[jiggy2011]

This is kind of a chicken/egg perception problem. The perception is that if you want to buy a "posh" computer you should get a Mac. Therefor Mac=Expensive , PC=Cheap.

This is I guess part of the reason that auto manufacturers will use different brand names for different market segments. Because it's difficult to signal "I am successful and buy nice cars" with a Skoda badge.

An example of a "high end" PC would be Alienware, which whilst they have some nice hardware they just look horrendously tacky. Basically the equivalent of sticking florescent lighting all over your Subaru.

There is also the potential patent minefield if you want to start manufacturing things that look like or use similar materials to Apple devices.

[giulianob]

Thinkpads have great quality but I have to say I have not seen any touch pads that come anywhere close to the quality of the ones on a Mac. Luckily I prefer the Lenovo "nipple" over a touchpad but most people hate it and bringing a high quality touchpad to a PC would be a big deal IMO.

[w1ntermute]

> I prefer the Lenovo "nipple" over a touchpad but most people hate it

The problem is that no one gives the TrackPoint a chance. I've seen people who've used ThinkPads for years and have never even touched the TrackPoint. But if you spend about 30 minutes working with it, you'll find that it's superior to both mice and trackpads for 99% of tasks (gaming being the one exception, for which I keep a mouse on hand).

[jmj42]

I have to agree. While my current laptop is a Macbook (and inertial two-finger scrolling is awesome), I've been using Thinkpads for years (I actually have two for home use), and nothing beats the Trackpoint. It's fast and efficient, and you don't have to pull you hands away from the keyboard to perform mouse operations. For what it's worth, I even disable the trackpad on my Thinkpads and only use the Trackpoint.

[w1ntermute]

Same here, the first thing I did when I got my ThinkPad was to go into the BIOS settings and disable the trackpad. There's absolutely no need for it once you've gotten used to the TrackPoint.

[progrock]

I find that the nipple requires a little too much pressure (T500), which is a little tiresome. You can be really light to the touch with some touchpads (including simulated clicks.) I'd prefer a nipple more like a touchpad - something like you get on the Blackberries (not the old trackballs.)

[donatzsky]

You can change the sensitivity in the settings (and of course, there's the usual mouse-speed setting as well).

That said, I have found that some of the newer models have much more sensitive trackpoints than my T60.

Edit: Changing the cap can be useful as well. The concave tip in particular.

[progrock]

I've tried playing around with the trackpoint speed under Xfce, and it doesn't help that much. The pressure needed although not much, is enough to put stress on my upper body.

[jamesbritt]

I run Kubuntu on a W500 and set mouse sensitivity way up:

     xset m 5 1

so that I can move the cursor with a fairly light touch.

[giulianob]

You can tweak the pressure and speed

[pm90]

Hah, when I was a kid, I played an fps game using the nipple. It seems impossible, but after a while you do get used to it.

But my fingers did hurt a lot after playing for a few days, so I wouldn't recommend it :)

[Cieplak]

http://xkcd.com/243/