It’s been a long and frustrating road, but I have finally resolved the touchpad issues that have plagued me for seemingly forever in Linux. By installing libinput and using it in favor of the Synaptics touchpad driver, the touchpad sensitivity issues that have often plagued my sessions of heads-down programming have come to an end.
On the flip side, however, the latest kernel build for Dell/Ubuntu 16.04 has destroyed Bluetooth support on this laptop. Prior to this update, it was working flawlessly. I am looking at how to revert to an earlier kernel in hopes that I can get it back. Secure boot seems to be standing in my way.
“Dude, you got a Dell.” Please, don’t snicker.
No, I haven’t given up on Apple. I am still heavily entrenched in the Apple infrastructure, and have no intent of changing that. I still do lots of development on macOS, and will continue to do so for some time. But my next gig is heavily ops oriented, and I want to develop on something as close to what I will deploying on as possible. And you get a lot more hardware for your money at the expense of some quality and good looks when you buy non-Apple.