Since transitioning my daily driver to Linux (from macOS), I’ve been struggling a bit with pointing devices. Before I retired, most of the time I spent with my laptop was actually in my lap (shocking!). Because of that, I almost always just used the trackpad. Exceptions were when I was doing graphics work (fairly common) or gaming (rare).
I was surprised how many people remarked that they didn’t understand how I could use a trackpad. “They’re horrible!” I never had much trouble. Since transitioning and trying a number of trackpad implementations on various systems running Linux (and even Windows), I’ve come to a better understanding. I don’t know why Apple seems to have a monopoly on good trackpad implementations, but I’ve really struggled with non-Apple trackpads. “They’re horrible!” The biggest problem is that they frequently stall-then-jump, mostly when trying to make small mouse movements. I’ve waited half a year to complain, thinking that I just needed to get used to the different feel. But, no, “they’re horrible!”
After trying a number of different pointing devices, I’m currently back to using a plain old mouse. Well, Logitech might argue that their “MX Master 3S” is neither plain nor old, but I’m pretty much using it that way. I’ve never been one much for extra buttons and such, though I do need to figure out how to make the scroll wheel work more smoothly. (Yes, I’m using Solaar, but I still haven’t been able to make the scrolling anything other than way too jumpy.) It seems, overall, to be a good solution now that I’m almost always computing on a desk.
—2p