Re: The Hardware Thread
Reply #48 –
Considering that my aim was to upgrade the face of my netbook without upgrading anything else on it, it looks like I made the best possible choice. To buy a fancier monitor, I indeed need a better GPU. This is for another time.
There are plenty of fancier monitors that can work with regular VGA or DVI connector with a 1440p resolution (2560x1440) if you so desire. That's probably what I would've gone for a few years ago, but luckily my old monitor didn't start malfunctioning until the second generation of UHD monitors was on the cusp of release. I do, however, think that my Dell P2415Q (€460ish atm; a touch less when I bought it at the beginning of the year) is not only the bang for your buck on the regular consumer market right now, but also the second best monitor all around. It's only surpassed by the iMac 5k (upward of €2100). However, while the iMac is in fact a competitively priced 5k monitor, you can't actually use it as a monitor. In other words, you can't upgrade your computer and keep on using the monitor when the time comes. A "regular" 5k monitor currently requires silly hacks like two DisplayPort connectors at once, so I'd stay away from it for at least another year. Same reason I waited for the second generation of UHD monitors — the first generation used MST (pretending to the computer to be two monitors) while the second generation uses SST (just a single monitor).
Oh? So when the scroll ring is not mentioned or pictured, then those models indeed miss the scroll function? How does that work? How do you scroll then?
I've remapped the buttons.
$ cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf
Section "InputClass"
Identifier "Kensington Trackball"
MatchProduct "Kensington Expert Mouse"
Option "SendCoreEvents" "True"
Option "ButtonMapping" "0 1 2 4 5 6 7 3"
Option "EmulateWheel" "True"
Option "EmulateWheelButton" "1"
EndSection
Note EmulateWheelButton. It's a button you hold down and then mouse movement scrolls instead of moving the cursor. It's like click to drag in some applications, except with any pointing device.
Besides that, I've always preferred to use the arrow keys, Page up & down (and Home and End, depending), and dragging the scrollbar. I tried scrolling using the scrollwheel for a bit when I first got a mouse that did it, but it quickly hurt my finger. The scrollring on the Expert Mouse was actually quite nice while it worked, though.
NB The Kensington Slimblade does not have a scrollring, but it has some built-in mechanism where twisting the ball scrolls. But I wouldn't expect the cheaper Logitech and Kensington trackballs without a scrollring to be able to scroll on Windows. I have been thinking about buying a Slimblade to replace my 7-year-old Expert Mouse, not so much because of the scrollwheel malfunction but because it has the sensor on the side and a hole at the bottom for stuff (like cat hair) to fall out of. I reckon it would result in having to do less cleaning.