsletters or anything, I hope you understand.)

Hmm, I should create a way to do that. My tentative plan had been to email the folks who had left comments on the bill.harding.blog post when I had news to report. But then I posted this update this morning without mailing them, so that plan didn't work very well. I think this might just be the kind of thing we have to hope HN will continue to upvote when updates get posted? Or check back at bill.harding.blog in the next few months. Since it looks like there should be enough devs to get started, that implies I'll be posting another update within the next quarter at least.

Here's where the code updates are slated to happen: https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/wbharding/libinput

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