Anecdotal, but I haven't used my Magic Trackpad 2 since I bought a trackball (Kensington Expert Wireless). Removes all the same wrist strain issues while retaining flick accuracy of a mouse.
I'm in much the same boat. Daily Apple trackpad driver for the past 15 years at least, maybe more. Every time I have to use a PC with a mouse it kills me a little (and don't get me started on those trackpads cheap PC laptops ship with...)
I despise trackpads. They feel so sloppy and approximate. Mice work great for my needs. But the best laptop pointer for me has been the pointing stick: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pointing_stick
I don't know, does a trackpad count? In one sense, no, it's not a mouse. In which case, I guess I'm in the same boat. I don't know if I even have any mice in the house anymore.
OTOH, I thought this might be a post from a keyboard shortcut wizard.
I haven't used a mouse in ages, but I haven't used a trackpad - ever. I've never found one that matches the accuracy, speed, and overall joy of using TrackPoint to move the mouse cursor.
I spend most of my time using a ThinkPad laptop touchpad, but the critical property that makes it usable for me is the physical mouse buttons. I find it incredibly awkward to use any system without physical mouse buttons, or any system where tap-to-click has not been disabled.
I tried, on my current laptop, to see if I could get used to having tap-to-click enabled even without actually using it; I wanted to see how far off I was from being able to deal with any non-ThinkPad. I ended up turning it back off after a few days, after many many clicks I didn't want to click.
I'm mostly with you, but I don't feel the need for separate mouse buttons, so long as the touchpad can give me feedback on clicks. If the whole touchpad is the button, and two finger clicks work for right click, then that's all right. Took some getting used to, but it works fine now. Tap to click though, I've never got that to not be annoying.
I have on my desk an old IBM M4-1 keyboard (compact keyboard with trackpoint), a mighty mouse (the one with the track ball in it) and a mac laptop with a touchpad. I think this gives me access to nearly all the input widgets available except maybe a chorded keyboard or foot pedals. For a while I actually had 2 keyboards on my desk and sometimes I'd type all on one, all on the other, or sometimes left hand on one and right hand on the other. When I moved to WFH mostly I got rid of the second keyboard (and switched to the M4-1) because my home office isn't all that large.
I use them all at probably random ratios as the mood and task suit me.
I switched to a mac trackpad years ago due to hand pain that comes whenever I grip/use a mouse. Something about that half-closed-hand light grip has become just super painful. Unfortunately I still need to use one for FPS gaming, just haven't found a controller to match the speed and precision needed to aim and fire at a game opponent.
>haven't found a controller to match the speed and precision needed to aim and fire at a game opponent.
Gyro aim is a must, and if you wanna be the best you can be, I would also suggest learning Flick Stick, which in addition to using gyro, remaps the right stick to immediately turn to the direction you tilt it in, allowing instant 180s (at the cost of no longer aiming vertically at all). Steam Input allows you to set this up for any game. You need to initially dial it in by adjusting how many pixels a 360 degree turn moves until you can do two 360s and be aiming in the same spot. You can do this by temporarily binding a button to do a 360 degree rotation and then finding something in the game to stare at. You can find videos of people doing this on Steam Deck.
As for the controller, I'd currently recommend the 8BitDo Pro 2 or Pro 3, but if you can wait, the new Steam Controller should be even better.
Windows has something better than three finger drag. It has single finger second tap and hold. Plus extended zones for when the trackpad is not big enough to stretch across
I've tried them all. Trackpad, trackpoint, trackball, all of them. I keep coming back to a mouse. Everything else is either frustrating and finicky, or it induces RSI after a few hours.
>I am still amazed by Mac's Trackpad quality to this day. I used to own Windows laptops, and most of their touchpads are so shit
I have hear multiple times that patents are the reason for the bad trackpads outside of Apples products. But I have never been able to find a confirmation.
Talking about mouse alternatives I would like to give rollermouse a shout-out. Beside the relaxed arm position they give, I really like that they invite to use both hands at the same time. With the similar workload between both hands and arms I find the over all strain lower even with repetitive tasks for a long time.
I thought it was going to be about someone who’d fully embraced the terminal.
Preferring a trackpad to a mouse seems not so unusual, right? I guess sticking to it so completely is. I prefer marble-mouse type devices, but I can’t say with any certainty that I haven’t accidentally touched a mouse in the past 14 years.
Wish I could use a trackpad as-is. My wrists are mildly FUBAR after decades of computer work/obsession, and now I'm having to deal with it. For me, that means that continual wrist pronation freaking hurts.
Let your arms hang straight down. Now bend your elbows and lift your forearms so that they're at 90º to your body, i.e. parallel to the ground. Notice that your hands are naturally oriented so that if you were holding a pole, it would be much closer to pointing downward than sideways. Rotating your wrists "inward" so that your hand is parallel to your desk, in the position to use a trackpad, is not their normal position.
I used a magic trackpad for quite a while until I found myself in agony by the end of the day. One of my coworkers told me he was exploring using vertical mice and that caught my attention. I tried one and it stopped the pain, like, immediately. Mousing around was awkward for a few days until I got used to the different hand orientation and movement, but that passed quickly. Now I'd never, ever go back to a trackpad.
I'd considered making a little block to mount my magic trackpad sideways at, say, a 45º angle to my desk so that my wrist wasn't so pronated, but even then it nudges you toward radial and ulnar deviation which can also become uncomfortable over time. I'd rather just painlessly use my vertical mouse which uses forearm movement and write extension/flexion to zip the cursor around my screen.
I get the love for Macbook trackpads, but Lenovo really nailed it with the ThinkPad trackpoint and glass trackpad combo, especially on more recent models.
I haven't used a mouse since about 1999 when my index finger told me I'd been doing entirely too much double-clicking in my Flash animation job. It's been all drawing tablets since then. I have a mouse that I use on the rare occasion of playing a game that requires you to move the view by pushing the cursor against the screen edges; I have to hold it in a weird, awkward grip because that tendon still starts screaming if I try to use it to click a mouse button.
Trackball gang here. Nulea seems to be my latest iteration, I've tried a bunch of them.
When I first learned of them I thought they were ridiculous, but it really saved my hands going ergonomic w/ the Trackball and Keyboard (Microsoft Ergo style - Nulea as well).
I have tried to go completely mouse/trackpad free with vimari/vimium, scoot, and rectangle. Worked relatively well, and helps me move things around as fast as I can think.
Ooh thanks for the hot tip on Scoot! I've been using Mouseless (https://mouseless.click/) for a while and it's been a game changer, allowing me to almost never touch the trackpad. That said, I like the fact that Scoot allows for selecting elements. Gonna give it a shot!
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[ 5.6 ms ] story [ 74.9 ms ] threadOTOH, I thought this might be a post from a keyboard shortcut wizard.
I tried, on my current laptop, to see if I could get used to having tap-to-click enabled even without actually using it; I wanted to see how far off I was from being able to deal with any non-ThinkPad. I ended up turning it back off after a few days, after many many clicks I didn't want to click.
I use them all at probably random ratios as the mood and task suit me.
I also use a single 30 inch 16:10 monitor.
Everyone else in my family hates this setup.
MacOS just seems more tailored to the touchpad experience. Windows and Linux more tailored to the mouse experience.
Gyro aim is a must, and if you wanna be the best you can be, I would also suggest learning Flick Stick, which in addition to using gyro, remaps the right stick to immediately turn to the direction you tilt it in, allowing instant 180s (at the cost of no longer aiming vertically at all). Steam Input allows you to set this up for any game. You need to initially dial it in by adjusting how many pixels a 360 degree turn moves until you can do two 360s and be aiming in the same spot. You can do this by temporarily binding a button to do a 360 degree rotation and then finding something in the game to stare at. You can find videos of people doing this on Steam Deck.
As for the controller, I'd currently recommend the 8BitDo Pro 2 or Pro 3, but if you can wait, the new Steam Controller should be even better.
I don't understand why Apple does this. It's like the "allow ANC with one AirPod" setting, which is also inexplicably an accessibility option.
I have hear multiple times that patents are the reason for the bad trackpads outside of Apples products. But I have never been able to find a confirmation.
Talking about mouse alternatives I would like to give rollermouse a shout-out. Beside the relaxed arm position they give, I really like that they invite to use both hands at the same time. With the similar workload between both hands and arms I find the over all strain lower even with repetitive tasks for a long time.
Preferring a trackpad to a mouse seems not so unusual, right? I guess sticking to it so completely is. I prefer marble-mouse type devices, but I can’t say with any certainty that I haven’t accidentally touched a mouse in the past 14 years.
I've never heard of those. Do you mean a trackball?
Let your arms hang straight down. Now bend your elbows and lift your forearms so that they're at 90º to your body, i.e. parallel to the ground. Notice that your hands are naturally oriented so that if you were holding a pole, it would be much closer to pointing downward than sideways. Rotating your wrists "inward" so that your hand is parallel to your desk, in the position to use a trackpad, is not their normal position.
I used a magic trackpad for quite a while until I found myself in agony by the end of the day. One of my coworkers told me he was exploring using vertical mice and that caught my attention. I tried one and it stopped the pain, like, immediately. Mousing around was awkward for a few days until I got used to the different hand orientation and movement, but that passed quickly. Now I'd never, ever go back to a trackpad.
I'd considered making a little block to mount my magic trackpad sideways at, say, a 45º angle to my desk so that my wrist wasn't so pronated, but even then it nudges you toward radial and ulnar deviation which can also become uncomfortable over time. I'd rather just painlessly use my vertical mouse which uses forearm movement and write extension/flexion to zip the cursor around my screen.
When I first learned of them I thought they were ridiculous, but it really saved my hands going ergonomic w/ the Trackball and Keyboard (Microsoft Ergo style - Nulea as well).
web moves: https://github.com/televator-apps/vimari mouse moves: https://github.com/mjrusso/scoot window moves: https://rectangleapp.com
Drag lock is a good setting, just test drove it and will be using it.