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Comment by henry_viii | Hacker News Reader

For me, what makes MacBook trackpads stand out are 3 things:

1) The acceleration. The faster you move your finger, the farther you can fling out the cursor. For comparison, my ThinkPad's trackpad simulates a trackball i.e. it doesn't have acceleration, only inertia.

2) 3-finger drag-and-dropping. As far I know, the MacBook is the only laptop that supports this. Also you can simulate a left mouse button press-and-hold by resting 3 fingers on the trackpad.

3) The feeling. The glass surface make it feel like you're sliding your fingers on butter.

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1) Configurable in software. I have it right now in Ubuntu; I think it's the default settings, though perhaps not as noticeable and needs to be made more sensitive for others?

2) Probably configurable in software, but unnecessary. Double-tap-hold (where the second tap you don't lift your finger) means holding down the click from the first tap, so drag-and-drop works just fine with a single finger.

3) I tried a co-worker's Mac a few years ago out of curiosity after hearing so much about the touchpads, but something about the sensation bothers my skin so much I don't want to touch it for more than a few seconds. It's a similar revulsion I get to touching felt.

> [Acceleration is] configurable in software

I learned about this today. Looking forward to turning it on on my ThinkPad. The default behavior on Windows 10 with the Synaptics drivers for my ThinkPad X1 Carbon gen 3 (2015) is not to have any acceleration, only inertia.

My personal opinion is that 3-finger drag-and-drop > double-tap-and-hold for 2 reasons:

- there is no delay

- you don't risk running out of space when dragging things. You can leave 2 fingers on the trackpad and keep dragging with your 3rd finger.

I agree that Apple's done a great job with making their trackpads ergonomic. I can't actually recite all the gestures I use on a daily basis on it.

1) I don't know what software stack you're using (I'm on Debian Linux) but acceleration is a supported setting on both the TrackPoint and the TrackPad. Personally I find acceleration vital to them being usable. On Windows there's QL mouse accel filter to customize the curve to an advanced level. On macOS there's an older software called ControllerMate that let you set a custom acceleration curve. I don't know if it works on modern systems though.

2) I don't know what 3-finger DND is because I use 1 finger to DND. Mind explaining a bit more? I've got 3 fingers bound to Mission Control which might be a default and I find quite handy.

It's actually an accessibility feature. In Ventura, go to System Settings > Accessibility > Pointer Control. There you'll find Dragging Style. Options are 'Without Drag Lock', 'With Drag Lock' and 'Three-Finger Drag'. It works exactly as you think; use three finger touch to drag anything.

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/mac-help/unac899/mac

I have a ThinkPad X1 Carbon gen 3 (2015) running Windows 10 with the Synaptics drivers. Thank you for the info on Linux and Windows. Will make sure to enable the acceleration on the laptop.

About the 3-finger drag-and-drop - it used to be on by default. Now you have to enable it manually since 3-finger swipes are bound to Mission Control and Expose. Once you enable it, Mission Control and Expose will be bound to 4-finger swipes. To enable it:

- Go to Settings > Accessibility > Pointer Control > Trackpad Options...

- tick the box 'Enable dragging'

- select 'three finger drag'

Demo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LFzxpT8mFk&t=129s

You don't need to worry about running out of space when dragging with 3 fingers - once you start dragging with 3 fingers, you can leave 2 fingers on the trackpad and keep dragging with your 3rd finger.

Whaaaa? I'm going to have to try this, thanks!

> 3) The feeling. The glass surface make it feel like you're sliding your fingers on butter.

That's something you can get with aftermarket parts for a thinkpad as well. Personally, I installed a glass touchpad in my T470 and it's incredible.

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