A brand has (finally) died.
Nah. Died when Lenovo bought it from IBM. Died again when IBM stopped offering support for them.
Now it looks like…every other generic laptop.
I’m not a huge fan of the nub, I personally have always found it in the middle of the way. I do understand it’s use, though.
A few years ago, Lenovo released some Thinkpads without the three buttons above the touchpad. After a lot of pushback, they stopped making those. They also tried using Linux-hostile components for a while. My impression is that Lenovo is on an inexorable enshittification trajectory, but backs off a bit when pressured, only to make some other stupid decision next time.
I use the “control nipple” occasionally, but I use the physical mouse buttons every day always.
Even though they’re slightly oddly positioned to use with the touchpad, they’re a million times better than not having any buttons at all.
No more laptop clit
Now put the clit mouse into a framework chassis (the relevant patents are now expired)
Yes, I’d switch if they did.
Put it on a handheld PC plz
about a million years ago I had an HTC phone that had a trackball mouse thingy. that was cool. i think it was HTC desire, not sure.
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.
Is it actually usable? I never owned one
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.
It feels a lot like using a game controller to control your mouse, if you’ve ever used Joy2Key or similar programs.
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.
It’s also very chill to do things 1-handed with (no euphemism).
Back when I was in high school, we had a shared pool of laptops stored in the library, and our teachers would reserve the library space for days when we were supposed to be working on laptops. My district had a bunch of Dells with the nipple mouse. To this day I still think it’s probably the most convenient and precise input device I’ve ever used.
You can scroll with nub by holding the middle button
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.
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
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.
I use a mechanical keyboard with one on my desktop, I actually use it quite a lot.
That sounds awesome! Is it a Unicomp EnduraPro or is there some other option?
TEX out of Taiwan makes a few.
It’s fine. Takes some time to get used to. Some people really love it, but I don’t think it’s that great.
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.
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.
Maybe the IBM touch points were better. I could see the Lenovo ones being mostly for show / plausible deniability.
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.
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.
if only i had a choice of what my work assigns to me.
Same. I’m stuck on an Apple laptop and much prefer my personal Thinkpad.
lol I’d trade you.
Oh its one of those Thinkpads that isn’t actually a Thinkpad like the Thinkpad Yogas. My ideal Thinkpad would be a proper release of the T480 25th Anniversary Edition with newer components.
removing the nub from ThinkPad is like removing cheese from a cheeseburger.
it’ll still be a laptop, but a nubless ThinkPad will always look wrong.
It’s honestly the only reason I still buy them. If Lenovo removes the nub or Framework adds it, I’m switching to Framework. Give me a 14" T or E series with TrackPoint and I’m happy.
Next thing you know they’ll put the Ctrl back in the right place.
Thankfully it can be swapped in bios
I almost didn’t buy a ThinkPad back in the day before I leaned that you can swap it. Such a stupid design
I also randomly saw today that framework has the opposite option in BIOS. For the people that migrate over
Just learning this now, I’m not sure if I should cry.
Control back in the right place… where you can press it with your left pinkie without taking your fingers off the home keys? Rather than where useless caps lock is just wasting space?
this is actually wonderful ive been debating what to do with my caps lock thank you
Escape next to 1 is also underappreciated. It’s how vi was meant to be used.
Exactly. I use escape way more than control.
God is dead
Is nothing sacred anymore‽
Fucking stupid ass dumb cunt editor with ragebait article titles making me mad in the morning
Does that mean the TrackPoint is dead? No, thankfully. It will still appear in the other ThinkPads made by Lenovo, said a company spokesman. But for the 14- and 15-inch ThinkPad X9 Aura Editions launched at CES 2025 in Las Vegas, the TrackPoint has been removed entirely.
Senior Editor Mark Hachman I hope you have a terrible day and stub your toe today
A fine addition to my collection
I do miss AdAway, favorite part of rooting. I might be due for a trip down memory lane.
Make sure to read the Magisk installation instructions carefully (in case you choose Magisk).
Some things have changed, I messed up once thinking “I already know how this works” :D
Ironic, my collection is working well too
DEEP BREATHS
pls rub your nub too kay thanks
I already took off my robe and wizard hat.
Well first of all, now you need to put them back on
“Ragebait”? Really?
It seems like they intentionally used a misleading title that’d get some people on pitchforks, so yeah I’m calling it a ragebait
Yes! They’re threatening to take away my clit mouse
Thank you for this comment, it makes me happy to know Lenovo have not removed their nipple.
Admittedly overdue and also a sign of the end days
Not a Lenovo icon. They bought ThinkPad, nippleclit and all, from IBM.
Never used trackpoints.
And all my laptops are ThinkPads.
I Always disable both trackpoint and touchpad.I will not buy a Lenovo without the clitmouse
