Comment by ChuckNorris89 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by ChuckNorris89 | Hacker News Reader

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>You might not want to complain about customizability in gnome if you have ever used Windows before

Funny that you mention this, but as a long time Windows and Linux user, I find Windows far more configurable (for what I need) out of the box than what vanilla Gnome offers, especially via what the GUI offers in the settings menu. I'm more of an KDE/XFCE man myself due to the available configuration options out of the box and no need for hacky extensions.

And if more configurations are needed on Windows, there's always a free easy to use GUI app (like the one featured in this topic) that can be downloaded and it's nearly guaranteed to work despite its age, because unlike Gnome/Linux, Microsoft don't change the APIs/ABIs every six months and break existing apps/extensions. And that's without going into the "this works on X11 but not on Wayland" rabbithole.

So you see my good sir, having experienced both sides, I will complain as I see fit about the things that annoy me.

But thank you for your suggestion, I'll give it a try.

> And if more configurations are needed on Windows, there's always a free easy to use GUI app (like the one featured in this topic) that can be downloaded and it's nearly guaranteed to work despite its age,

Ah, that's great to hear. I'm very happy about this.

Could you maybe assist me in finding the configuration/a free GUI utility for doing what I mentioned in my previous comment? I've been looking for weeks without being able to find anything that can do what I want. Namely, I want to be able to type on the keyboard at the same time as I can move the cursor and click on the touchpad.

Don't know what's up on your machine but I just tried it on my Lenovo laptop with Win11 and it definitely works. I can type on the keyboard while moving the mouse with the touchpad and clicking it too. Maybe it's a specific Surface 8 touchpad hardware limitation.

Have you tried tinkering with the touchpad sensitivity setting? Mine is set to medium.

https://www.intowindows.com/how-to-disable-touchpad-while-ty...

If you go back and read the comment you first replied to, you'll realize it is not a hardware limitation as it works in gnome...

> haven't found a way of disabling it in Windows 11. On gnome I can disable that functionality easily, so it doesn't seem to be a hardware thing in the keyboard/touchpad

The article you linked seems to be about Windows 10, not 11. And even so, no dice following it's advice neither.

> as it works in gnome...

Yeah but maybe the Windows drivers for Surface touchpads mess with that setting or touchpad behavior in ways they don't on non-Microsoft touchpads. Knowing Microsoft I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case. I would just stay clear form most Surface devices as they're Microsoft's attempt of copying the worst parts from Apple without any of the good ones.

>The article you linked seems to be about Windows 10, not 11.

Yeah but the touchpad settings dialogue is the same in both, I assumed you'd be tech savvy enough to not get hung up on this difference. Hit the windows key, start typing "touchpad" and as you do, "Touchpad settings" should be highlighted, hit enter, go to Taps, and play with the sensitivity setting.

>And even so, no dice following it's advice neither.

I mean I don't know what to tell you. I know that "it works on my machine" is the most cliché meme in the tech world, and not a helpful answer, but I only have one machine to test on and since it works out of the box on this one whiteout me having to dick with it to get it to work, I can't really reproduce your issue. Have you tried asking on subreddit for microsfot or surface devices?

do you want to know how to get malware?

by following this thought:

> there's always a free easy to use GUI app (like the one featured in this topic) that can be downloaded and it's nearly guaranteed to work despite its age

im not saying this tool contains malware, im saying, if it's a system function, the system should allow you to configure it. and no, i dont see missing widgets in open source settings panels as the problem since you could easily compile a better settings panel for yourself

>do you want to know how to get malware?

There are a million other ways you can get malware, including via Gnome extensions. Do you think all the Linux tutorials online that involve the user cURL-ing or wget-ing something and running it as sudo are 100% safe? Then you should not use a PC or an internet connected devices if that's your threat model and do poweruser things without understating fully the risk of what you're doing with sudo/admin privs.

Regarding malware on windows apps, that might have been the case during the days of Windows XP but chances of niche Windows apps infecting you is infinitely small these days as windows anti malware is excelent at protection and malware actors have bigger fish to fry like email phishing or targeting mainstream apps that get millions of clicks like VLC or OBS form scummy Google-Ads , not some niche apps that disable the touchpad and get 5 downloads a year.

And yes I agree and that's my issue here. Basic settings like turning off the touchpad when an external mouse is plugged in should be a OS provided setting, not be poweruser setting/feature needing workarounds and external downloads with sudo/admin that open attack surfaces on your OS.

>i dont see missing widgets in open source settings panels as the problem since you could easily compile a better settings panel for yourself

The thing is, I don't want to compile anything for my OS. I used to, as a tinkerer/student, but now as a grumpy grown-up with responsibilities, I have work to do and my free time is precious and want to use it for other hobbies.

The OS for me is a tool, not a tinkering hobby project, and needs to do what I need it to do the easy way not the hard way, and I'm willing to pay for it if paid solutions exist.

I'm sorry if my POV clashes with the FOSS philosophy.

not sure how that clashes with anything... and wasnt arguing for blindly following tutorials in the first place so i'll just skip over that (albeit very valid) point...

> Basic settings [...] should not be poweruser setting/feature needing workarounds and external downloads

yes.

> windows anti malware is excelent at protection

it can only be as good as its heuristics. generally speaking: antivirus is snake oil. i think instead of wasting more and more processing on detecting malware the user downloaded, users should be taught to use their machines properly. you dont expect a child to drive a car, and yet even more complex footguns seem fair game. and a child could easily do alot of (financial) damage with a computer.

> I don't want to compile anything for my OS.

that's fair. i wrote "you could". i mostly meant the capability. the actual work could be and usually is delegated to trustworthy users. (read "trustworthy" either from your pov or of the dev of the original application, if that person already is... uh... malwaring you, all this is moot of course. (also assuming a "good" dev who checks pull requests))

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