At least many notebook manufacuters think so. Why else do they find the need to put their track-pads off-center toward the left side of the computer? Oh, it could also be they expect everyone's left hand is (visibly) smaller than their right.

Which brings me to a related point. Why is it that 99% of notebooks are still designed with inferior enclosures (plastics, bezels, keyboards, ports, fastening hardware, latches, buttons, etc..) than Apple was using in 1997? This isn't intended to be an Apple-advocacy message, but I just find it unreal that the likes of Toshiba, HP, Dell, etc. produce notebooks of sujch craptastic quality, at all price points. Even the venerable IBM brand (before Lenovo) was nothing to write home about excepting its svelt profile.

Every couple of days a new notebook hits the street and it's the same mistakes over and over again.

Bruno

I find most trackpads to be unusable. My thumbs just naturally hit the pad while typing. It is so amazingly frustrating. Its gotten to the point that I loathe most laptops, and can't stand using them.

-- Tim

Apple is one of the only companies that does the trackpad placement "right" - it's centered on the case, but also not far off center with the "B"

It's also place a decent distance from the keyboard that there should be no reason to be hitting it by accident with your thumbs, even though it's larger than many pads found on commodity machines. You've also got to love the fact it's sunk only about .5mm from the top surface of the case (my GF's Toshiba Tecra collects all kinds of crap because it's like a 3mm deep dish).

Mark, keyboard placement is often times poor as well. Some machines have the main keys way off to the lef. It's understandable when mimicking a destop keyboard, but keyboards for notbooks need to be designed to work around these issues (because you obviously can't move them like you would with a desktop model).

I used to hate trackpads, but as Matthew noted, after you start using one, you'll get better and better and realize that those sticks/points are not a good substitute. When I sit down at my desk to do work though I use a Microsoft Laser 6000 Notebook mouse.

Machines with both a stick/point and trackpad are the worst of all because they crowd the bottom half of the case with a bunch of extra buttons. I find ONE button below the trackpad to be perfect. On the Mac I click normally for a Left click and I touch two fingers on the pad while clicking for a Right click. This is MUCH faster and ergonomically pleasing than trying to press a second button somewhere off to the right.

Bruno

My HP laptop has a button to disable the touchpad, luckily, otherwise I would have moved the pointer all the time when I use it.

Stig