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I used to love the mac keyboard. Of any non Apple laptop it was superior... until I tried out a ThinkPad just over a year ago. I honestly don’t think I could ow
by philliphaydon 7y ago
I used to love the mac keyboard. Of any non Apple laptop it was superior... until I tried out a ThinkPad just over a year ago. I honestly don’t think I could own anything other than a ThinkPad from now on for the keyboard alone.
- killjoywashere 7y agoyou should try the old ThinkPad keyboards, like the X201. So nice. For the MacBook, if they had a version with a physical escape key, I'd be fine. Just make it a little shorter. It will be okay. I promise.
- jakear 7y agoI remapped capslock to esc and never looked back. In fact, I’ve gotten so used to it that I remap “normal” keyboards too. I use esc way more often than I’d ever use capslock, so having it at the pinky is perfect.
- reaperducer 7y agoI remapped that way, and had to go back. I work on a lot of different computers in a week, and some of them aren't mine, so it's more useful for me to stick to the default map instead of getting things wrong on half of the machines.
- o-__-o 7y agoThis thread reminds me of using Dvorak back in 1999. Sure it may be better, it may even be faster.. but what happens in 20 years when I’m the only sucker using that layout? Take my own keyboard everywhere?
- wyclif 7y agoEven though I have a 2017 MBP 13" with the Escape key, I still use Ctrl-[ to change modes in Vim. I'm not a fan of the Touch Bar, but it probably wouldn't interfere with my Vim workflow.
- constmu 7y agoDo you find changing modes with ctrl-[ superior to changing modes with caps lock key that has been remapped to Escape?
- wyclif 7y agoI do, but not because there's anything wrong with that remapping. It's that I already have Caps Lock mapped to Ctrl/Command, as in UNIX or Sun workstation keyboard style. So, when I press `Ctrl-[` only my right pinky leaves the home row, and it's hardly much of a move, since the `[` key is above and to the right of `;`.
- saltsaltsalts 7y agoHoly Crap! Thank you, I never use capslock and now I never will! Still vote to add a physical key in the top left.... please....
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- JoshTriplett 7y agoI remap capslock to "Super" (the logo key), which makes it much easier to invoke keyboard shortcuts like Super-L (lock screen), Super-left/right/up/down (left-maximize, right-maximize, full-maximize, restore), and Super-F (fullscreen).
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- blablabla123 7y agoYup, some years ago I used vim a lot on macOS and did the same. This was sooo much more practical than the escape key in the upper left. > I use esc way more often than I’d ever use capslock, so having it at the pinky is perfect. I think every 2 years I have a proper use case for it ;)
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- zhte415 7y agoI still have a T420 for the keyboard and have no plans of leaving it.
- mattkevan 7y agoYeah the keyboard is nice, but the full-click trackpad is a rackety piece of crap. Have to use a mouse on mine as the trackpad click switch has so much travel that I’ve accidentally moved the pointer off the thing I wanted to click on by the time it reaches the bottom. Tried using tap to click and fiddling with the settings, but on Linux it’s temperamental.
- zhte415 7y agoThe track-pad is small enough for me not to be a problem typing (it is small, compared to Macs especially), and have never used the nipple for anything serious, and have a mouse. But the keyboard.. simply the best.
- philliphaydon 7y agoHmmmm I appear to have deleted my comment by mistake. Unsure which was the first I ever tried, ~20 years ago I used my uncle's ThinkPad but I don't recall the model. I tried someone elses ThinkPad and was like "Wow this is nice to type on" so while in Taiwan I went to the Lenovo store and looked at the laptops. Ended up buying a ThinkPad X1 Extreme and I love it. Best laptop I've owned. The Lenovo Legion series tho, the keyboard isn't as good as the ThinkPad.
- city41 7y agoUnfortunately ThinkPad trackpads aren’t nearly as good as MacBook trackpads.
- ValentineC 7y agoMacBook Pro 2013 user here, and the trackpad is a huge reason I'd continue to stay with Apple. I don't know why other manufacturers can't seem to get it right.
- city41 7y agoI switched from Apple to Lenovo and am quite satisfied... expect for the trackpad. It really is a competitive advantage Apple has.
- azinman2 7y agoBecause it’s surprisingly hard to calibrate and requires a lot of algorithms that handle a ton of edge cases. You have to have serious R&D to get it right.
- jmchuster 7y agoI believe Apple actually holds patents on their trackpad algorithms, forcing everyone else to use worse driver implementations.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- pintxo 7y agoREAL Thinkpad users will only ever use the little red stick and disable the trackpad (just joking). But it‘s worth a try, takes a couple days to get used to first.
- silon42 7y agoNot joking; I'd like to have a button/key to disable the touchpad that some gaming laptops have.
- beezischillin 7y agoI’m part of a really strange minority, I guess, but I absolutely love the butterfly keyboard. Though I’m not happy about the looming reliability problems
- MrScruff 7y agoI love the keyboard also and really hope they can fix the reliability issues but retain the feel. The old one feels really mushy to me now.
- neuronic 7y agoI also really like the butterfly keyboard but Apple has to invest in improving its reliability. I run a 2017 MBP with the second butterfly iteration and stories online have me worried that any day will be the last day of my keyboard. So far it works very well and when I went back to my 2012 MBP to find some old files, I noticed I vastly prefer the new keyboard. TouchBar however is the most useless thing ever. I absolutely never ever use it unless I need a FN key. I mostly forget its there...
- drclau 7y agoYou can now set Fn keys to always show. Now, as in since one or two MacOS versions ago. More so, you can actually set Fn to show _only_ for certain apps. For instance, when I remote desktop to a Windows machine, I usually use Visual Studio, and Fn keys are a must. Therefore, I set it up to always show Fn keys when Remote Desktop has focus. I am honestly surprised how much people complain without actually digging a bit. This is not aimed at you OP, don't take it personally. :) Edit: granted, Apple doesn't do much to let us know about such improvements. Maybe it's in some release notes, but I found out about this feature while playing with the settings.
- bluedino 7y agoThinkpad keyboards are good. But they have the messed up arrow keys, but unlike apple where the keys are too big, they mixed them with pagup/pgdn Keyboards are something you never notice unless they arebad. There's nothing amazung about the ThinkPad keyboard but there's nothing super special about it. I'm typing this on a ThinkPad USB keyboard connected to a Dell computer. Any types are because Lynx doesn't always scroll over when typing in a textbox.