3 ms·

That ugly trackpoint (that red dot in the middle of keyboard) and that extremely irritating swapped position of Fn and Ctrl keys are the two things that keep me

That ugly trackpoint (that red dot in the middle of keyboard) and that extremely irritating swapped position of Fn and Ctrl keys are the two things that keep me away from this otherwise excellent laptop. (Though the Fn and Ctrl keys can now be swapped from BIOS, but why? )

grannyg00se 14y ago
Ugly trackpoint? Are you trolling? Trackpoint is one of the most significant reasons people buy a thinkpad over any other trackpad only laptop. I've heard the ctrl and fn placement is an issue for many people, but I don't understand why you'd want the more frequently used key further away than a hardly ever used key. Or maybe people actually use fn more often than ctrl? That doesn't seem likely.
- MBlume 14y ago
  Don't think further away. Think corners. Corners are easy to hit, you know where they are. Second from the corner requires more effort. Same reasoning as "hot corners" in operating systems.
  - grannyg00se 14y ago
    I can understand that. I guess I've gotten used to the close pinky curl-under that hits Ctrl just right.
- piyush_soni 14y ago
  I was just talking about myself and a few others. In my company people are all given a Thinkpad (no choice), and howsoever I try I can't get that to work easily - and it's definitely much slower for me than the trackpad (and it looks bad to me anyway). I know that many people find that very useful and with time people get greatly used to that trackpoint, but definitely not beginners. Ctrl key has always been the last key at the bottom row, so it's really easy to press, not sure why they would change that standard. Previously they didn't even have a BIOS setting, but they faced such a strong backlash that they had to add that. They did a survey and found out that a lot of people want that to match the industry convention.
piyush_soni 14y ago
People here are so heavily opinionated that they start downvoting others personal opinions. Great going HN! :)

grannyg00se 14y ago

Ugly trackpoint? Are you trolling? Trackpoint is one of the most significant reasons people buy a thinkpad over any other trackpad only laptop. I've heard the ctrl and fn placement is an issue for many people, but I don't understand why you'd want the more frequently used key further away than a hardly ever used key. Or maybe people actually use fn more often than ctrl? That doesn't seem likely.

MBlume 14y ago
Don't think further away. Think corners. Corners are easy to hit, you know where they are. Second from the corner requires more effort. Same reasoning as "hot corners" in operating systems.
- grannyg00se 14y ago
  I can understand that. I guess I've gotten used to the close pinky curl-under that hits Ctrl just right.
piyush_soni 14y ago
I was just talking about myself and a few others. In my company people are all given a Thinkpad (no choice), and howsoever I try I can't get that to work easily - and it's definitely much slower for me than the trackpad (and it looks bad to me anyway). I know that many people find that very useful and with time people get greatly used to that trackpoint, but definitely not beginners. Ctrl key has always been the last key at the bottom row, so it's really easy to press, not sure why they would change that standard. Previously they didn't even have a BIOS setting, but they faced such a strong backlash that they had to add that. They did a survey and found out that a lot of people want that to match the industry convention.

piyush_soni 14y ago

People here are so heavily opinionated that they start downvoting others personal opinions. Great going HN! :)