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mikestewyesterday at 6:53 PM3 repliesview on HN

You can buy a Magic Trackpad and pair it with your Thinkpad no problem.

Yeah, that works great on the bus. It's one more thing to tote around to meetings, but hey, at least I didn't have to buy a MacBook!

Or I could just buy a Mac and not have to resort to hacks to get a decent trackpad.


Replies

rtpgyesterday at 11:18 PM

tbqh I think one can survive with a merely decent trackpad on a bus or at meetings.

I've dual run Macbooks and Thinkpads for a while and the Thinkpad trackpad really isn't that bad (the trackpoint getting randomly stuck in a non-neutral position is a common thing I've experienced though)

The nicest thing for the Macbook for me in practice (disclaimer: I don't do fancy things on the trackpad) is the size. It "feels" fancier but the thinkpad plastic works totally fine for me.

I think some Mac users overindex on the quality of like... $400 Acer laptops from 2008 or whatever as their metric for "cheap Windows laptop".

Software stuff is still garbage but lots of machines have just straightforwardly decent hardware. Apple hardware is _very very good_ but it's not like the bad old days of "I actually cannot use this trackpad" in windows land. As much

prmoustacheyesterday at 10:13 PM

I don't think you need a Mac to get a decent trackpad. You need one maybe to have a great one.

That is the main difference to me. I hate crappy trackpads but the ones on my 2 thinkpads are good enough for the nomad/mobile use. That doesn't mean I wouldn't prefer the one on a Mac but I wouldn't want to suffer a hostile, OS and lack of repairability just to get a better trackpad.

bigyabaiyesterday at 8:15 PM

If I use one of my Macs then I have to resort to hacks to get a decent OS. A crappy trackpad is ~10-20x less annoying than a hostile OEM, at least for my non-bus-based work.

In any case, my response was to cromka's comment and our shared dissatisfaction with Asahi.

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