[HN Gopher] An open-source mouse and trackpad utility for Mac
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An open-source mouse and trackpad utility for Mac
Author : cowjan
Score : 105 points
Date : 2023-06-23 15:38 UTC (7 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (linearmouse.app)
(TXT) w3m dump (linearmouse.app)
| dang wrote:
| Related:
|
| _LinearMouse - A minimal app to get rid of scrolling
| acceleration on macOS_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27485051 - June 2021 (76
| comments)
| eshack94 wrote:
| As a CursorSense customer for years, it's nice to see a modern
| open-source alternative. I'll check it out.
| jb1991 wrote:
| would be great if it also offered middle-click emulation like
| other utilities do for those cross-platform programs that think
| everyone has a three-button mouse
| mehlmao wrote:
| I've used Smooze [1] in the past. It has a ton of features, but I
| really just need it for turning off mouse acceleration and making
| the scroll wheel usable. Glad to see an open source option.
|
| [1] https://smooze.co/
| baq wrote:
| I'm using https://github.com/ther0n/UnnaturalScrollWheels,
| literally the only thing it does is invert the scroll wheel
| direction.
|
| "You're holding it wrong" taken to absolute mastery.
| callahad wrote:
| Nice! I've been using Mac Mouse Fix (https://mousefix.org/),
| which is also open source, to handle inverting my mouse wheel and
| remapping the back/forward buttons, but LinearMouse looks quite a
| bit more featureful.
| drixer wrote:
| Really great! Thanks :)
| idle_zealot wrote:
| This is a mandatory install on macOS for me (one of many). The
| suite of extra software utilities required to make the base OS
| usable is ridiculous, but I'm glad to see open source maintainers
| working to keep my mouse working.
| jonny_eh wrote:
| > This is a mandatory install on macOS for me
|
| Would you mind expanding on that? I'm not sure what I'd improve
| about my touchpad experience on my Mac.
| kiririn wrote:
| Disabling acceleration is the main thing for me
|
| Acceleration doesn't really have a place on touchpads since
| they became 'perfect' with near-zero deadzone ~10 years ago.
| Especially on a nice big touchpad with equal click pressure
| like MacBooks have
| thesuitonym wrote:
| Not the OP, but for one thing, natural scrolling is just an
| awful idea for mouse users, it was designed for touch
| screens, and translates pretty well to trackpads (Although it
| broke with over a decade of user experience), but it's
| completely unnatural on a mouse. Unfortunately, if you're a
| user who switches between a mouse and the trackpad, Mac OS
| only let's you pick one.
| taude wrote:
| you can override natural scrolling in default OS X System
| settings, though.
| hoistbypetard wrote:
| Not per-device. I like "natural scrolling" on my
| trackpads, but dislike it with mouse wheels. It's a PITA
| to visit system settings every time I switch; I've been
| low-key looking for something like this for some time.
| furyofantares wrote:
| > natural scrolling is just an awful idea for mouse users
|
| I'm the opposite - I was surprised by how much of an
| improvement I found natural scrolling after decades of
| computer use. I now use an autohotkey script when on
| windows to get the same behavior as I get on macOS.
|
| I can certainly see the switching cost not being worth it
| and wanting a setting that applies to the mouse and not the
| touchpad, but I'm failing to see how it's anything other
| than a switching cost.
| horsawlarway wrote:
| > I now use an autohotkey script when on windows to get
| the same behavior as I get on macOS.
|
| Is there something specific here that's not just toggling
| the scroll direction to the right value in window's
| settings menu? It's had it for years at this point.
|
| > I can certainly see the switching cost not being worth
| it and wanting a setting that applies to the mouse and
| not the touchpad, but I'm failing to see how it's
| anything other than a switching cost.
|
| For me at least, you're fighting against _decades_ of
| habitual usage. I have a mental model for how I expect my
| controls to work. I could switch - but I see zero value
| in doing so (what 's the upside?) and a whole lot of
| wasted effort.
|
| It's like a controller - Inverted exists. I understand
| that some folks like it. There are rare cases (usually
| when controlling an aircraft) in games when I might
| choose to use it. But by far and large... I just do not
| want an inverted controller. It's making me think harder
| for zero net benefit (and much worse in game results...).
| Toutouxc wrote:
| > natural scrolling is just an awful idea for mouse
|
| IMO there's no objective reason why. Natural scrolling is
| not what a lot of people are used to with a mouse, but it's
| perfectly usable and even more consistent if you're using
| the Magic Mouse, which uses a touch surface instead of a
| mechanical wheel. I, for example, always make my Windows
| and Linux machine use natural scrolling like I'm used to
| from my Mac and my life isn't any better or worse because
| of it.
| arghwhat wrote:
| Unlike for touch devices, it is no better or worse - but
| as scroll wheel operation already is incredibly well
| established, most already have an intuitive assumption of
| behavior and switching forcing the user to switch _only_
| annoys them.
|
| It is even part of our language: you "scroll down".
| joshspankit wrote:
| As an "ambidextrous" scroller, it's just a matter what
| you're scrolling: Are you scrolling the scrollbar down,
| or the content of the window?
|
| I think regardless of the direction you move your
| fingers, "scroll down" means the same thing: "scroll to a
| lower part"
| ktosobcy wrote:
| Why would you need a mouse when using macOS trackpads?
| Before switching to MBP (about 10 years ago) I couldn't
| fathom using trackpad but then after a couple of days of
| usage I was so hooked up and it _felt_ so natural than I
| can't imagine using mouse nowadays...
| mrpf1ster wrote:
| The Mac touchpad is great, but using an external mouse is
| awful feeling without this tool
| arghwhat wrote:
| Last I checked it can be set independently for mouse and
| touchpad in the settings without this tool.
| [deleted]
| [deleted]
| Toutouxc wrote:
| (If you're taking about the scroll behavior) It can be
| set in two different places, but it's the same setting
| underneath. Either you get natural everywhere or the
| other behavior everywhere.
| ayemel wrote:
| On the flip side, this is exactly how I feel with Windows in
| order to get the base OS usable.
| theon144 wrote:
| Not sure what you mean; Windows doesn't force mouse
| acceleration.
| kitsunesoba wrote:
| Linux too. None of the DEs are all that close to what I'm
| looking for, and of course building my own desktop from
| scratch with a window manager, bars, takes as much work as
| adjusting a DE and then a bunch more.
| tredre3 wrote:
| Windows (without additional utilities) allows you to disable
| mouse acceleration, change scrolling direction, change
| scrolling speed, and even invert buttons.
|
| Sure MacOS' stock behavior might be fine for you, but that's
| a different conversation, we're talking about giving the user
| choice without resorting to hacks here.
| ayemel wrote:
| > Windows allows you to...change scrolling direction
|
| Within the last 5 years this wasn't always the case since
| that's when I last setup a Windows machine and this
| definitely was not a setting and I had to edit the
| registry. Trust me that was not my first choice--I would
| have much rather used a setting like you can on macOS for
| scroll direction.
|
| Of course that's not to say macOS is perfect either. Sounds
| like they are just now getting around to adding a setting
| for mouse acceleration. Now, this has always been possible
| with a "simple" (when compared to the multiple registry
| edits I had to do on Windows) terminal command--no need to
| resort to a an additional utility as you imply. Obviously
| both of these "hacks" as you say are not anything regular
| consumers are going to be able to do.
|
| With all that said, macOS is closer aligned to how I would
| do an OS "out of the box".
| frou_dh wrote:
| Funnily enough, they've just added a toggle to disable pointer
| acceleration in this year's macOS Sonoma:
| https://i.redd.it/rezxi3gfwf4b1.png
| nntwozz wrote:
| Yep finally!
|
| Linearmouse utilizes the new API introduced in macOS Sonoma
| to disable pointer acceleration.
| karmakaze wrote:
| Wow, I can play StarCraft2 (non-competitively) on the Mac
| now.
| tambourine_man wrote:
| >The suite of extra software utilities required to make the
| base OS usable is ridiculous
|
| Use Windows or Linux. Good luck and have fun!
| LoganDark wrote:
| Windows isn't Unix, which is one of macOS's biggest selling
| points for developers and hackers (remember which website
| you're on). Recommending it as the solution whenever someone
| complains about macOS is counterproductive, because in many
| cases it's not a suitable substitute for macOS.
|
| WSL isn't a solution to this problem, especially ever since
| they gave up adding support to the actual Windows kernel and
| just used a virtual machine.
|
| I shouldn't have to wait for all my software to add support
| for putting the WSL wrapper around all of their commands. I
| should be able to just run them on bare metal. This is why
| JetBrains IDEs can do profiling, valgrind etc on macOS but
| not Windows.
| tambourine_man wrote:
| It's tiring to read almost everyday on HN: "the amount of
| work required to make this circle into a square is
| ridiculous".
|
| Some of us enjoy circles. Use whatever you like, but
| complaining A is not B is annoying.
| LoganDark wrote:
| You clearly missed the point of my comment, which is not
| to say that Windows should be Unix, but that the fact
| that it is not means that you probably should not be
| recommending it as a universal cure-all to people who
| probably use macOS for a reason.
|
| In other words, it only sounds "annoying" because you
| seem to not understand why people would use a Unix
| operating system, and why Windows is not a suitable
| substitute.
|
| (This is assuming they use macOS for its Unixness, but
| enough people use it for that reason that you probably
| shouldn't be telling people to just use Windows and "have
| fun". To your credit, you did also list Linux.)
| tambourine_man wrote:
| I use a Mac, always have. My complaint is that people
| jump to criticize a way of working, saying it's unusable,
| when there are plenty of others that have enjoyed working
| this way for 40 years and are extremely productive that
| way.
|
| Perhaps question if your old habits don't apply in a new
| context? And just because it's a WIMP UI you shouldn't
| expect it to work exactly like your former? That it's a
| new paradigm, with different metaphors, advantages and
| trade-offs?
| LoganDark wrote:
| > My complaint is that people jump to criticize a way of
| working, saying it's unusable, when there are plenty of
| others that have enjoyed working this way for 40 years
| and are extremely productive that way.
|
| Well, I didn't do that. I said Windows misses a desirable
| quality that macOS has, which makes it unacceptable as a
| substitute for macOS, specifically, if one relies on this
| desirable quality.
|
| > Perhaps question if your old habits don't apply in a
| new context? And just because it's a WIMP UI you
| shouldn't expect it to work exactly like your former?
| That it's a new paradigm, with different metaphors,
| advantages and trade-offs?
|
| Do you see how you just proved my point? According to
| your argument the answer would be "Well just don't desire
| that quality then." and, gee, I sure wish the whole tech
| world could just do that, it sounds so easy.
| WastingMyTime89 wrote:
| No one is complaining A is not B. Everyone is complaining
| that macOS lacks some fairly basic UX options and is
| being neglected by Apple which corrects these flaws at a
| glacial pace.
| tambourine_man wrote:
| Oh, but they are. I'm extremely productive on stock
| macOS, way more than on Windows. I just don't keep
| complaining that Windows is broken. Some people obviously
| love it.
| [deleted]
| threatofrain wrote:
| On a tangent, I don't see what's wrong with complaining
| that A [?] B. Complaining is just the precursor to voting
| with your feet, and having more or less than competitor
| offerings is a natural point of comparison in a
| customer's mind.
| tambourine_man wrote:
| Sure, but there's a limit. You wouldn't complain that
| there's no beef on a vegan restaurant.
|
| The Mac's thing has always been resizable overlapping
| windows with a menu bar at the top of the screen. If
| you're hoping for a great tiling window manager, you'll
| be disappointed. You can kind of get a poor man's tiling
| setup with some hacks, but it's not what the platform is
| about.
| [deleted]
| ahstilde wrote:
| what are your other mandatory installs?
| billbrown wrote:
| Alfred, Karabiner-Elements (for the hyper key functionality),
| Shortcat, TextSniper, Moom, Sublime Text, iTerm 2, my
| .bash_profile.
|
| These are all apps for which I have long-standing muscle
| memory. If I use a new computer, I'm still pressing the keys
| but nothing happens and I have to remember how to do the
| things the normal way.
| thehigherlife wrote:
| Never heard of Shortcat before, it reminds me of that vim
| shortcut that used to be popular for firefox back in the
| day. I can see how that would be really powerful.
| baq wrote:
| https://alt-tab-macos.netlify.app/
| wdb wrote:
| Cleanshot X and Swish [2] I really like the gestures that
| Swish adds.
|
| [1] https://cleanshot.com [2]
| https://highlyopinionated.co/swish/
| pantulis wrote:
| - BetterTouchTool - Folder Peek
| AlexSW wrote:
| +1 to BetterTouchTool! I'm mostly a keyboard person
| (typical 'vim' user etc.) but being able to switch tabs
| using a two-finger tap left and right on the touchpad is so
| pleasant that I find it worth the investment for
| BetterTouchTool alone. Configuring this for the different
| keybindings of different programs flexibly is really great.
| And it's a one-time payment including fixes and
| improvements - I've had it for years.
| faitswulff wrote:
| Rectangle for window management
| biomcgary wrote:
| Rectangle is the only way I can make reasonable use of my
| external monitor on MacOS.
| hugi wrote:
| Yes! I regret the time I spent without Rectangle.
| Effortlessly managing windows, just throwing them around or
| between monitors without ever touching the mouse is
| absolutely priceless.
| bluSCALE4 wrote:
| I use SizeUp which gives keyboard shortcuts for what Win key
| + arrow keys accomplishes. There's probably something better
| but I'm used to it.
| oidar wrote:
| There is an open source version of this Rectangle.
| https://rectangleapp.com
| nicwolff wrote:
| Zooom/2 even though it's abandonware.
| ajdude wrote:
| Not the parent, but one of the first things I usually install
| on new Mac is Karabiner-Elements. Absolutely needed if you're
| using a non-mac keyboard.
| c-hendricks wrote:
| What do you use it for? I use a non-Apple keyboard and just
| switched the options / command key in System Settings.
| sharikous wrote:
| Say you have a laptop and a PC keyboard and want to have
| different settings for the internal and the external
| keyboard
| klausa wrote:
| The settings in System Settings.app are per-keyboard, so
| you don't need anything external for that.
| lobstrosity420 wrote:
| It already lets you have different settings for the
| internal en external keyboards by default. I use it just
| like that - vanilla settings on my MacBook built in and
| for the external keyboard I switch command and option,
| since it's a windows keyboard.
|
| I don't want to be inflammatory, but the amount of baby
| duck syndrome when people say MacOS and Linux are
| unusable is crazy. Just try to go vanilla for 2 weeks
| before you install two dozen utilities.
| hibbelig wrote:
| I use it to have hybrid modifier and regular keys: if I
| hold down caps lock like a modifier key and strike
| another key then it behaves like control. If I tap caps
| lock like I would a letter key then it behaves like
| escape.
|
| Return is another hybrid between itself and control (my
| keyboard does not have a right control key).
|
| Space is another hybrid with a whole lot of bindings when
| held down. With s it generates space so that I can have
| key repeat for space (don't need that often). With hjkl
| it generates the cursor keys.
|
| Does this help?
| c-hendricks wrote:
| Okay that's a great suggestion. I didn't mention it but I
| do also change my caps lock to an extra escape key.
| reboot81 wrote:
| I use Caps lock as backspace. Go back a webpage, delete
| last character. Use it all the time. WHO NEEDS TO SHOUT?
| programmertote wrote:
| Newbie Mac user here. I just did what you suggested (I
| believe it's basically what's suggested in this article:
| https://9to5mac.com/2016/03/17/how-to-remap-windows-
| keyboard...), but I don't think Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V works
| on browsers; I still have to use Alt+C and Alt+V to copy
| paste when using Chrome/Firefox browsers whereas Ctrl+C
| and Ctrl+V works in PyCharm.
|
| What am I missing? Thank you in advance for your
| suggestion/reply!
| majormajor wrote:
| If you run through that guide I think the intended result
| is that "Alt-C" is going to be your copypaste. E.g. the
| keys work in the Mac order: CTRL / OPT (ALT) / COMMAND
| instead of the Windows order (CTRL / WINDOWS / ALT). So
| using Alt-C should trigger Copy, matching Mac-user muscle
| memory.
|
| Perhaps PyCharm is set to Windows keymappings or such?
| sorahn wrote:
| right-option to forward delete on the internal laptop
| keyboard.
|
| I used to use it to remap capslock to control, but apple
| has since added that to macOS itself.
| siriusfeynman wrote:
| for some reason apple think that the backslash and
| backtick keys are the opposite of what they actually are
| on british pc keyboards
| spectre3d wrote:
| I use it to map caps lock to a hyper[1] key, whether it's
| an Apple keyboard or not.
|
| [1] When I hold caps lock, the computer responds as if
| I'm holding Command + Option + Control + Shift.
|
| (In the "Complex modifications" tab, choose "Add rule"
| and enable "Change caps_lock to
| command+control+option+shift.")
|
| LinearMouse seems great, nice that it's being offered
| through homebrew as well as a dmg.
| vehemenz wrote:
| This looks very similar to SteerMouse. Does it do the same thing?
| hk1337 wrote:
| I would prefer it show me the homebrew command in addition to a
| copy to clipboard button instead of just the button so I have to
| _trust_ what you're having me paste.
|
| It's `brew install --cask linearmouse` for those wondering.
| mig39 wrote:
| The fact that there's a homebrew install option is the icing on
| the cake! Installing now!
| strongpigeon wrote:
| This looks really good! Installing right now.
|
| As an aside, I had just started working on a tool to do that
| since all I want is to have natural scrolling on my trackpad but
| regular scrolling on my mouse. Will have to take a look if this
| goes with the a11y route or the custom driver path.
|
| Edit: looks like this modifies CGEvent
| Pesthuf wrote:
| Apple's idea of "natural scrolling direction" is insane.
| Scrolling with a touchpad and scrolling with with a mouse wheel
| are simply different things - the natural direction is simply
| different for both.
| turtlebits wrote:
| You can easily change that under mouse settings. I'm not sure
| it's insane as my kid is fine with it as he's never used the
| opposite.
| siriusfeynman wrote:
| the "natural scroll direction" is shared for mice and the
| trackpad, so you can't have mice and the trackpad scroll
| different without third party software
| Toutouxc wrote:
| > natural direction is simply different for both
|
| That's 100 % subjective. There's not a single reason why
| sliding your finger on a mechanical movable surface should
| behave differently than sliding it on a touch sensitive
| surface. You're used to it behaving differently and that's
| fine, but I prefer to have the same behavior for both and
| neither of us is right or wrong.
| tlhunter wrote:
| I've kept a minimized macos preference window open for months now
| so that I can switch the mode when I'm on the go. This app takes
| care of that one use case pretty well and just made my life
| slightly better.
| cowjan wrote:
| I've long looked for a good mouse utility for Mac that can
| disable mouse acceleration, modify scroll wheel behavior, etc.
| This one even saves preferences per-device which I find very
| useful.
| aPoCoMiLogin wrote:
| personally i prefer this one https://github.com/Caldis/Mos
| sorahn wrote:
| I'm not sure off the top of my head if BetterTouchTool can
| disable the mouse acceleration, but it can definitely modify
| everything else.
| blairbeckwith wrote:
| I'm eager to try this out, but you might also want to check out
| Steermouse[1], which is a utility it took me years longer to
| discover than it should have.
|
| I'm not sure how it stacks up to this open source project, but
| it's definitely been worth the license cost to me over the
| years.
|
| [1] https://plentycom.jp/en/steermouse/
| doctorpangloss wrote:
| I use SteelSeries Exactmouse for years. It seems the most
| reliable.
| gedy wrote:
| Long time user of Steermouse, it was a life saver when
| transitioning from Windows and just could not get used to OSX
| mouse acceleration curve
| [deleted]
| kstrauser wrote:
| I just installed LinearMouse. It doesn't support the extra
| buttons on my Logitech MX Vertical mouse, but SteerMouse
| does. That by itself is worth the license cost for me.
| ayemel wrote:
| The lack of mouse acceleration in Windows is what make it feel,
| to me, clunky and slow. I know it's a function of what you grew
| up with/are used to but it's interesting to see. Personally I
| like being able to flick my mouse across the screen without
| having to pick up my mouse--enables faster work.
| gibolt wrote:
| I've had my touchpad randomly stop working. Sometimes a restart
| fixed it, sometimes it required a deep dive into driver land.
| Something so basic that should just work.
|
| I am not aware of any trackpad failures on Mac.
| [deleted]
| DaiPlusPlus wrote:
| > The lack of mouse acceleration in Windows is what make it
| feel, to m
|
| Windows has had built-in acceleration since Windows XP (maybe
| 2000?) - it's the "Enhance pointer precision" option in the
| (classic) Mouse control panel.
|
| There's also an acceleration curve you can customize, but
| there's no built-in GUI editor, but the data's all in the
| HKCU\Control Panel\Mouse registry keys.
| ayemel wrote:
| Ahh interesting so it's not enabled by default?
| DaiPlusPlus wrote:
| It's been enabled by-default since (at least) Windows 7.
| jnsie wrote:
| Useful tool, beautiful (and simple) website, dmg and brew install
| options, open source. Very nicely done!
| reboot81 wrote:
| Can't use macOS&Magic Mouse on 2x27" without cranking up the
| acceleration. Been using https://plentycom.jp/en/cursorsense/ for
| 10 years. Will try this, seems more maintained.
| rcarr wrote:
| Anyone know what the Linux equivalent of this would be?
| lode wrote:
| This is what I've been looking for for such a long time.
|
| The maximum speed that can be configured using the built in tools
| for both mouse and trackpad is way too slow for my liking.
|
| In the past I used MagicPrefs to do this, but that sadly doesn't
| work anymore. This is the first time I'm able to do this again,
| and with a free tool too! Thanks a lot for submitting this.
| 0x0 wrote:
| I ended up having to pay(!) to re-enable middle clicking after
| magicprefs stopped working at some point in the macos upgrade
| race. I bought this. https://middleclick.app/
| donatj wrote:
| I've been using "Scroll Reverser" for years to let me have
| Natural Scrolling on my trackpad but not my mouse. I'll have to
| check this out as an alternative.
| kitsunesoba wrote:
| Unpopular opinion perhaps, but as someone who's bouncing between
| all three big desktop platforms pretty regularly, cursor
| acceleration is a total non-issue. I adjust to the difference so
| quickly that I don't even notice a difference.
|
| I'm glad that Sonoma is adding the checkbox to turn it off for
| those who need it but it's never been a bother for me.
| olgeni wrote:
| While we are here, is there a way to completely disable (not just
| reduce) the stupid, useless desktop switching animations? \o/
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