4 ms·

I’ll be that guy—The Perfect Laptop requires a TrackPoint. ;)

by binkHN 3y ago

jehb 3y ago
I came here to make this comment if it hadn't already been made. Seriously though, this is the one thing that has kept me a ThinkPad user ever since I got my first university-issued laptop 21 years ago. I've had other laptops since then, and I've never liked any of them. Once I've got my hands in a comfortable position for typing on a laptop, I often have to move either my entire arm or my entire laptop in order to use a trackpad. I don't even really want my laptop to have a trackpad, it's just something for my palm to accidentally hit. No, it's not comfortable for extended gaming or other things like that, but honestly if I'm not using an external mouse for that I'm going to be pretty grumpy anyway.
- binkHN 3y ago
  Understand completely. On some of the ThinkPads I’ve owned over the years, I’ve simply disabled the TrackPad.
johnnyjeans 3y ago
This and physical mouse buttons are my bottom line for any laptop. Without these, I'm simply not interested in using the laptop, they are not optional. Good keyboard is very close 3rd place. I don't care about the trackpad, I don't use it. I'd prefer if it didn't have one at all, in fact. My ideal laptop is basically an IBM Thinkpad 365x with modern screen, battery, updated peripherals and internals.
- BanazirGalbasi 3y ago
  All three physical buttons, at that. My work laptop has a trackpoint and the right/left click buttons, but it's missing the middle button that lets you scroll with the trackpoint. The same button works as a middle-click for pasting the second text buffer in Linux, which is nice to be able to rely on when transitioning between terminal and web windows.
hamandcheese 3y ago
I've tried to use the trackpoint, but I find it much harder to be as quick as I am with a trackpad... is this just a thing that gets better with practice? It seems to me like overshooting my target (say, a window close button) is much easier with a trackpoint and much slower to recover from vs. using a trackpad.
- binkHN 3y ago
  Perhaps. Older ThinkPads also used to have very tiny TrackPads, so the TrackPoint was likely preferred by most users, at least in part, due to this.

I’ll be that guy—The Perfect Laptop requires a TrackPoint. ;)

by binkHN 3y ago

I’ll be that guy—The Perfect Laptop requires a TrackPoint. ;)

jehb 3y ago

I came here to make this comment if it hadn't already been made. Seriously though, this is the one thing that has kept me a ThinkPad user ever since I got my first university-issued laptop 21 years ago. I've had other laptops since then, and I've never liked any of them. Once I've got my hands in a comfortable position for typing on a laptop, I often have to move either my entire arm or my entire laptop in order to use a trackpad. I don't even really want my laptop to have a trackpad, it's just something for my palm to accidentally hit. No, it's not comfortable for extended gaming or other things like that, but honestly if I'm not using an external mouse for that I'm going to be pretty grumpy anyway.

binkHN 3y ago
Understand completely. On some of the ThinkPads I’ve owned over the years, I’ve simply disabled the TrackPad.

johnnyjeans 3y ago

This and physical mouse buttons are my bottom line for any laptop. Without these, I'm simply not interested in using the laptop, they are not optional. Good keyboard is very close 3rd place. I don't care about the trackpad, I don't use it. I'd prefer if it didn't have one at all, in fact. My ideal laptop is basically an IBM Thinkpad 365x with modern screen, battery, updated peripherals and internals.

BanazirGalbasi 3y ago
All three physical buttons, at that. My work laptop has a trackpoint and the right/left click buttons, but it's missing the middle button that lets you scroll with the trackpoint. The same button works as a middle-click for pasting the second text buffer in Linux, which is nice to be able to rely on when transitioning between terminal and web windows.

hamandcheese 3y ago

I've tried to use the trackpoint, but I find it much harder to be as quick as I am with a trackpad... is this just a thing that gets better with practice? It seems to me like overshooting my target (say, a window close button) is much easier with a trackpoint and much slower to recover from vs. using a trackpad.

binkHN 3y ago
Perhaps. Older ThinkPads also used to have very tiny TrackPads, so the TrackPoint was likely preferred by most users, at least in part, due to this.