this post was submitted on 20 Jan 2025
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[–] NateNate60@lemmy.world 42 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Those who don't use it are only mildly annoyed by it, but those who use it will raise holy hell now that it's gone.

[–] embed_me@programming.dev 10 points 1 day ago (9 children)

Is it actually usable? I never owned one

[–] olosta@lemmy.world 30 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Used one for a few years and I loved it:

  • it's precise, you can really aim small UI elements
  • It is paired with actual buttons, index on the nub and thumb on the buttons, so no weird gestures to right click
  • It is very quick to switch from keyboard to mouse, your hands nearly don't move

But, there's no mouse wheel or scroll gesture and maintaining pressure on the nub is maybe more tiring than a trackpad.

[–] hemko@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 1 day ago

You can scroll with nub by holding the middle button

[–] ewo@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

It's also very chill to do things 1-handed with (no euphemism).

[–] hemko@lemmy.dbzer0.com 15 points 1 day ago

Some people prefer it over trackpad, or use both. Personally I like to disable trackpad because I tend to always hit it with palm or thumb by accident

[–] Arbiter@lemmy.world 14 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I use a mechanical keyboard with one on my desktop, I actually use it quite a lot.

[–] xapr@lemmy.sdf.org 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

That sounds awesome! Is it a Unicomp EnduraPro or is there some other option?

[–] wjrii@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

TEX out of Taiwan makes a few.

[–] xapr@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 1 day ago

Awesome, thanks!

[–] xapr@lemmy.sdf.org 11 points 1 day ago

I think it works fantastically well. I personally like it much better than a touchpad. It lets me move the pointer without taking my hands away from typing home position.

[–] chaosCruiser 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It’s fine. Takes some time to get used to. Some people really love it, but I don’t think it’s that great.

[–] sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I can never get mine to go where I want first try, and sometimes the pointer drifts on its own after I take my finger off.

[–] chaosCruiser 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The best I can do, is to steer it slowly. For me, it’s always been the inferior option when compared to a regular touchpad.

Although, I do se the benefit of the central positioning when you need to type more and you don’t want to move your fingers from the home row just to click something quickly.

[–] sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 1 day ago

Maybe the IBM touch points were better. I could see the Lenovo ones being mostly for show / plausible deniability.

[–] NateNate60@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

It's not just for decoration. You can use it as a legitimate pointing device. Nudging it will move the mouse cursor and tapping it with your fingernail is clicking.

It takes some getting used to but you can definitely use it for normal office tasks if you wanted to. That being said, I still personally prefer a mouse. But I have known some people who like using the nipple.

[–] Chozo@fedia.io 3 points 1 day ago

It feels a lot like using a game controller to control your mouse, if you've ever used Joy2Key or similar programs.

[–] Engywuck@lemm.ee 2 points 1 day ago

Dunno. I have one on my semifake E580 and I just used it to check if it works. It's a bit awkward for me.

[–] southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 day ago

Oh yeah.

It isn't a dealbreaker for me, but it really is nice. It takes getting used to, but it cuts down on the need to move to the touchpad or mouse. If you're working in tight quarters, or have mobility issues, or hand issues, it can end up being a major improvement. It's a ymmv thing of course, but I end up using it more than I thought I would when writing.

[–] acosmichippo@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

i don’t care about the nub on mine, but i do care a lot about the left/right click buttons that take up so much of the trackpad area. just gimme a bigass trackpad.

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 1 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago) (1 children)

ThinkPad isn't for you then. There are plenty of laptops with huge track pads, there aren't many with a nub.

If Framework offered a nub, I'd switch. Until then, I'm sticking with whichever 14" Thinkpad has a nub.

[–] acosmichippo@lemmy.world 1 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

if only i had a choice of what my work assigns to me.

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Same. I'm stuck on an Apple laptop and much prefer my personal Thinkpad.

[–] acosmichippo@lemmy.world 1 points 47 minutes ago (1 children)
[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 1 points 45 minutes ago

At least I'm up for an upgrade, so I'll get an M-series chip, which is cool. I really don't like macOS though and much prefer my Linux workflow.