I still have a keyboard with a track point

I don't understand why they are not popular at all and only a few manufacturers build them.

It doesn't replace a mouse for me, but the track point is between the G H B keys and can be reached without moving the fingers away from the typing position. So it's great for some simple mouse commands.

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glitchc 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

The trackpoint is the main reason I find it so hard to move away from Lenovo Thinkpads. The buttons under the spacebar alone are super convenient.

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Liskni_si 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Not just hard - impossible. To the point of making it harder to find a job, as very few jobs let you use a non-Windows ThinkPad.

(I mean yeah, of course AuDHD makes it harder to find a job, no surprise there. But it's a shame that laptop manufacturers make it even harder.)

	▲	silon42 an hour ago \| parent [-]
		Dell and HP had trackpoints once (I had a HP one), maybe they still do.

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nazgulsenpai 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

This. When I use my work laptop, I find myself pressing the spacebar constantly. edit: instead of "clicking"

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andix 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

There is at least a whole line up of models from Lenovo. But for keyboards there is currently only tex.com.tw that sells new keyboards with track point.

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wnolens 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

As an old user of thinkpads for years, on a Macbook the trackpad is as much under your thumb as the trackpoint is under your index finger and I find the trackpad far more accurate and less strain to use. In fact, my work-at-home setup is macbook pro, open face so i can use the keyboard+trackpad but external monitor so my posture isn't terrible.

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qweqwe14 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> I don't understand why they are not popular at all and only a few manufacturers build them.

Because they are ugly, just like ThinkPads that include them.

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officeplant 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Beauty is in the eye of the chonky laptop holder.

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andix 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I couldn't care less how ugly my keyboard is.

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qweqwe14 4 hours ago | parent [-]

Sure, but normal people care about aesthetics, and unsurprisingly big corporations cater to that.

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Hugsbox 3 hours ago | parent [-]

So Lenovo puts trackpoints on their ThinkPads, which is ugly. Also, big corporations cater to aesthetics. Which is it?

	▲	andix 7 minutes ago \| parent \| next [-]
		I'm not even interested so much on laptop keyboards. I always work on my desktop setup with an external keyboard. It's really hard to get an external keyboard with a track point. For laptops there are a lot of models to chose from, both used and new.
	▲	qweqwe14 2 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		I didn't say corporations can't have an ugly laptop lineup. I'm saying that the trend of consumer/business laptop lineups is to make all of them look similar to a MacBook, because that's what most people want. Of course there will always be exceptions, like the ThinkPad.