Guilty of this. I've never used a track pad that didn't feel like complete ass.
this post was submitted on 31 May 2024
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I've never used a PC one that I liked, but Macs have superb ones. They are so good I now get trackpads for every desktop I work on too (home + work).
They're great, now if apple could concede that right click is an important thing that's not going away and not relegate it to a corner barely larger than my finger then they'd be perfect.
EDIT: I forgot the default way to right click on Mac is two finger click, I changed it in the settings when I first got it to be click in the bottom right. If you've gotten used to two finger click good on you, but point still stands for us who like the "right" way.
I’m not sure I understand your complaint – if you two-finger tap anywhere on an Apple trackpad made since around 2009, it’s interpreted as a right-click.
Reply to edit: “I forgot that I changed it to make it worse and I’m mad at Apple about it” is maybe the most Lemmy comment I’ve ever read
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Sorry, the great prophet Jobs (pbuh) has decreed that one button is all you need.
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Seconding this. My company issued me a MacBook and I was really surprised by how well the touchpad worked, and how smoothly gestures work with it. For as much hate as Apple gets, a lot really Just Werks™. Windows and KDE (Wayland) (I haven't tested other DEs) are certainly improving, but they're still nowhere near as smooth as what MacOS has had for a pretty long time now.
The crazy thing is that I've hackintoshed a ThinkPad T430 and T480, both with full gesture support (but no force touch, though to be fair I don't use that anyway). In both cases, using their touchpads on MacOS was much better than on Windows or KDE. Though some touchpads aren't that great to begin with (like, the one on the T430 is pretty small), it's crazy how much of a difference good software can make to how they feel to use.
"Apple" the company gets hate, b/c they deserve it, but Mac OSX is fantastic - they really put a ton of effort into it, though iOS is a piece of crap - e.g. now they are trying to extort the users to pay money to send files b/t their desktop computer vs. phone, which is just not okay imho. Mac OSX was from an older era, when Steve Jobs was running the company, and people would have legit left Macs (or not switched to it) if it had not been "solid" like it was. Since then, the new era is not to provide "products" but rather "services".
Oddly enough, with the advent of Windows 7 (so many years ago now), it is fucking Microsoft that has been innovating their software - they are such a terrible company (as too is Apple, and Google, etc.), but they at least were pushing forward, more than Mac OSX, as the Apple corporation switched to put nearly all of their development efforts into iOS, and Music, and TV, and so on.
Apple ofc also has that hardware+software integration thing going on - monopolies really do have their advantages, as well as detractions too. You mentioned hackintoshing a Thinkpad, so I guess you are aware that often people will take a Mac and put Linux onto it as well, it's wonderful that people have put in the efforts so that we have such possibilities:-).
The issue you described with the touchpad on the hackintosh sounds more like a particular driver issue, which gets deeper than I have any knowledge of so I'll stop there:-). I will say tangentially that the Mac OSX has a shit-ton of cool features like font antialiasing, the Preview program is amazing, and I could go on and on but what usually gets lost on people is how Mac tended to have had things first, like everything has Bluetooth now, but Mac OSX had it long before Windoze did. I know nothing about Windows 10 or 11 though, except that they push to offer things as a service rather than product, and they show advertisements throughout:-( - those aspects alone turn me away from wanting to use it, even if the rest was somehow a better experience than Mac OSX (which I expect is NOT:-P).
Wow, a nightmare thought just struck me: if Apple enshittifies Mac OSX... the world will become a noticeably worse place, overall:-(. Fortunately someone will have it backed up and we can hack it (even if having to use older hardware), and there's always Linux that while significantly behind - especially in drivers & UI/UX concerns - is better than it has ever been.
what usually gets lost on people is how Mac tended to have had things first, like everything has Bluetooth now, but Mac OSX had it long before Windoze did
That's just not true - in fact, Apple is well-known for repeatedly releasing 'new' products/features that already existed elsewhere, but acting like they invented it. That goes all the way back to the original Macintosh.
Or, to use your example, everything I can find says MacOS added Bluetooth support in 2004, while Windows XP was patched to support Bluetooth in 2002.
MacOS is good software, but let's not pretend Apple hasn't built their entire empire based on pinching other people's ideas and marketing them better.
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It's not just the software either. I really like the feel of the Apple trackpad. It's glass instead of plastic like a lot of others. And the haptic feedback feels exactly like what a click would feel like
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Yep exactly, a Magic Trackpad is my main input device. It’s great for design work where you often interact with canvases and might need to scroll in every direction. It’s also more comfortable to use for long time periods.
I also love the handy expose swipe features, offering more functionality that does not require still yet another button. The aesthetics are good but most important it's just so functionally beautiful. Those are probably tied to mainly be usable on a Mac OSX though.
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Trackballs have ruined trackpad a for me.
Look at a Charybdis from bastardkb. Got a trackball built into the keyboard.
Lol the price of these fad keyboards are comical... 180€ with no switches and no keycaps?
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Seriously, they ALL fucking suck. I honestly kinda miss the old nub thingie that IBM (now Lenovo) had (has?). It took some getting used to but it was so much better than a touch pad.
The old clit mouse was my favorite!
They still have them, along with some Dell and HP laptops too I think. Honestly I like both. My laptop has that and I find myself switching between them mindlessly. Touch pad is great because of gestures. But the nub is more comfortable imo.
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I'm sure they do make trackpads that don't have a hole in the middle.
The keyboards are garbage too. Can't stand typing on laptop keyboards and every one I've tried (mostly Dells at work) has been shit for the last 15 years. I bought a $10 bluetooth keyboard for my tablet that's a better experience and smaller than a laptop for fucks sake.
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I have. The Steam Controller (and Steam Deck) trackpads are very nice, mostly because there are two of them and they are thumb operated. The haptic feedback is really nice as well.
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I can only use it as a laptop 1% of the time and it still makes perfect sense because otherwise I would have to own a separate device for this 1% of the time.
That makes sense. Though I think it depends on what you're doing for that 1%. For me personally I prefer a beefy desktop for work+games, and a low-power laptop/tablet for portable jobs.
That way I can upgrade the PC tower every couple years and keep using the same portable device for years and years, since it's basically just an email/web/SSH terminal. I've been using the same desktop PC since 2009, just upgrading it as needed. Over 15 years it feels like fewer devices than having to keep replacing a high end laptop every 3-4 years or so.
you’re telling me there are people who DON’T have a high-refresh monitor, mechanical keyboard, and wired 13-button mouse on them at all times?
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I mean, you still can use it on the go if you need to.
how about...
..some wheels
I literally rocked an old laptop for years like this, lol.
Pros:
- Comes with 2 screens by default
Cons:
-
Overheating
-
Some models refuse to start if a faulty battery is detected, and some models will use battery even while plugged in, and worst of all some batteries are inside the laptop case which must be pried open for access
And some models work without any battery at all, my dell XPS circa 2008. I am still amazed at that. It still runs too, I just retired it from server duty a few years ago once I got a dedicated server.
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I want to add an extra panel where the laptop gets connected to AC power as well, and powers up like Popeye eating spinach.
ergonomics. portable screens need to be at eye level, keyboards need to be nearer, pointing devices are overdue for revolution on portables.
Also the shittier hardware for more money, terrible ergonomics, and noise/heat of a laptop. I tried using a high end laptop for a couple of years. Now I'm much happier after selling it and replacing it with a PC. 8th gen Intel laptops are dirt cheap and very capable for most tasks (as a secondary device) for when the portability is absolutely required.
pointing devices are overdue for revolution on portables.
Tilt control laptops when
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Haha that's me but with my phone, as soon as I get to work I plug in my phone to a kvm that has a monitor keyboard and mouse, my phone has a desktop mode that I use on a second monitor while my main monitor is my work laptop.
This way I can switch between my personal phone and work computer, on my phone I mostly just have chats open or I vpn to my home lab to fix issues with my media server or game servers, if things get a little too wild I jump into a VM so I have all my tools. I also use this to edit photos or other projects during my lunch and breaks.
My work requires a lot of waiting for machined to reboot or go through tests so I like this setup that keeps my browsing on the guest network and non work device, and at the end of the day I just unplug one usb c and put my phone in my pocket so I don't have to worry if I stop at a grocery store on the way home about carrying a bag with me everywhere with a laptop
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I have four laptops and two desktops... More or less.
One laptop is an antique, I might break it out to play music while I cook, but it's kind of useless for anything else at this point. One is a tablet, complete with a digital pen. I only bust it out to sign digital documents. My main personal laptop is an 11th gen framework. The last laptop in my collection is my work laptop. Technically not mine, but I'll throw it in anyways.
My work laptop 99% of the time is sitting on my desk, connected to a dock which is plugged into a KVM switch.
My main desktop is also plugged into the same KVM.
My laptop rarely moves. I like that about it.
My framework is almost never on any kind of dock, or connected to any external display. I mainly use it on my lap around the house
The other desktop is plugged into my TV to play video games.
I mean, I have other computers, but those are the main ones.
I mean I don't want to talk negative about your hobbies, but you have a pc hoarding issue.
I have one for myself, but not that bad yet.
You have no idea.
Back in the early 1990s, I would go to Goodwill and pick up whatever ancient computers and related machines that people had discarded there. I amassed quite a collection. But at some point, when you're hauling a useless VT240 terminal home and you realize it's just going to sit in the garage, you conclude that you're really not doing a smart thing.
I would say the person above should keep the ones they're talking about and get rid of the "other computers" unless there's a good reason to keep them.
I went from desktop to 100% laptop over several years; now I'm back on a desktop - using one of those Ryzen 7 mini-PCs - and a 36-key GMK Cherry MX split keyboard that, stacked, is barely larger than the computer. I'm seriously considering getting a small Thunderbolt dock and just carrying that with me between work and wherever. The only annoying bit is the computer I have isn't powered over the USB-C port, which means also carrying a power brick, and that's the straw that keeps me synching data between my computer and laptop.
I could move everything to a bootable USB device, but even over USB-C that'd be orders of magnitude slower than NVMe or SATA.
The laptop is only two years older than the desktop (and maybe less than that since I didn't buy the most current model), cost nearly 3x the PC, and is utterly blown out of the water by the specs on the micro(? 12.5 x 12.5 x 4 cm) PC. Yeah, the laptop has keyboard, pointer, battery, and monitor; that impacts size and cost, but still. I could almost use my PC in a coffee shop, if it weren't for the power brick and the need to do something about a monitor.
I have a foldable phone. Maybe by the time that display technology gets scaled up (and onto the market) there'll be a micro PC that's powered over USB-C and I can put together a small, laptop-sized case with everything I need.
The Frameworks are looking good, though, now that they're selling AMD models. I'll have to check in, in a year or so.
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I feel bad for a drawing of a laptop with a face
That's me!! Whenever I have that sucker at home from work the first thing I do is using my own peripherals. The difference is Day and Night!
I do you better. I have my macbook plugged into a 32", and a crappy 19" (which sits on top of my macbook), so I'm using two screens without using my macbook screen
I feel so called out
When I need to do stupid tasks like timesheets and emails I unplug. The lack of screen space means I don't get distracted.
When I need to do hard work I dock my system and use my dual 4Ks to maximize visual bandwidth.
I've done this before building a dssktop PC. Probably not a bad way to start if you're planning to have a desktop anyway, but not have enough money to buy all things needed to buy one.
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