[mattnewport]

The article is about Linux not Windows trackpad use. Because three mouse buttons have been pretty standard on Windows mice for a long time there is quite a bit of software that makes use of them on both Linux and Windows, more so than on a Mac where software could only assume one mouse button for a long time. This does make trackpads a bit more of an adjustment on Windows and Linux.

I use a large Wacom tablet in touch mode much of the time. It works pretty well with gestures for left click, right click and left drag but you do end up needing alternatives for right drag and middle click and drag because you run out of fingers. That's an adjustment for software like Unity or Blender that use them in their default control setups in Windows for actions that are not suited to keyboard (like camera control).

[zozbot123]

Right click is not required on Windows/Linux, except perhaps in highly specialized software - for the most common use, there's a dedicated [MENU] key and it has been there since Windows 95 introduced it, together with the super/logo key.

[rnvhhynr]

Linux, that's even worse. At least Synaptics on Windows comes with a control panel, on Linux you're stranded reading a man page, writing a file and putting it in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/, then restarting Xorg a thousand times until you get it right.

And then if you're using libinput instead of synaptics, which is the default on most distros now... just forget about it, because whatever you need is simply not implemented yet.

Using Linux on the desktop is a self-inflicted wound, and I can't believe this guy would write such a post saying that "trackpads sucks" when he uses Linux. Doing that is at best dishonest and at worst malicious.

[abdullahkhalids]

I have linux/libinput on my thinkpad T470. I have nothing to complain about the trackpad. I can do almost everything a two-button mouse can do with just the trackpad. I can left-click, right-click, multiple clicks, drag and scroll with just the trackpad. There are three mouse buttons that let me do additional things or some things much more easily.

Besides that there is an app Touchegg that lets you do more with the touchpad. But I haven't bothered using it because I am pretty happy with my setup.

[mdtusz]

I imagine that part of the reason there are so many diehard trackpoint enthusiasts out there is because trackpad support in Linux is so frustrating. It's the one thing that I have never managed to make work and feel "right" on a Linux laptop (with the exception of fingerprint readers).

[marcosdumay]

Hum... My Linux desktop has a pretty nice "System Controls" application with all the mouse settings... That I only ever visited to disable double touch clicks and never opened again, because the defaults are quite nice.

So, yes, it's a nightmare.