Pretty sure my Lenovo had this in 2003, lol.

It depends on the laptop and which touchpad they use.

Middle click isn't a shortcut for paste in Linux, it's what Unix had before cut-copy-paste was invented.

Highlighted text will be stored in what's called the Primary Buffer. This is separate from the "clipboard." Middle clicking in a text entry field will insert the highlighted text. No action needs to be copied. Watch, on a linux system:

Open a GUI text editor. kwrite, gedit, libreoffice, whatever.

Highlight and Ctrl+C this text: This text was stored in the clipboard.

Simply highlight this text: This text was stored in the primary buffer.

click in your text editor and middle click. Then hit enter for a new line, then hit Ctrl+V. Neat, huh?

"secondary click" i have found unassigned in many a Mac. Like either they have been upgrading and using migration assistant to new machines, or it wasn't a default when they got the machine somehow. Telling someone to two finger tap vs double tap sometimes gets confusing as well so I write it as ctrl click for Mac users

Could be others too, depends on the touchpad drivers

Every laptop I ever used had this, I'm still bewildered that people don't know. I actually like touchpads because they give you a bunch of gestures a mouse just can't

I think the two finger right button tap has been there on all PC laptops I've used since the early 00s, even the lower mid range ones. Most of them have supported two finger scrolling anywhere on the trackpad but a few only did one finger along the edges like the 90s, along with customizable corners and zones and whatnot. Gestures and three finger tap for middle button or other functionality though was random until mid 2010s when it too was widely supported. That is, if we are speaking brand laptops and not junk OEMs or low end garbage.

Synaptic started this, not Apples.

Even the "buttonless" trackpad is better, than just fingertapping (I used to have so many misclicks).

Oh man, my first laptop, 300 ish MHz thinkpad 600 600 ish MHz thinkpad t20(ish). Man I loved that thing. Bought it with no hard drive, didn't know about bootleg windows, so I learned Linux. DSL, in fact. Those were the days.

Edit:

I've been trying to remember what exactly it was, I noticed the 600 has the drive on the front but mine was definitely on the side.

Best I can tell, I think it was a T20, not a 600. They look very similar.

I have colleagues that keep dragging the little block in the sidebar.

tbf, Microsoft keeps fucking with my mouse drivers so the scroll wheel is erratic

I usually read the full manual too

I even what adjust settings I don't understand m sometimes I learn what it does. Sometimes I don't. I don't always liked making what it does

Can you sell workspaces to me?

I never understood the benefits compared to just alt-tab

Three fingers up on GNOME I use a lot when I'm on my laptop. On desktop I've bound an extra mouse button to that action that I use a lot also.

Bring back the nipple! (xkcd 243)

I always preferred below since you could then use the thumb to click. Buttons built into the touch surface are worse than not having them at all, however.

Yeah 3 finger drag is a game changer.

Also I like the ‘control+two finger swipe = zoom’ option in the accessibility settings. Really handy to quickly zoom in and out on something.

Three finger drag also has some sexy inertia if you hold two fingers on and use the third to flick it