Comment by WillAdams
4 days ago
The fibrous Trackpoint is still my absolute favourite.
For folks who want more in-depth backstory, going all the way back to the beginning and the origin of the "ThinkPad" name see:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/483933.ThinkPad
I really wish that there would be a true heir to the mantle, and a return to some of the original ideas, esp. the early stylus models and variants such as the TransNote --- if Lenovo would do a version of their Yogabook 9i under the ThinkPad brand and use a Wacom EMR stylus and put a Trackpoint on the keyboard it'd be an instabuy for me --- as it is, I use a Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360 and only get a Trackpoint when using my docking setup w/
https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/solutions/pd026745-thinkpad...
(need to find time to buy an updated one (and a spare) w/ USB-C)
I have a few of the THINK notepads that I found in my grandfather’s things after he passed away. He was an IBM employee in the 50s and 60s.
I remember picking the first one up and saying out loud, “that’s where the name came from!”
Yep, that exact story is related in "A Different Shade of Blue" (pg. 104):
>At the next staff meeting, Kathy Vieth asked Wainwright to report on his progress in naming the new pen tablet. He took the small leather pad with the word _THINK_ embossed on the cover and simply tossed it onto the table. All eyes followed the little black think pad as it sailed through the eair, almost in slow motion and landed --- _PLOP_ on the conference room table.
>>The team was very excited: everyone was talking. No one was sure whether it was Sue King, or Kathy Vieth, or Patty McHugh, or someone else who first declared, ``Denny, that's a think pad --- a tiny tablet. It's the perfect name. We'll call it a ThinkPad.''
> (need to find time to buy an updated one (and a spare) w/ USB-C)
Once you find a TrackPoint keyboard model that you like, buy spares, since you might have a hard time getting a good design in the future.
For example, they went to a lot of trouble to develop TrackPoint keyboard SK-8855, with community input, and then discontinued it. To cries of anguish, scalpers and price-gouging on last remaining stock, and, years later, people selling filthy broken used ones for more than they cost new.
https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/solutions/pd005137-thinkpad...
I don't think Lenovo has quite the same design sensibilities as IBM ThinkPad team had:
* "You, the user, want to throw away IBM's famed keyboards, and have a chiclet keyboard as the only option." (No.)
* "You want to remove the function keys that aren't necessary for Twitter." (No.)
* "You want to remove the tactile cues from TrackPoint buttons, so it looks more sleek, for your TikTok scrolling." (No. This is not a mindless "content consumer" device. "Think" is right there, in the name.)
* "You want to remove the TrackPoint buttons altogether, from a workstation laptop, so you can get RSI from clicking with your thumb on the touchpad below instead." (No, and now I think you are just trying to sabotage all the smart people who were using ThinkPads before.)
I'm still surprised that IBM was even allowed by the US gov't to sell ThinkPad to China. It was beloved fleet tech of US big business and government, as well beloved by techies ("innovators"). And maybe also a source of technology excellence pride, like fewer companies are now. Imagine the iPhone business being sold to China. Or Cisco being sold.
The other option wasn't IBM keeping the business, it was IBM discontinuing it entirely.