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Comment by w1ntermute | Hacker News Reader

I've had several ThinkPads, and I've always disabled the trackpad in the BIOS as soon as I got a new one - it's totally unnecessary when you have the TrackPoint. It's so much faster and more precise. Like amalcon said, I have no idea how anyone can use a trackpad. Whenever I watch a friend use one, or use one myself, it's like the mouse is moving in slow motion compared to me using the TrackPoint. It does take some practice, but it's well worth the investment, just like how learning to touch type pays off in the long run.

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Trackpoint is great, but I've been trying to move away from its use. I've found after frequent use, my finger tip gets irritated- I suspect mechanics similar to the development of a blister are at play- and they haven't been good for my hand overall. I've forced myself to use trackpads and mice now, because they are much lower impact on my hand. I can keep my hand completely relaxed when using a trackpad.

Have you tried changing the cap? I exclusively use the concave "soft rim" cap (http://support.lenovo.com/ContentResources/Migrated%20Assets...).

It helped, but did not solve.

How do you scroll? Do use scroll bars?

Hold the middle button and use the nipple. It scrolls like a mousewheel.

On thinkpads you can press the middle mouse button (below the spacebar) then press the trackpoint up or down.

I have always usually done this, but also remapped the trackpad to be entirely a "scrollpad"

> On thinkpads you can press the middle mouse button (below the spacebar) then press the trackpoint up or down.

Yep, and you can also click and release the middle mouse button, then separately mouse up or down. Interestingly, I have only been able to get either this OR the press then scroll behavior you described working on Windows (by toggling a setting), but in Linux you can have both enabled at the same time.

Bizarrely, Linux seems to support much of the trackpoint/trackpad stuff on thinkpads better than Windows does. I use to not be able to configure the trackpad how I wanted on Windows, but the Synaptics driver for Linux gave me plenty of possibilities.

I use the arrow keys.

Pretty good solution actually as well. Older ThinkPad keyboards have back and forward keys next to the arrows as well.

I have a T61 thinkpad, and love it. I use Linux on it solely. I have compiz bound to those forward and back arrows as cube_rotate_left and right. And I also run 8 desktops. Makes my world so much simpler in terms of organization of programs and flow.

Fellow T61er on Linux chiming in. A thousand MBAs couldn't tear me away.

Nice idea. So going to do that on my spare T61 later :)

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