ThinkPads and mouse input
Jul. 4th, 2021 09:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mtbcThinking back over the laptop computers that I have owned, the easy favorite remains my IBM ThinkPad R-series. It was built well, even with steel hinges, it had a no-button touchpad with two buttons below and three above, plus the increasingly popular trackpoint. The UltraBay allowed me to easily swap the DVD drive for a second battery.
The button issue matters greatly to me, I make plenty of use of the middle button and I hate the built-into-touchpad buttons that are now so popular, I want to click exactly the correct* button without affecting pointing. My Lenovo ThinkPad E-series has a two-button touchpad with three above, perhaps like the Dell Latitude E-series, in contrast with the HP EliteBook having a three-button touchpad with two above. My Lenovo has decent keyboard and speakers but the camera is shockingly bad.
I was surprised to see current HPs and Lenovos with an off-center touchpad, offset toward the left. Does this not help me as a left-hander more than the majority?
*One of the increasingly many annoyances with Firefox is that a middle-button click on a tab now closes it. For some years, and in so many ways, for me Firefox's user interface has worsened.
The button issue matters greatly to me, I make plenty of use of the middle button and I hate the built-into-touchpad buttons that are now so popular, I want to click exactly the correct* button without affecting pointing. My Lenovo ThinkPad E-series has a two-button touchpad with three above, perhaps like the Dell Latitude E-series, in contrast with the HP EliteBook having a three-button touchpad with two above. My Lenovo has decent keyboard and speakers but the camera is shockingly bad.
I was surprised to see current HPs and Lenovos with an off-center touchpad, offset toward the left. Does this not help me as a left-hander more than the majority?
*One of the increasingly many annoyances with Firefox is that a middle-button click on a tab now closes it. For some years, and in so many ways, for me Firefox's user interface has worsened.
