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Working outside
(lemmy.world)
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this post was submitted on 20 Mar 2026
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As a lifelong desktop PC user, laptops just feel claustrophobic 😅 Especially sucks without a mouse, fuck the trackpad.
I think it's an excellent compromise for being a portable PC. If I'm going to university, to a study space or a lecture, a laptop is freaking fantastic.
Also all laptops universally have one killer feature that nearly no desktop PC has: a built-in UPS. If power goes out, the laptop just keeps chugging along on battery power, giving you an extra few hours of work.
It's not my workstation of choice by any means, but I wouldn't call it miserable. It's fine.
Yeah, i have no idea how all those people are doing their work. I need a big monitor or two, a good keyboard and a nice mouse!
My partner is a psycho who does like 90% of her graphic design work on a 13" macbook air using only trackpad
As a graphic designer I need to ask what the fuck.
I never use drawing tablets, honestly, but I do need a real mouse.
Yeah, i mean she uses a tablet when doing the actual creating part, but mostly the job these days is moving assets around to fit the necessary sizes for different social media. I still don't understand how someone can stand to do that using a trackpad, but she's good at what she does so 🤷♂️
Don't fall asleep.
Did you just mix up Michael Myers, Candyman, and the Blair Witch?
As a graphic designer, I'd quit being a graphic designer if laptop+trackpad was my only option D:
My partner used to do design on her laptop on the sofa with a graphic tablet. Inconceivable for me .
Dude I know these people. My brain explodes at how inefficient they must be.
Sometimes I forget not everyone is computer literate and so fast that their work laptop can't keep up with them
like people in cafes "working".
and what screen is visible on a sunny day outside.
I was thinking that too, just looking at the image is giving me a headache imagining squinting at your screen notched up to full blast and still dim, through your sunglasses.
What in the stock image hell is this. Lmao
Plug in mouse. If you need to, pllug laptop into external monitor(s)/TV
Bro, people today prefer trackpad. Its fucking mindblowing. Ive met several IRL people that love trackpads and don't own a mouse.
I almost guarantee I'm 10x faster at anything on a PC than them
I have fond memories of my Macbook Pro's touchpad. That was over a decade ago, I still haven't found a comparable experience.
Genuinely, Mac's track pads are amazing. Which is hilarious because their mouses are so bad. I don't know how they messed up a mouse so much while mastering the track pad so well.
Framework laptop 13 feels pretty close
Nope, I've got one
I prefer a trackpad while I work, and the reason is simple: Much less movement to switch from trackpad to keyboard than from mouse to keyboard. And much easier to land on the key you want without looking.
And I very much doubt you'd be faster than me with a mouse!
Trackpads give me handcramps very fast. Also if Trackpads were faster, gamers would use them.
A gamer does not need to switch from the mouse to the keyboard repeatedly. Plus, a gamer cares about precision, which obviously a trackpad lacks.
"Faster" standalone means nothing. Can you move the pointer faster with a mouse? Of course. But I don't see most people flicking on their workstation.
In the context of this thread, "faster" refers to completing your tasks faster. And for that a trackpad beats a mouse if your job requires you to type a lot.
Makes sense!
The point of trackpads (and even more so of trackpoints) is that they're faster to get to from typing position - you move your hand back a bit (or even just the index finger) instead of moving across the whole keyboard. That's not something that would go high on the checklist when gaming - it's usually one hand planted on WASD, the other on the mouse and hardly any going back and forth.
You're assuming these people are doing something useful, they could be dealing with Microslop licensing as their full time job. Which is definitely a full time job, its just not useful work in the broader sense.
Ha, true
I've stopped caring about being fast. In fact I'm certain my current setup is slower, more comfortable, and funner than any I've enjoyed before.
If you feel good and you're enjoying your setup then that's what matters.
Yes totally . i can see trackpad bring good if you have some wrist issues. I do have wrist issues but a trackpad makes it worse for me
I don't own a mouse. I like the trackpad because I'm left handed and a mouse always felt weird to me left handed because schools in the 90s forced me to use it right handed.
So, uhh, are you good and comfortable at using the mouse with your right hand? If so you have no reason to use your left. I have a left-handed friend who has always exclusivity used his right for the mouse. Ain't no law saying your mouse hand must be your writing hand. Not to mention the benefits: it's the default setting on any system, and there are lots of great quality asymmetric mouses that only fit the right hand.
I'm not trying to change you, by all means if you like the trackpad more power to you. Just curious why you'd try to mouse with your left if you've already learned to use it with your right.
I am comfortable with it in my right hand but I have a tendency to click the buttons backwards. Trackpad is easier one finger left click 2 finger right click just seems more intuitive.
I work on industrial production lines. I've gotten used enough to laptops that I don't mind too much.
Work from home on my 34" curved screen + 27" flat is amazing tho.
I use a tiling window manager and copious number of workspaces. It helps with the feeling of claustrophobia if anything can be easily full-screened and swapped around easily.
A 64" monitor with floating windows now feels clunky to me compared to a 15" screen with tiling set up like I like it
Unfortunately I like Plasma very much
Amazingly, there is this nifty thing called a "port" that allows a mouse to be plugged into a laptop. It is pretty incredible technology. /s
I tend to vacillate myself depending on the noise of the environment vs the work at hand. If I need to spread out across a few monitors, dock it. If I just need to do some simple paperwork, portable. If I want to force no distractions, portable (as it is more difficult to see things when your screen real estate is reduced.)
Helps if you have good eyesight too, laptop UIs today are at clown magnification levels anymore.
But my laptop doesn't have a PS/2 port :(
Yes, I meant that it's even worse when there's no mouse plugged in, but I guess my phrasing wasn't clear :)
For real, not having the mouse slows you down big time, even though I'm more or less skilled at keyboard shortcuts
Well, these guys aren't working, as far as I'm concerned, if they can do it without bringing out a mouse and real keyboard and probably a second monitor. (My laptop bag is pretty heavy.) They can at best be checking emails.
Agreed.
If you can do your work on a 13" laptop with no mouse or external monitor without your productivity dropping off a cliff, you were never productive to begin with.
I disagree on the external monitor, not everyone need one or they are just used to using it, also how the OS is scaled matter too
Yeah, tbh I'm fine working as a graphic designer on my single 24-inch screen, not sure what I'd put on another one.
Though I imagine it might be useful when gaming to put a guide or spreadsheet on a smaller, vertical screen.
I can't work on a big screen. I'm thriving on my laptop with my 3x3 virtual desktop grid, though.
I have a monstrous satellite l300 i use for light spec work and arduino programming. 17" screen. It does not feel claustrophobic in the slightest, unlike my latest gen dell work machine with a screen smaller than my first fucking 486 i need glasses to even see. where did we go so wrong.