So I like this MacOS feature where your cursor displays in large. I was hoping if anyone knew of such software that replicates this functionality for Linux. Considering MacOS and Linux are both Unix, and libraries are different, could X or Wayland help replicate this?

Source

    • lankybiker@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Well you win, this looks like exactly what’s been asked for. Seems pretty cool will give it a try

      • cobra89@beehaw.org
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        10 months ago

        Gnome is the desktop environment. You may have gnome already installed if that’s what your OS uses, otherwise you probably have KDE. There are others but those are the 2 big ones.

        The Desktop Environment is what gives the OS its look, and typically which GUI programs are installed by default.

          • Footnote2669@lemmy.zip
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            10 months ago

            That’s just scratching the surface. You can go even deeper and „make your own” desktop environment. Desktop environment is kind of like a pack of software that has a cohesive look and feel. You can leave that and pick and choose programs on your own and configure them to your liking. You can configure KDE or gnome, but this gives you even more control :)

            Look up unixporn and see what’s possible 😋

      • blakeus12 [they/them, he/him]@hexbear.net
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        10 months ago

        gnome may be the desktop environment, depending on your distro. it looks like this:

        1000001639

        if your desktop looks like that, it’s gnome (Pop_! OS, Ubuntu/Kubuntu, and a few others come with it by default)

        • DAS_AMAN@lemmus.org
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          10 months ago

          None of the GNOME distros use this version anymore actually… GNOME changed its design with version 40 onwards

      • Yuumi@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Gnome is a desktop environment for Linux. It does not come with gnome out of the box and needs to be installed by the user as it is a extension.

  • Limitless_screaming@kbin.social
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    10 months ago

    KDE Plasma has a desktop effect called “Track Mouse” after you activate it you can use it by pressing Ctrl+Meta. It doesn’t look like the MacOS variant, but it does the job.

    • waigl@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Thanks for pointing that out, I found the setting on my laptop and tried it out. I do like the jiggle approach better, though, simply because that is something many people (myself included) instinctively do when losing track of the mouse cursor.

    • Centillionaire@kbin.social
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      10 months ago

      Apple software team is on another level. You don’t even have to try to find the feature. We all instinctively shake the mouse to locate the cursor, so it just happens.

  • MangoKangaroo@beehaw.org
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    10 months ago

    Beyond what people have posted, I also believe I saw something about GNOME planning to implement something like this soon™️

  • Kidplayer_666
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    10 months ago

    KDE I think is adding it to 6, tho it won’t be enabled by default

  • MechanicalJester
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    10 months ago

    It was a thing I did with my Amiga. Lovely feature. I think it had a drop shadow effect too so it looked like the pointer lifted off the screen toward you.

    All sorts of things you can do, like have the pointer color cycle slowly at rest, faster when moving. Have it always pointing in the direction of travel - so many options

  • qjkxbmwvz@lemmy.sdf.org
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    10 months ago

    On my Mac running yabai it sometimes gets into this weird state where the mouse does this as it toggles rapidly back and forth between some windows. No idea what causes it…

    On Linux I run i3 which kinda negates the need for the mouse finder since it will move the cursor to the active window.

    I guess I didn’t remotely answer you question though!

    • waigl@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      FWIW, this entire comment section:

      https://lemmy.world/post/1940961?scrollToComments=true

      Back to the to the topic, yes, Linux is not technically Unix by pedigree. In practice, it doesn’t matter that it isn’t and it wouldn’t matter if it were, both for this issue in particular and for most others you are likely to encounter.

      The actually relevant technology here is the graphics subsystem, and MacOS’s Cocoa has always been radically different from anything else in the Unix/Linux space. There is no relation whatsoever to either X11 or Wayland. The only thing worth “porting” here is the basic idea. Which is pretty neat, though. Let’s hope Apple hasn’t patented it.

        • waigl@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          If it was, I don’t think it was a default. I had been using Windows 7 for quite a while back in the day, and I cannot remember ever seeing something like this. On the other hand, I can certainly remember losing track of where on my monitors my mouse cursor was on various occasions…

          • Unaware7013@kbin.social
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            10 months ago

            IIRC, the windows version of this is a setting where you can hit CTRL and it makes a moderately large circle that contracts towards the pointer. It’s been in since at least W7/Vista, possibly XP. I’ve used it on and off for years (especially with 3 27" monitors) because of how easy it is to lose the cursor.

            • Dexx1s@lemmy.world
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              10 months ago

              And that functionality is in Gnome, but disabled by default IIRC. I’ve had it on for years in both PopOS and Debian so I may be wrong but I do believe it’s a Gnome feature.

        • L3ft_F13ld!@links.hackliberty.org
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          10 months ago

          I know Windows has the option to shake a window and all other windows get minimised. Nothing like shaking the mouse to find the cursor, though.

      • kbotc@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Quartz is the old macOS graphics framework, but the mouse shaking is probably just a cool show off feature of Core Animation. There’s uncontested Windows ports on GitHub, so I doubt Apple will throw any fits for Linux.