Interesting, does this mean that a macbook's "superior" touchpad is actually software driven? I always thought it was a hardware issue vs software issue.
I encourage looking at the earlier discussions since much has been talked about this before.
Oh, and also from booting the same Dell XPS laptop in Linux and macOS, guess which trackpad experience is superior.
3 and 4 are more like a tie.
On macOS, when I move the cursor with the trackpad, it’s almost intuitive for me where the cursor is going to end up. With Linux, it’s almost always an uphill struggle. Like the acceleration curve adopted by Apple is more ergonomic.
If it works reliably you could have great hardware with a good OS and a decent price.
Having used Gnome 3 with Wayland and libinput (the best Linux trackpad experience at the moment) until last year, I can say that while the latency and acceleration curve are definitely not there, at least the animations are better implemented than those of Windows 10
See this small section in a very long and detailed blog: https://pavelfatin.com/scrolling-with-pleasure/#mac-os
A MacBook’s trackpad hardware is differentiated because it is covered in glass, larger than most trackpads by a lot, and it clicks using a force sensor + haptics (so it is more reliable / has an even click across its surface).
It’s the one thing that’s keep me on the Apple platform for almost 2 decades now.