Top all-time · #3451
Bill Harding
Personal blog · bill.harding.blog · on HN as wbhardingprogrammingaibusiness
Bill Harding writes Relentless Simplicity, a personal blog at bill.harding.blog about programming, ai and business. Since 2019, 22 different Hacker News readers have linked it 45 times, most often “Linux touchpad like a MacBook Pro, May 2020 update”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-09-13, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (16) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Bill Harding's blog for its series on getting Linux touchpad behaviour like a MacBook's, with progress updates and calls for funding and help. Commenters cite the posts as sources.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 16 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Most-linked posts?
- Linux touchpad like a MacBook Pro, May 2020 update6 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2020-05-05
- Linux Touchpad Like a MacBook update: progress on multitouch4 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2020-06-22
- Linux Touchpad like MacBook: Touchpad gestures land to Qt, Gimp and X server3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2021-06-06
- /2019/03/25/linux-touchpad-like-a-macbook-progress-and-a-call-for-help/3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2019-03-25
- Linux touchpad: preliminary project funding, survey results2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2020-05-17
- Grow Slow, Ambitious Programmer2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2021-03-22
- Linux touchpad like a Mac update: Firefox gesture support live in nightly2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2021-02-11
- Linux touchpad like a MacBook: goal worth pursuing? (2018)2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2021-12-11
What Hacker News says?
With Linux, worth following (or funding!) this work (HN passim): https://bill.harding.blog/2021/06/06/linux-touchpad-like-mac...
Comment linking /2021/06/06/linux-touchpad-like-macbook-update-touchpad-gestures-land-to-qt-gimp-and-x-server/
on “The Framework is the most exciting laptop I've used”Submitted Q3 Linux touchpad update: Multitouch gesture test packages now ready as a story · 419 points
HN discussionIsn't there a 1-2 year old project that claims to have made great trackpad driver behavior in Linux? I think this is the case I remember: https://bill.harding.blog/2020/04/26/linux-touchpad-like-a-m...
Comment linking /2020/04/26/linux-touchpad-like-a-macbook-pro-may-2020-update/
on “The Framework Laptop”Submitted Linux touchpad like a MacBook Pro, May 2020 update as a story · 314 points
HN discussionRelevant to this conversation is Bill Harding's project to fund a better touchpad driver [1] [2]. It's well worth reading his blog posts and seeing his related GitHub project. Definitely worth understanding his understand motivations, then considering collaborating and/or funding him. [1] https://bill.harding.blog/2018/04/12/linux-touchpad-like-a-m... [2] https://bill.harding.blog/2020/04/26/linux-touchpad-like-a-m.…
Comment linking /2020/04/26/linux-touchpad-like-a-macbook-pro-may-2020-update/
on “The Framework Laptop”Submitted Linux Touchpad Like a MacBook update: progress on multitouch as a story · 270 points
HN discussionLooks like there’s some good progress for touchpad support on Linux: https://bill.harding.blog/2021/02/11/linux-touchpad-like-a-m... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26102894 Many millions of people will benefit, but the project only has 129 supporters, if anyone wants to chip in!
Comment linking /2021/02/11/linux-touchpad-like-a-mac-update-firefox-gesture-support-goes-live/
on “The Framework Laptop”Submitted Linux touchpad: preliminary project funding, survey results as a story · 224 points
HN discussionI believe Bill Harding is working on improving Linux trackpad drivers (or trying to find people who can) https://bill.harding.blog/linux-touchpad-like-a-macbook-prog...
Comment linking /linux-touchpad-like-a-macbook-progress-and-a-call-for-help.html
on “Pock: Display macOS Dock in Touch Bar”Submitted Linux touchpad like a MacBook: April 2020 update as a story · 147 points
HN discussionI wrote an essay about this topic a couple months ago that you might find applicable https://www.amplenote.com/blog/what_makes_long_term_personal... The essay describes exactly half of the what has helped me, which is to create processes that make it a little bit easier to procrastinate on long-term goals and then pick them up again later. But the other half, which sounds especially applicable to your situation, is…
Comment linking /2019/03/25/linux-touchpad-like-a-macbook-progress-and-a-call-for-help/
on “Ask HN: How do you stay disciplined in the long run?”Submitted Linux touchpad like a Mac update: Firefox gesture support live in nightly as a story · 65 points
HN discussionI respect this but the X1 Carbon's keyboard is bad, and so is its trackpad. Until something like this[0] project takes off, this is just a non-starter for me. Windows at least has OK trackpad support, and now with WSL and whatnot, the surface pro laptops are maybe a feasible option, but Windows ironically has the absolute worst window management of the 3. And of course Apple is still a moving target. I'm not going b…
Comment linking /2020/04/26/linux-touchpad-like-a-macbook-pro-may-2020-update/
on “Leaving the Apple ecosystem behind”Submitted Linux Touchpad like MacBook: Touchpad gestures land to Qt, Gimp and X server as a story · 33 points
HN discussionI still roll an old Macbook Air for my primary computer. It really sucks under Catalina. I used to run two browsers, one for work and one for personal. Now I just run the work one. I often find myself evicting things from RAM so I can get my job done. Nerfing the ram slots was the first unforgivable sin. Don't get me started on usb-c and the thrice damned touchbar. At least they gave us the escape key back. I'm temp…
Comment linking /2020/04/26/linux-touchpad-like-a-macbook-pro-may-2020-update/
on “Seven years later, I bought a new MacBook. For the first time, I don't love it”Submitted Linux Touchpad Project update: progress on multitouch as a story · 5 points
HN discussionFor those who would like to follow this project as it unfolds, we intend to work from https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/wbharding/libinput I'll also setup an easy means subscribe to text updates about this project soon. Check https://bill.harding.blog for updates on that.
Comment linking /
on “Linux touchpad like a Macbook: progress and a call for help”Submitted Twilio’s incentives to enable fraud against their customers: not a good look as a story · 4 points
HN discussionOK! We've updated the link from https://bill.harding.blog/2019/03/25/linux-touchpad-like-a-m... . You can email us at hn@ycombinator.com and we'll revert it when your host comes back online.
Comment linking /2019/03/25/linux-touchpad-like-a-macbook-progress-and-a-call-for-help/
on “Linux touchpad like a Macbook: progress and a call for help”Submitted Grow Slow, Ambitious Programmer as a story · 3 points
HN discussionWhoops, I forgot the link to the results of the poll: [1]: https://bill.harding.blog/2020/06/22/linux-touchpad-project-...
Comment linking /2020/06/22/linux-touchpad-project-update-progress-on-multitouch/
on “Q3 Linux touchpad update: Multitouch gesture test packages now ready”Submitted A 2024 Glimpse into Life as a Google Ads Customer as a story · 2 points
HN discussionThere's also this dude who has spent 2 years trying to get a mac touchpad experience on linux https://bill.harding.blog/2020/04/26/linux-touchpad-like-a-m... https://bill.harding.blog/2019/03/25/linux-touchpad-like-a-m...
Comment linking /2019/03/25/linux-touchpad-like-a-macbook-progress-and-a-call-for-help/
on “NixOS on Framework Laptop”Submitted Ruby/Rails Performance Comparison of Intel, M1 Max, M2 Max as a story · 2 points
HN discussionThere's work to make the touchpad better https://bill.harding.blog/2020/06/22/linux-touchpad-project-...
Comment linking /2020/06/22/linux-touchpad-project-update-progress-on-multitouch/
on “One Year with ThinkPad and Linux (From MacBook Pro)”Submitted Linux touchpad like a MacBook: goal worth pursuing? (2018) as a story · 2 points
HN discussionThe T450 touchpad is compatible with the T440s and has real buttons. Should be a few bucks on ebay. See my question in this thread. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21316263 ps, Love my T440s also. I would like two-finger horiz scroll to work better however, especially the swipe for "back" gesture. Somewhere a few months back was a comment about the XInput team comprising one overloaded guy needing help. I mess…
Comment linking /2020/06/22/linux-touchpad-project-update-progress-on-multitouch/
on “One Year with ThinkPad and Linux (From MacBook Pro)”Submitted Data roundup: Which code models performing best this month (April 2026)? as a story · 1 points
HN discussionHow can I test the improvements? Wayland, XServer, Firefox, Gtk and QT patches were merged in 2021 already: https://bill.harding.blog/2021/06/06/linux-touchpad-like-mac... But while running a current Debian unstable with Mate desktop, I don't know in which applications I could test the gestures, neither do I know which gestures are supported
Comment linking /2021/06/06/linux-touchpad-like-macbook-update-touchpad-gestures-land-to-qt-gimp-and-x-server/
on “Linux Touchpad Like MacBook Update: 2023 Progress on Smooth Scrolling”Submitted Conference Cheat Sheet: Strategy+Examples for Positive ROI as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
