Not related to this but the other day I was searching for a good external trackpad that would work with macOS and there are very few (and not good) and every discussion was about how nothing comes close to Apple magic trackpad. The question is why can't other companies create such a good trackpad for macOS, it turns out they can't because the whole protocol for touchpad/gestures etc are proprietary and closed on macOS side so essentially any 3rd party trackpad has to emulate a mouse device. Thats what you get when a company makes computer and its OS and also its accessories and also software services, the whole stack, you either use their whole thing or not.
This is not true. It’s not about protocol or touchpad etc. Apple is just ahead of everyone else when it comes to user experience. Dell, Lenovo, Microsoft and a whole lot of other companies have not been able to replicate Apple’s trackpad for their own devices. Why not?
Please search for "find any windows latpop that have same kind of haptic trackpad as macbook" and you will find your answer. There are many such laptops.
Your explanation isn’t true at all. It’s very easy to spoof NSEvents. Many tablet drivers and mouse drivers do this and have been for decades. The software side is easy to create.
The part that makes the Apple trackpad good isn’t even the software integration with the OS. It’s the actual trackpad hardware, its surface and haptics. On the software side it’s largely just good acceleration curves.
I’d argue the reason very few competitors exist is just cost and lack of understanding what feels good and why , much like your own comment does.
Sure you do. I'm typing this on a NixOS/GNOME box with a Magic Trackpad 2 plugged in. Wireless, multitouch gestures, everything but Force Touch works.
I was blown away by how good the multi-touch gestures were on GNOME when I tried Fedora Silverblue a few years back, also with a Magic Trackpad 2. Everything just worked.
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The part that makes the Apple trackpad good isn’t even the software integration with the OS. It’s the actual trackpad hardware, its surface and haptics. On the software side it’s largely just good acceleration curves.
I’d argue the reason very few competitors exist is just cost and lack of understanding what feels good and why , much like your own comment does.
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