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g · Linux & UnixCurated

Linux developers ask for focus for touchpad support

Summary

Since April 2020, Linux users had been funding better touchpad gestures under Linux through a Gitclear donation campaign, implemented by Povilas Kanapickas. By early 2023 the core goals had been achieved: gestures worked in many Wayland and X servers, XWayland and in GTK and Qt. The team asked the community in a survey whether it should continue working on support in individual applications.

Ideas

  • Crowdfunding specifically financed a gap in the Linux desktop.
  • Gestures have to be supported in the display server, the toolkit and the application.
  • The work led to another stable version of the X.org server.
  • X11 support at application level would involve a great deal of effort.

Insights

  • Specifically funded individual developers can advance long-neglected desktop topics.
  • Letting the community vote on priorities strengthens acceptance.

Facts

  • The donation campaign started in April 2020.
  • The work was done by Povilas Kanapickas.

References

Critique

  • The report gives no figures on the amount of donations or participation in the survey.

Recommendations

  • On notebooks, use a current distribution with Wayland to make full use of touchpad gestures.
  • Specifically support open source work that you miss in everyday use.

Read the original article

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