The IBM Keyboard Trackpoint has evolutionary paths towards being a tiny trackball while retracted down, the trackball locks and pops up a functional joystick. The problem with the Trackpoint is it feels superslow, superheavy on the fingertip compared with glidetouch trackpads.
The Trackpoint is in the correct place for the correct finger I use to point. I live in the Linux/BSD World and don't expect good enough support for sensitivity/speed control configuration software from Lenovo at all. And when third parties publish solutions they work briefly and I lose track of them through upgrade cycles. I want a better World with better evolved Trackpoint. The Trackpad takes my fingers off the home row and the context switch in moving my eyes to the keyboard really breaks "flow" of concentration.
The HP EliteBooks (and the new Dev One Linux variant) also have trackpoints.
Just in case anyone's interested in making their own though, I've seen a few DIY trackpoint projects over the years (mostly on custom mechs, not laptop keyboards though). Here's a writeup on one: https://edryd.org/posts/tp-mk/
The problem with many of HP's laptops that have pointing sticks, including the HP Dev One, is that they lack a middle mouse button for scrolling and middle-clicking. All Lenovo TrackPoints have that middle mouse button, which lets you scroll with the TrackPoint when it's held down.
A keyboard with a pointing stick and no middle mouse button is a waste. Hopefully, any pointing stick keyboard for the Framework Laptop will include this button.
> The HP EliteBooks (and the new Dev One Linux variant) also have trackpoints.
Are those supposed to be any good?
I have an EB Gen8 with one, but I find it horrendous. I'd like to know whether it's because I have no idea how to use it, or if my Linux setup is broken, or if the hardware is actually shitty.
I had a company provided 2019 dell at my last job and the trackpoint was barely comparable to that of a 2011 thinkpad. If that's the only trackpoint experience is that some people get I understand why they'd never touch one again.
