from 01011@monero.town to technology@beehaw.org on 07 Jan 21:03
https://monero.town/post/5346910
Rest in peace, Trackpoint. We barely needed ye. Although a pointing stick — which is apparently the brand-agnostic name for the Trackpoint — was popular on laptops in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the only company to carry the tradition forward has been Lenovo. You’ll find the iconic red Trackpoint on just about every ThinkPad laptop available, but Lenovo is doing away with the design at CES 2025 with its new ThinkPad X9.
The Trackpoint is, in 2025, not very useful. Lenovo tells me that the change is to signal a modern approach to the ThinkPad range, the roots of which go way back, to when ThinkPads were branded with an IBM logo. Just a few months back, we looked at the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1, which still had the Trackpoint. Now, it’s gone, and seemingly gone for good.
Externally, Lenovo is using an OLED display across both the 14-inch and 15-inch model, and both use a haptic touchpad along with the well-known (and loved) ThinkPad keyboard. Under the hood, Lenovo says the laptop is serviceable by removing the bottom covering, allowing you to replace the SSD and battery if you need.
And, of course, you can’t have a laptop released in 2025 without a little dose of AI. It’s called Lenovo AI Now, and the company describes the feature as an “advanced on-device AI assistant that brings powerful, real-time intelligence to users.” It’s similar to something like Nvidia’s Chat RTX, as it uses a large language model (LLM) to provide a chatbot that only knows about your local files. Lenovo built the assistant with Llama 3.0, so hopefully it will work well.
threaded - newest
BOOOOO!
Only reason I’d still buy Lenovo just went out the window.
No nipple to tweak? No deal!
My favorite laptop ever is the x200 in large part because it has a trackpoint and no trackpad.
https://www.amazon.com/SurnQiee-TrackPoint-Keyboard-ThinkPad-Solutions/dp/B09QM5C1GV
Now anything you want can have a tweakable nipple.
Cool find, but it can’t live in the middle of the keyboard, and I worry about the driver quality since it’s not from Synaptics like the original.
I’m a longtime ThinkPad user and TBH I find the trackpoint pretty annoying to use. It always seems too fast or too slow and it’s very uncomfortable.
It takes some time to get used to. You need just the right mouse acceleration for it to work well.
The acceleration is whack out of the box with any Linux distro I’ve used so if you’re trying to get used to it there then good luck.
Yeah, it was acceptable with the Windows the laptop came with, but it is indeed whack with Linux.
Never had a problem with it on Gentoo, Arch, Void or Tails.
The clit? I loved playing with that.
I always called it the nipple.
I AM THE CLIT COMMANDER!
I mean, it’s kind of the aesthetic nail in the coffin for the think pad. They’ve been removing the things that made them unique for a long time now. No more upgradable storage, no easily swappable batteries, no more repairability and no more brick like durability.
Like sure, the actual computer bits are getting better than the older models, but so is every other major laptop brand. Now thinkpads are just another generic laptop.
Like, if someone wants a laptop that is repairable and upgradable, framework exists now and they’re better about that than think pads ever were. Still a shame to see the think pad brand melt in to the puddle of generic laptops though.
I finally dropped Lenovo last month, got a laptop from Tuxedo. No three physical button trackpad, but it does have a 100 Wh battery.
Now that’s a company I hadn’t heard of. Tiny outfit by the looks of it and with the expected boutique pricing.
Upvote for Tuxedo!
After like 2 or 3 years with my Pulse 15 the battery started to pillow. They sent my a replacement for free. Now I’m having a Framework 16 and didn’t use my Pulse 15, so I gave it to my nephew. But I saw that the CMOS battery was dead. Wrote them a mail and they are now sending my a replacement battery for free.
All in all, great company
that’s your Modern Approach
that’s true but they are quite expensive.
I’ve been using Thinkpads since the X61s, and used the trackpoint extensively back in the day. Hell, I had the X61s that didn’t even have a
trackpoint(edit: didn’t have a trackpad), and I rarely used a mouse with it.But I really don’t understand how anyone still uses the thing extensively. Once in awhile I’ll use it for some bit of specific precision work when I don’t have a mouse handy. I feel like the Trackpoint quality has gone down significantly over the years, and stuff like anti-drift seems to have been neglected.
If not for the horrible arrow keys that I already hate on my Macbook Air, I was all for this transition. I’d much rather have a great trackpad at this point. I want something more compact than a Framework, and I’m comfortable with Lenovo’s Linux support at this point.
I still love the trackpoint and use it almost exclusively if the notebook is not connected on the docking station.
It is just awesome if you can control the mouse while still keeping the hands on the middle of the keyboard.
It’s so much faster than to kove up and down and also more ergonomic, especially in the train when the laptop sits on my lap.
The middle button enables easy scrolling on webpages (although the vim browser extention makes it even easier ther) or documents…
Nothing else I used was able to beat this setup. And I used a lot of different devices over the tome
Welp, that was my only reason to specifically get a ThinkPad. I got to use one at school and quickly got used to it. I wanted to keep that experience, so I bought a ThinkPad. I’ve used the TrackPad precisely 0 times, I have it permanently disabled. If I run out of space for stickers, I’ll put them over the TrackPad as well.
I’d say the TrackPoint, once you get used to it, becomes an extension of the finger.
Only annoying thing is the occasional drift.
Good thing too! I could never find it!
I see you attempted spoiler.
:::spoiler Spoiler name Like this :::
Must be a client thing, I see those :::spoiler things everywhere but they don’t work, using the spoiler button in my markdown editor produced my comment and works correctly on my machine ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Depending on the client you use, this may be a remnant from the Reddit markdown.
On Eternity, OP’s spoiler tag works and yours doesn’t.
Relevant xkcd
I just got a P14s because ThinkPad was the last laptop out there that still had physical buttons (only for the trackpoint, the trackpad is the Apple click-anywhere style that isn’t for me). Even the Dell XPS (RIP) and HP ProBook now have only those, and obscure brands I found in reddit threads that supposedly had trackpad buttons no longer did.
I also strongly prefer the efficiency of middle button and trackpoint scroll to repeatedly scrolling on the trackpad.
End of an era.
I’ve got two Thinkpads and I always use the Trackpoint. The touchpad’s gathering dust.
From reading the article it just sounds like they’re turning Thinkpads into normal laptops.
I don’t care about the Trackpoint, but I do like the three Thinkpad physical buttons on that Synaptic trackpad, which are also a signature feature going way back on the Thinkpad. Hard to find feature on laptops.
If you’re willing to use an external keyboard, the same factory that made the IBM Model M was bought by the employees when IBM sold the line to Lenovo, and is still making buckling spring keyboards off in Kentucky. Some of theirs still have a Trackpoint option.
www.pckeyboard.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&P…
This prompted me to try using it again. The pointer is moving around slow, then fast, then way too fast. It’s difficult to get it to land on what I want. Is that the point?
It always seemed like an amazing way to speed-run repetitive strain injury to me.
Anything that requires that level of precision but offers basically zero range of motion just seems to force unnatural levels of tension in every muscle in your hand and wrist.
The things cause me agonising wrist pain within minutes of use, not something I've experienced with any modern (ie, larger than the postage stamp sizes of old) touchpad.
Good riddance.
those who have used it exclusively for a decade or two can utilize that stick better than the trackpad, or even a mouse. they’re crazy good with it. i fumble with it like i’m trying to move the mouse with an old 2600 joystick that leans to the left.
I got used to it in a few days or so and then it’s like a drug - too comfy to stop. I use touchpad from time to time on my work -issued MacBook and it requires too much movement from me to do a single action so I usually take sk8855 with me
I do occasionally use the TrackPoint, and agree that generally it’s less precise than a trackpad or mouse. But one critical advantage that I get from it is the fact that I can use a TrackPoint with gloves on, which is great when you’re outdoors in the winter or working with heavy equipment. It’s also a redundancy for if your trackpad stops working (which has also happened to me). So I value it for those reasons and don’t like the fact that it’s being phased out, but otherwise do prefer to use the trackpad.
If a laptop has a touchscreen, then I’m fine without a Trackpoint.
Lacking the touchscreen, I will use the Trackpoint more than the track pad.
In 2010 I loved the trackpoint. With some practice, it was much faster and nicer than using the touchpad.
In 2025 I’ve never touched it a single time on my current ThinkPad.
Touchpad and keyboard navigation in Gnome with Vimium is such a joy, using the cursor at all feels like a chore.
I agree. I had a laptop with a clit mouse around 1999/2000 or so. After some practice I could play Quake 2 with that thing. It was awesome!
I will not buy a Thinkpad if it doesn’t have a trackpoint. They work so much better than a touchpad, especially for things like selecting text.
I’m not about to suggest that anyone should do mouse/keyboard gaming with anything less than a proper mouse, but in a few cases where I’ve been without a proper mouse, the trackpoint has been indisputably better than a trackpad for gaming. It’s not even close. Mouselook via a trackpoint is basically joystick control and it works pretty much exactly how you’d expect. A trackpad is just chaos mode and probably constitutes a war crime if you’re forcing someone else to do it.
I actually loved that thing when I had one. Much better control than the touchpad and with less need to move your hand off of the keyboard.
Great, systemic dismantling of the straight male education just doesn’t stop …
/s
It’s worth noting that this is a new line of ThinkPad, there’s a bunch of existing lines that will all keep the classic look. Though I feel like the name X9 isn’t great, but whatever.
In Brazilian early aughts urban lingo, “x9” means “snitch”
<img alt="" src="https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/appropriate_term.png">