Laptops w/o Trackpads?

Leave Blank asks: "Are there any laptops out there anymore that -don't- have trackpads? I can't use them properly at all (for whatever reason - my current theory is that it's linked to my severe Raynaud's - some days I can activate a trackpad from a bit under a centimetre above it, other days it just doesn't work at all, so I always carry around an external trackball with my current laptop. Does anyone on Slashdot have recommendations I mightn't have managed to google?" "A trackpad is just pointlessly annoying for me, because I have to remember to turn it off or I'll 'hit' it accidentally while typing (sometimes just by waving my hand over it, remember), and even if it is off, I'm left with a nagging feeling it's wasting space, which annoys my tender european design sensibilities. So, what are my options? - I want a top-of-the-range in processor/gfx laptop, I quite like the little keyboard, um, nubbins, but I can't find a _new_ laptop with one but without a trackpad, and ultra-pricy tablet PCs typically actually come with a freaking trackpad too. Seems to me a laptop without a trackpad might even be smaller, and I'm quite prepared to live without one as outlined."

Comments

Just disable it

[InsaneCreator]

In windows 2000 you can open the device manager and disable any piece of hardware, including the trackpad. I'd be surprised if this wasn't possible with other operating systems.

Any reputable laptop..

[NanoGator]

.. can have it's touch pad turned off in the bios.

Re:Just unhook it

[dJCL]

This seems to be th gist of most posts - just work around it. But most some current laptops, I've seen it in Toshibas(as that's what we sell), have a simple key combo to disable it. I've even run into a compaq with that option.

It's usually just an extended fn key like those for volume and brightness.
And as I literally just got my alps touchpad working(just really tried for the first time), I also could say that under linux, you could just not enable the thing - heck, there is a command in the xorg.conf file to disable it.

Why make life harder, when there are simple solutions.

Anyway... My system is a Eurocom, and does Not have a disable switch.