Mouse Tapping Is Stupid

I use a laptop running Ubuntu.

For the most part it is pretty good. But there is an issue with the mouse/touchpad.

When I am at home I use a mouse attached via a USB table. When I take my laptop somewhere, I usually bring another, smaller mouse that also connects via USB. But sometimes I have to use the touchpad. I really do not like the touchpad.

There is no way to disable the tapping “feature”. It is not a feature, it is a bug. Pretty often one of my thumbs or a finger will touch the touchpad unintentionally, and there will be unexpected behavior. I suddenly find myself typing on another part of the screen. I really wish there was a way to disable it. I have looked online, and I have not gotten any of the proposed solutions to work.

I do not know why this stupid feature even exists. I cannot think what action you would do with an actual mouse that it emulates. I have never done anything by grabbing the mouse, lifting it up and putting it back down. This seems like the sort of really stupid idea that someone at Microsoft would have come up with. If I want to put the focus on another part of the screen, I will use the mouse buttons. Just like I do with a desktop mouse.

I really wish Linux turned this off by default.

Image from the Vespasian Psalter, an 8th Century manuscript housed in the British Library. Image from Wikimedia, assumed allowed under Fair Use.