Most people don’t have an enthusiast leaning over their shoulder going “You really need to learn this thing.

And maybe it should include a simple game. I’ve long thought that Lenovo should ship a utility with their Windows installs that briefly educates the user on the benefits of TrackPoint and shows them how to set the sensitivity to a level they feel comfortable with, because understanding these are table stakes for creating a new TrackPoint enthusiast. And it’s frustrating to try to get things done while you’re getting good at it. You have to get used to much finer motor movements than you’d expect, while other pointing devices (at least seem to) map physical movements 1:1 to cursor movement. The first-time UX of TrackPoint is absolutely one of the worst I’ve ever seen. It’s hard to blame the people who’ve actually tried TrackPoint and given up on it.

When it comes up in the comments (which it doesn’t often people tend to treat it as normal) attitudes often range from “Mouse is better” to “Trackpad/gestures are better” to “TrackPoint is good but only on-the-go where a real mouse isn’t convenient.” The TrackPoint benefits that you and I understand can be easily lost even on people who’ve bought the right hardware and really should know better. Similarly, I spend time on r/thinkpad on Reddit and the number of desk shots where you see this self-selected group of ThinkPad enthusiasts with a mouse or trackball is astoundingly high.

I never, ever, ever saw anyone use a pointing stick, and if I’d point out that they were neglecting the best pointing device ever would get responses ranging from “Oh, I didn’t know what that thing was” to “It doesn’t work well the cursor just goes everywhere.” But mostly the former, which more suggests a lack of curiosity. I’ve worked at a company where standard-issue equipment was once HP Elitebooks and later Dell Latitudes. Pointing stick true believers are less common than hardware shipping stats would have you think.

What is laptop pointerstick