[pzlarsson]

It has a trackpoint with 2 buttons which tells us they did not put any serious effort into this input device. Would you use a 2 button mouse without scroll-wheel or a touchpad without 2-fingers scrolling?

I suspect this low effort goes for the whole product which is a budget laptop with marketing directed at decision makers instead of users.

[emmelaich]

The presence of the buttons doesn't matter much does it? Assuming a tap works as mouse click.

Maybe they're there for nipple users - it has one. Use fingers on the nipple and thumb on the button.

So to speak.

[hedora]

The third button is usually for scrolling.

[Beltalowda]

Or opening links in new tab, and paste if you use X11/Wayland.

[numpad0]

And for closing tabs/opening links in background. Both are required.

[ccouzens]

Maybe pressing both together registers as a the third button?

[neilv]

Good catch. The Trackpoint in the photo had piqued my interest. But Trackpoint has come with 3 buttons for about 20 years, and I'm pretty sure the middle button gets used heavily by many people.

[dvdkon]

HP's been making two-button "trackpoints" forever. I don't get it either, but it's tradition at this point, not some sign of laziness.

And the laptop is decidedly not a budget laptop rebadge. It looks more like a tweaked EliteBook, their high-end business line. That doesn't automatically make it good, but I think your comment was unfair.

[koprulusector]

Actually, since they highlight “auto-tiling” window manager (I’m trying to see which one), I think the assumption is that users won’t be relying on the mouse all that much. Kind of the whole benefit of tiling window managers.

[aendruk]

Pop!_OS ships with Pop Shell [1], an ambitious and well polished GNOME Shell extension inspired by i3wm.

[1] https://github.com/pop-os/shell#readme

[Shared404]

Most of my machines have either Pop Shell or i3/sway, and I have to say that Pop Shell is _fantastic_ for an ootb tiling setup.

[hjkl0]

Astute comment.

FWIW though, that’s the trackpoint they use on other machines too. They don’t have a 3 button trackpoint like on ThinkPads.

[suprjami]

Confusing comment. Did you miss the massive touchpad beneath the keyboard? Surely it has two-finger scrolling.

I would expect three-finger middle click emulation (which kinda sucks I agree).

[qu4z-2]

People who are excited about the trackpoint probably aren't interested in switching to another input method for scrolling. Personally I usually disable the touchpad ASAP on any new laptop I get.

[suprjami]

How do you scroll then? Page Up and Page Down?

[vbsd]

You can scroll by holding down the middle trackpad button with your thumb and pushing the trackpoint in one direction or the other. You can even scroll horizontally this way. This is the main reason for the complaint about the missing middle button.

[usr1106]

Why would anybody use a laptop keyboard and no mouse for serious development work? It's always an ergonomic nightmare.

Of course when travelling light you might choose to leave extra stuff at home. But how many of us need to travel light to a new location before starting their daily work?

[dzhiurgis]

I've been developing from bed/couch for over 5 years. No regrets. Absolutely hate working from a desk.

Wish Apple came up with lightweight folding/sliding out displays for extra real estate tho.

[fulafel]

The middle button (or "mouse button 2") is a legit pointer interface function that many apps use. Besides scrolling, it pastes, opens links in new tabs, and many application specific uses in eg Blender.

(But there's always been a middle button challenged user population subset around so apps have alternative ways of doing these, a bit like terminal apps can be used without a working meta)

[pigbearpig]

Well, I guess I don't need to wait for reviews anymore, I'll just count mouse buttons to know if it's a good laptop or not.