[Thinkpad] "Re: trackpoints" on other brands

[Jon Etkins]

Yep, my wife just started at Dell, and they gave her a Latitude as her work machine.  The Track Stick - "Trackpoint" is an IBM trademark - is horrible, to the extent that I find myself actually preferring the touchpad - something that I *never* do on a Thinkpad.

The difference is a patented IBM invention called "Negative Inertia", which other laptop makers appear unwilling to license (or perhaps IBM refuses to do so, preferring to retain a competitive advantage).  See http://www.almaden.ibm.com/cs/user/tp/ninertia.html for an overview, or google "trackpoint negative inertia" for more than you probably wanted to know.


Andrew wrote:
> On Feb 26, 2007, at 13:00, thinkpad-request at stderr.org wrote:
>> I worked on a Dell Latitude recently, which has a trackpoint of sorts, 
>> but
>> it was hyperactive (XP) and hard to manage. The owner allowed as how he
>> had never used it.
> 
> My wife has a Lattitude and I have had similar experience with the 
> trackpoint.
> There's a rumor that it's because D**l doesn't want to license the 
> firmware from IBM their trackpoint doesn't work as well.
> 
> Andrew in Ann Arbor
> technology is the answer, what was the question?
> 
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