5 ms·

Thinkpad++ I do believe some models come with linux preinstalled. I believe thinkpad is one of the few laptops left that has what's called a stick? you know th

Thinkpad++ I do believe some models come with linux preinstalled. I believe thinkpad is one of the few laptops left that has what's called a stick? you know the little nub on the keyboard that you can use instead of a touch pad, and in reality it's way better than a touch pad. god I hate touch pads. I wish I had bought a thinkpad.

Prrometheus 18y ago
I call it the nipple. I prefer the touchpad. It's quicker and more precise.
- blang 18y ago
  I refer to it as the pencil eraser. Once you get used to it, you realize it has the more control than the touchpad. Its main benefit, for me, is that you never have to move your hands out of typing position.
  - mattmaroon 18y ago
    Agreed. I haven't had the awesomeness of a dual touch touchpad, but I've had both normal ones and "the nub", and the latter is vastly preferable.
  - Prrometheus 18y ago
    Try using it with a sniper rifle. You'll change your tune.
- there 18y ago
  http://xkcd.com/243/ http://xkcd.com/243/
- xenoterracide 18y ago
  the only thing that was quicker 'maybe' about the touchpad was speed of learning, and ease of use. The 'nipple' is much faster and more precise if you invest more time in it. much like linux ;).
mikeryan 18y ago
The new MBPs (and MacBooks?) have a two finger touchpad interface that I've found makes a huge difference in its usability - with one finger down already controlling the mouse a second finger essentially works as a mousewheel. I can use my MBP's touchpad fine but can't stand having to use my work dell laptops w/o that feature.
- notauser 18y ago
  Obviously it didn't improve usability enough to stop you posting this three times :) My MacBook Pro is my second Apple laptop (the first was a G4 powerbook) and it is going to be the last unless things change rapidly before it goes u/s. - The keyboard is ok, but the metal finish is slippery. - The large track pad forces typing with wrists at odd angles. - OS X is horrible (all my applications are Linux native so work oddly on OS X, plus no focus on mouse being my biggest two complaints - the rest are subjective/personal). - No region crack for the DVD player, which is unacceptable for travel. Doesn't even work with VLC. On the plus side the build quality is superb, the screen is good, and for it's size/weight the performance is outstanding. I certainly wouldn't trade it for anything other than a Thinkpad or maybe two or three Dells - one a year, for when they break ;)
  - jcromartie 18y ago
    > all my applications are Linux native I've seen people get OS X and then do nothing but run XP under virtualization because they can't be bothered to figure out the OS X native apps. I wonder what, exactly, you mean by "all my applications?"
    - notauser 18y ago
      Inkscape, open office, some custom PM software I wrote myself, front ends to eJabberd/mySQL/Apache/Cyrus, emacs, LaTeX and Firefox. Plus a few things that aren't so important, like xplanet and SuperKaramba.
      - SwellJoe 18y ago
mikeryan 18y ago
The new MBPs (and MacBooks?) have a two finger touchpad interface that I've found makes a huge difference in its usability - with one finger down already controlling the mouse a second finger essentially works as a mousewheel. I can use my MBP's touchpad fine but can't stand having to use my work dell laptops w/o that feature.
mikeryan 18y ago
The new MBPs (and MacBooks?) have a two finger touchpad interface that I've found makes a huge difference in its usability - with one finger down already controlling the mouse a second finger essentially works as a mousewheel. I can use my MBP's touchpad fine but can't stand having to use my work dell laptops w/o that feature.
- briansmith 18y ago
  Almost anyone that is willing to spend a couple of days adjusting to the ThinkPad's TrackPoint is going to be in for a treat. In particular, in most applications, holding down the center Trackpoint button will make the trackpoint work like a mousewheel (or, you can configure it to work like that all the time using its driver software.)
- jcl 18y ago
  Most of the PC laptop touchpads that I have used will scroll the focused control if you run your finger up and down along the rightmost edge (or bottommost for horizontal motion). If yours doesn't, check your control panel settings to see if it can be enabled. It's not quite the same as a scroll wheel in that there are some programs where one scrolling technique (wheel or trackpad) will work while the other won't, but it's similar enough to handle most cases.
  - xenoterracide 18y ago
    oh this I'm aware of. mine has this feature. I still think touchpads (all that I have encountered) suck. and infact on linux you can modify the area of the touchpad that does this. I think you can even add horizontal scroll if your touchpad didn't previously support it (not 100% on this).
- markbao 18y ago
  If you're going to buy the new MacBook Pro (or another Apple laptop with multi-touch trackpad functionality) you'll want to get the application MultiClutch. It basically lets you set up rules globally or per-application that assigns gestures to keyboard shortcuts. In other words: if I'm in Safari, I can remap three-finger swipe to changing tabs, swipe down for new tab, rotate right/left to back and forward, etc. It's very useful.
culley 18y ago
I believe the word you are searching for is Clit Mouse. Only Lenovo (Think Pad) and Dell (D620?) have them.
- jamesbritt 18y ago
  I've a Dell D830 with the clit mouse. Lack of said clit is one reason I stay away from macbooks. (The better screen rez on the D830 is another)
martian 18y ago
When I purchased my Thinkpad T60 (nearly 18 months ago now -- how time flies!), the Lenovo sales staff was unable to help me find a notebook with Linux preinstalled. Maybe this has changed recently, but you're better off just buying the base Windows version and putting your favorite Linux distro on top of it. http://www.thinkwiki.org http://www.thinkwiki.org is the best resource I'm aware of for Linux + Thinkpad installation tips.
- bayleo 18y ago
  Didn't take too long to find the model with OpenSUSE installed on their site: http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/web/LenovoPortal/en_US/systemconfig.runtime.workflow:LoadRuntimeTree?sb=:00000025:00001430:&smid=5D3D13908B314242BD226E9BF4C1A1DB http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/web/LenovoPo...
  - Elepsis 18y ago
    The OpenSUSE models are a fairly recent addition to the lineup, and are still quite limited in terms of hardware options.

Prrometheus 18y ago

I call it the nipple. I prefer the touchpad. It's quicker and more precise.

blang 18y ago
I refer to it as the pencil eraser. Once you get used to it, you realize it has the more control than the touchpad. Its main benefit, for me, is that you never have to move your hands out of typing position.
- mattmaroon 18y ago
  Agreed. I haven't had the awesomeness of a dual touch touchpad, but I've had both normal ones and "the nub", and the latter is vastly preferable.
- Prrometheus 18y ago
  Try using it with a sniper rifle. You'll change your tune.
there 18y ago
http://xkcd.com/243/ http://xkcd.com/243/
xenoterracide 18y ago
the only thing that was quicker 'maybe' about the touchpad was speed of learning, and ease of use. The 'nipple' is much faster and more precise if you invest more time in it. much like linux ;).

mikeryan 18y ago

The new MBPs (and MacBooks?) have a two finger touchpad interface that I've found makes a huge difference in its usability - with one finger down already controlling the mouse a second finger essentially works as a mousewheel. I can use my MBP's touchpad fine but can't stand having to use my work dell laptops w/o that feature.

notauser 18y ago
Obviously it didn't improve usability enough to stop you posting this three times :) My MacBook Pro is my second Apple laptop (the first was a G4 powerbook) and it is going to be the last unless things change rapidly before it goes u/s. - The keyboard is ok, but the metal finish is slippery. - The large track pad forces typing with wrists at odd angles. - OS X is horrible (all my applications are Linux native so work oddly on OS X, plus no focus on mouse being my biggest two complaints - the rest are subjective/personal). - No region crack for the DVD player, which is unacceptable for travel. Doesn't even work with VLC. On the plus side the build quality is superb, the screen is good, and for it's size/weight the performance is outstanding. I certainly wouldn't trade it for anything other than a Thinkpad or maybe two or three Dells - one a year, for when they break ;)
- jcromartie 18y ago
  > all my applications are Linux native I've seen people get OS X and then do nothing but run XP under virtualization because they can't be bothered to figure out the OS X native apps. I wonder what, exactly, you mean by "all my applications?"
  - notauser 18y ago
    Inkscape, open office, some custom PM software I wrote myself, front ends to eJabberd/mySQL/Apache/Cyrus, emacs, LaTeX and Firefox. Plus a few things that aren't so important, like xplanet and SuperKaramba.
    - SwellJoe 18y ago

mikeryan 18y ago

briansmith 18y ago
Almost anyone that is willing to spend a couple of days adjusting to the ThinkPad's TrackPoint is going to be in for a treat. In particular, in most applications, holding down the center Trackpoint button will make the trackpoint work like a mousewheel (or, you can configure it to work like that all the time using its driver software.)
jcl 18y ago
Most of the PC laptop touchpads that I have used will scroll the focused control if you run your finger up and down along the rightmost edge (or bottommost for horizontal motion). If yours doesn't, check your control panel settings to see if it can be enabled. It's not quite the same as a scroll wheel in that there are some programs where one scrolling technique (wheel or trackpad) will work while the other won't, but it's similar enough to handle most cases.
- xenoterracide 18y ago
  oh this I'm aware of. mine has this feature. I still think touchpads (all that I have encountered) suck. and infact on linux you can modify the area of the touchpad that does this. I think you can even add horizontal scroll if your touchpad didn't previously support it (not 100% on this).
markbao 18y ago
If you're going to buy the new MacBook Pro (or another Apple laptop with multi-touch trackpad functionality) you'll want to get the application MultiClutch. It basically lets you set up rules globally or per-application that assigns gestures to keyboard shortcuts. In other words: if I'm in Safari, I can remap three-finger swipe to changing tabs, swipe down for new tab, rotate right/left to back and forward, etc. It's very useful.

culley 18y ago

I believe the word you are searching for is Clit Mouse. Only Lenovo (Think Pad) and Dell (D620?) have them.

jamesbritt 18y ago
I've a Dell D830 with the clit mouse. Lack of said clit is one reason I stay away from macbooks. (The better screen rez on the D830 is another)

martian 18y ago

When I purchased my Thinkpad T60 (nearly 18 months ago now -- how time flies!), the Lenovo sales staff was unable to help me find a notebook with Linux preinstalled. Maybe this has changed recently, but you're better off just buying the base Windows version and putting your favorite Linux distro on top of it. http://www.thinkwiki.org http://www.thinkwiki.org is the best resource I'm aware of for Linux + Thinkpad installation tips.

bayleo 18y ago
Didn't take too long to find the model with OpenSUSE installed on their site: http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/web/LenovoPortal/en_US/systemconfig.runtime.workflow:LoadRuntimeTree?sb=:00000025:00001430:&smid=5D3D13908B314242BD226E9BF4C1A1DB http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/web/LenovoPo...
- Elepsis 18y ago
  The OpenSUSE models are a fairly recent addition to the lineup, and are still quite limited in terms of hardware options.