> turns out, a niche OS with a subjective quality issue is -- in this case -- a topic that's important to thousands
I would argue that it is less a quality issue, and more that experienced GNU/Linux users tend not have a strong preference for touchpads. There's no collective desire to improve them.
Away from my desktop (where a touchpad is irrelevant) my X200 doesn't even have a touchpad. I have an X250 thinkpad with touchpad, but it sees minimal use and performs just fine. I tend to use it when the laptop is at arms reach and it's easier to select a file that way than lean over and use the keyboard.
When I'm working I use i3wm (tiling window manager) and most GNU/Linux application make huge use of keyboard bindings. Using a mouse, or worse a trackpad, is massively inefficient.
'OMG, I wish my new MacBook Pro enormous trackpad functioned better when I'm using Ubuntu' is not a phrase I hear often.
Yes, as with so many hackers in the GNU/Linux universe I have been painfully waiting all my life for someone to come along and develop a really nice trackpad so I can use it with my tiling window manager, Emacs, and CLI tools.
I would argue that it is less a quality issue, and more that experienced GNU/Linux users tend not have a strong preference for touchpads. There's no collective desire to improve them.
Away from my desktop (where a touchpad is irrelevant) my X200 doesn't even have a touchpad. I have an X250 thinkpad with touchpad, but it sees minimal use and performs just fine. I tend to use it when the laptop is at arms reach and it's easier to select a file that way than lean over and use the keyboard.
When I'm working I use i3wm (tiling window manager) and most GNU/Linux application make huge use of keyboard bindings. Using a mouse, or worse a trackpad, is massively inefficient.
'OMG, I wish my new MacBook Pro enormous trackpad functioned better when I'm using Ubuntu' is not a phrase I hear often.