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A couple of "large" trackball vendors:

BigTrack - http://www.bigtrack.co.uk/
Kensington - http://www.kensington.com/

FWIW, I love my Kensington Expert Mouse. Despite the name it's actually a roughly billiard-ball sized trackball with four buttons and a scroll ring. Two caveats:

1. I use it with a Mac, and I had to get a third-party driver to map the buttons.
2. I made the mistake of registering the product. Now I get weekly spam from Kensington despite repeated attempts at unsubscribing. Kensington is permanently routed to my spam folder now.

I got it because I was developing RSI from use of a regular mouse with my right hand. I tried switching to my left, but had trouble training myself to use almost-but-not-quite the same mouse motions. The trackball has a completely different motion from the mouse, so I was able to easily train my left hand to use it. Now I use the left-handed trackball at work and the right-handed mouse at home and haven't had any more RSI issues. (Yeah, using the trackball right-handed probably would have had the same effect, since the motion is different. But at the time my right arm really hurt and it was more comfortable just to give it a rest and train my left to do it.)

The mouse and keyboard default speeds were set at retard slow

This is true, it's why there have been programs like USB overdrive (and the excellent MagicPrefs for the Magicmouse) and the like on mac for years. The default tracking is painfully slow.

it did not support my Model M very well at all. It did not seem to support my extra mouse buttons

Don't know about the keyboard, but the mouse buttons are basically a driver problem. Again, something like USB Overdrive is needed to support them.

find anything was a pain in the ass, its terminal does not support tabs,

Was this pre-Tiger ? Because Terminal most certainly has tabs, and Spotlight (OSX' desktop search system) has been part of OSX since Tiger.

and I did not bother trying to find out how to enable focus follows mouse which is a must have

Does not play well with the single menu bar. Think about it.

Even worse the terminal does not close when you exit it, you have to use the mouse to click the window close button like an ape.

Cmd+Q.

For me, no squeeze buttons was a downer. I live off of Exposé and hate having to use the keyboard to invoke it.

That being said, I'm excited about what can be done with gestures on this mouse. This is why I'm keeping an eye on USB Overdrive. I've been using this driver for a while now so that all five buttons on my Logitech mouse work flawlessly in OS X ... where flawlessly means mapped to exactly the actions that I want.

Here is what the developer has to say about the new mouse: "Apple Magic Mouse update: I've been working hard on the device and I now know how it works. I am writing a lot of code to support it properly and I will post a new version as soon as it is ready. Until then, please be aware that without specific support the Magic Mouse is a two buttons mouse with no scroll wheel. The current version of the USB Overdrive handles it as any other mouse so you lose both the scroll wheel and the ability to configure gestures using Apple's own drivers. The good news is that this mouse can do a lot more than basic gestures, and I'll do my best to make it even more magic."

For me, no squeeze buttons was a downer. I live off of Exposé and hate having to use the keyboard to invoke it.

That being said, I'm excited about what can be done with gestures on this mouse. This is why I'm keeping an eye on USB Overdrive. I've been using this driver for a while now so that all five buttons on my Logitech mouse work flawlessly in OS X ... where flawlessly means mapped to exactly the actions that I want.

Here is what the developer has to say about the new mouse: "Apple Magic Mouse update: I've been working hard on the device and I now know how it works. I am writing a lot of code to support it properly and I will post a new version as soon as it is ready. Until then, please be aware that without specific support the Magic Mouse is a two buttons mouse with no scroll wheel. The current version of the USB Overdrive handles it as any other mouse so you lose both the scroll wheel and the ability to configure gestures using Apple's own drivers. The good news is that this mouse can do a lot more than basic gestures, and I'll do my best to make it even more magic."

Yep, same here, save that I'm using an Apple Extended Keyboard, the original.

There's an application, Keyboard Maestro , that really lets you get down and dirty when it comes to remapping keys and adding keyboard macros.

So my Extended has volume control keys, as well as eject for both optical drives, browser reload, and the insanely complex online banking password.

Coupled with USB Overdrive , and the Preference Pane for the Griffin PowerMate, anything that makes noise (QuickTime, VLC, iTunes) can have it's volume controlled from the scrollwheel or PowerMate, as well as the keyboard.

The Apple Extendeds. Best. Keyboards. EVAR!

Myself, I use a 22 year old Apple Extended Keyboard, via the Griffin iMate ADB to USB adaptor, on my 1.42 Ghz G4 Dual Processor PowerMac, running Mac OS X 10.5.3.

I have had exactly ZERO problems with this arrangement.

After using the Extended for all these years, today's "modern" keyboards all feel like I'm poking at slab of Silly Putty.

As for the commentor who likes having volume control keys, well, my 22 year old keyboard has them as well. COMMAND-ARROW works in just about every app that has a sound function. Although, as I use a Mac, I have used USB Overdrive to map the volume control in ALL my media players to the scrollwheel in my mouse and to the Griffin PowerMate rotary controller. Also, tapping the PowerMate mutes in all my media applications.

My keyboard has 16 function keys, via Keyboard Maestro I have some of them programmed for use in individual applications.

So, for the cost of an ADB to USB interface found on eBay and some shareware fees, my ancient keyboard (which, by the way, works as perfectly as the day it shipped from the assembly line) has all the functionallity of these new "keyswitch"/"buckling spring" keyboards with their "media keys" and "eject keys" have two DVD drives in my Mac. F12 works the top drive, OPTION-F12 works the bottom drive. Those are my "eject keys".

I have 6 more Apple Extendeds in the closet, all from Goodwill/Salvation Army. All of them work perfectly.

As long as there are ADB to USB interfaces, I'll be using an Extended on the Macintosh.

And to all my nerd brothers and sisters still using "M" keyboards (and Extended/Extended II, of course), I stand in solidarity with you!

Try USB Overdrive:
http://www.usboverdrive.com/USBOverdrive/News.html

This is true, I use a Logitech mx510 on my Macbook, but you have to install third party software to make it useful for most involved tasks.

My advice: ditch the MS software for controlling the mouse and use usb overdrive instead; it'll let you configure every button on any mouse.

Steermouse seems to only be a 15 day trial. If that bothers you, you can get by with the free version of USB Overdrive indefinitely, although it is nagware (bothers you on startup as well as any time you visit its preferences panel)

Both allow you to configure the mouse speed and acceleration basically however you like it.

Let me rephrase that more precisely. Shareware USB drivers.

Hmm, well save your old mouse or buy a new one. You probably won't be happy with the Apple-supplied mouse, it's intresting for sure but geared a bit more to a novice. Pretty much any USB mouse will work on a Mac and the same thing with keyboards, although you might need some minor key-remapping on a keyboard. For multibutton mice (more than 2) I recommend downloading USB Overdrive - an inexpensive, 3rd-party input device "driver" that really makes your input devices a lot more effective.

You'll have to get used to slight differences in how things work, give it a bit and keep an open mind, once you get used to the Mac way of doing things you'll find it's actually pretty intuitive. Use the Help menu in the Finder, it is very complete and tells you tons of shortcuts that would take you a while to stumble across.

Macs have been a bit less forgiving of borderline RAM because they actually check to see if the RAM is in spec. Some other hardware manufacturers are a bit more lax so the memory seems like it is working and then causes lots of little headaches down the road. With the Mac a questionable piece of RAM will usually cause a big problem quickly, like not being able to boot right after installing it. Crucial has always had decent prices, excellent RAM, and amazing customer support, I use them a lot and rarely have any RAM troubles.

Dunno if there are really any other major things you should know. The Mac community is pretty supportive so if anything gives you a concern just ask around and you'll probably get dozens of people who will try to help. Good luck with it!

The Mac has things like the eject button on it -- there's no way on the case to open the DVD drive door -- and volume controls. How will that work?

the wireless Mac keyboard has no mouse support, how am I supposed to use a mouse on the couch

We have these lovely new things called optical mice, that work on nearly any surface. There are even wireless ones. I have never had any trouble using my leg as a mousing surface with an optical, and neither will you unless you have a lot of pleather in your wardrobe.

Furthermore, the Apple keyboard and mouse are not included with the Mac mini. You are free to use any old wireless input device you choose, even non-Apple ones-- as long as it's USB you should be able to get it to work with the Mac, via Mac drivers from the maker or by using something like USB Overdrive.

USB Overdrive can be configured to do pretty much anything. (Including AppleScripts, so literally anything.)

Is there some webpage on how to *nixify OS X, do you know?

Really depends on how you want to approach it - x11 is there, or you can just tweak Aqua to suit your habits. MacUpdate.com and Versiontracker.com are your friends.

Just configure your third-party mouse driver (or a generic one like USB Overdrive) to make middle-click send command-click when you're in Firefox.

Yes, for example USB Overdrive - which doesn't support chording yet either. Jesus Christ, am I talking to a horde of imbeciles here?

I've got an 8-button mouse here, and only 2 of them work with the Mac.

Actually, the OS supports thousands of buttons, but Apple's standard driver is more limited. If the manufacturer of your mouse didn't bother to provide you with an OS X driver, you can probably get what you want with a 3rd party driver such as USB Overdrive

I got my 6 button mouse working on a mac with http://www.usboverdrive.com/ fine. I'll I want know is a similar app for windows, as I can only get 5 buttons to work how I want them:/

I have been using one of these for well over a year.

Coupled with USB Overdrive (Sorry, Mac only!) this is the best mouse I've ever used. Good luck finding one in North America, though.

I keep my hand straight and rest my arm on the desktop. The mousepad I use raises the mouse just enough so that I can rest my wrist on the pad and move the mouse with my fingers and a minimum of wrist/arm movement.

I've rotated the pad 90 degrees, so that the "top" is now one of the "sides". This give me more than enough room to move the mouse and still have sufficient area for resting my wrist on the pad. YMMV.

Not only is it a functionally superior mouse, it's also bloody gorgeous, too. A beautiful little piece of abstract sculpture on my desktop.

I can, and have, used it for hours at a time with no distress whatsoever.

I'd say that if you're somewhat familiar with Linux/BSD you'll be very comfortable in OS X. Just start in the Terminal and work your way out. If you want your traditional UNIXy tools, install the Fink project (which often leaves much to be desired, especially when installing fink itself, but it'll get the job done)

For me, other essentials include Adium (a multi-protocol instant messenger), Firefox (sorry Safari) USB Overdrive (I find USB mice to move much too slowly even at max system settings), and Meteorologist (little weather-sensing menubar app).

macosxhints also has a good number of tips and tricks that you might want to through.

Other than that, I can't think of any real problems I had migrating over. It takes a few days to get used to, but it really is fairly intuitive. Try to experiment a bit, particularly with your normal 'window' habits. You may find you like to do things a different way. I used to run everything maximized, now I don't ever run something maximized anymore, despite having a smaller screen. I couldn't tell you why, it just feels more comfortable to do things this way for me. If you have any question, just remember there's a 'help' command in every application, the help docs are usually very nice.

It only takes one mouse button to open the terminal

Mozilla's a pain to use with a one-button mouse...yes, you can hold it down to get a context menu, but right-clicking is faster. The wheel's also nice to have for opening links in new tabs as well as for scrolling...too bad the Mac OS X version of Mozilla doesn't support this functionality, but the Windows and Linux versions do. (FWIW, you can add USB Overdrive (or something similar) to add it back in, but this is basic functionality that ought to be built in.)

What if you want two, or (((GASP!!))) THREE mouse buttons???

Well, I just bought a wheel mouse and plugged it in. Workes dandy, and this on 6-yr old hardware.
Don't like Microsofts driver? Try USB Overdrive.

(tig)

No, no, no, the mouseclops is what kept me from buying any Apple product thus far. *shiver*

It works just fine, and I find that the scrollwheel as button causes me no distress whatsoever.

I'm using USB Overdrive as the driver for the mouse.

This lets me program each button for a specific function for whatever application I happen to be using at the time. For example, clicked wheel up & down controls the volume in SoundJam MP, my MP3 player of choice. The same function also lets me scroll through the playlist one song at a time. Yet, when in a browser window, a clicked up or down scrolls up or down a page at a time/scroll left right.

Mac OS and a multi button/scrollwheel mouse. It doesn't get much better than that.

Aside from being a darn good mouse, it's also a striking piece of desktop sculpture/art.

Despite what it says on the website, it is also compatible with Mac OS 8.5 through 9.2.2, even on older Macs with a USB port card in a PCI slot.

For OS 8.5 and 8.6. you do need to download some extra software from Apple, Apple USB Card Support 1.4.1 and GameSprockets 1.7.5.

Both can be found HERE .

And you really want to get USB Overdrive. Seriously, if you're on a Mac with USB and want to use a multibutton optic mouse, USB Overdrive is the killer app for you.

USB Overdrive can be found HERE.

I bought an Elecom MAPP mouse designed by Shirow Masamune via eBay, to use on my PowerMacintosh 5400/200.

It's an absolutely beautiful work of art, as well as being a fine mouse.

There are a couple of sources for it here in North America. JLIST has it, as do several other vendors. Google is your friend.

Despite the curious asymmetrical shape of the mouse, it's quite comfortable in the hand. You don't hold it, so much as you rest your hand on it. Even though it looks small, it fits my large gaijin hand very well.It's very light and moves with hardly any effort. The scrollwheel is made from some kind of soft polymer, just tacky enough to ensure a non-slip feel to it.

The mouse engine itself is 800ppi, I'm not sure how many times it images, though. The mouse cord is about 3 feet long, which is nice for when I sit back and use the mouse on my trouser leg.

I did need to get a PCI USB port card for the Mac, as well as USB Overdrive, a shareware driver for both Classic and OS X Mac OS's. It allows one to fully use all the buttons and wheels on a mouse or trackball or joystick.

One can also program each indivdual button for use in any application, as well as mouse pointer "speed". Slower for smaller screens or precise positioning, or faster for big screens.

It's well worth the modest US$20.00 shareware fee.

What I find ironic is my microsoft mouse has better driver support on my mac running os x than on my pc running windows. On my mac, I can configure any of the buttons to perform any action including running scripts and have those actions vary depending on which application I am currently running. This provides me with a very powerful tool in any program for which I wish to program it. Of course, microsoft didn't write such sterling drivers on their own. They relied on the author of usb overdrive, which is a great general tool for programming usb mice, trackballs, gamepads, and the like. I just wish their was a comparable program/drivers available for windows.

Mac OS X fully supports two-button mice with scroll wheels. There's no configuration or special drivers involved; just plug it in and go. As you'd expect, the right button calls up a contextual menu, and the scroll wheel, er, scrolls.

On Mac OS 9, you'd need to load a driver. Most mice come with the right software. There's a popular shareware program, USB Overdrive, that will work with any USB mouse (and most other USB human-interface devices, for that matter). The driver just has to map the right click to a click with the Control key held down, which brings up the contextual menu. This feature has been in Mac OS for some time.

Have you ever tried to help a person who isn't a computer expert over the telephone and walk them through using a two-button mouse? The majority of people who use a computer don't realize what the right button is for. The term "right-click" confuses them. You may think that it shouldn't be confusing, but the plain fact is, it is confusing to a whole lot of people. No amount of deeply-held personal belief will change that reality.

By shipping computers with a one-button mouse, and designing the user interface so that every feature is accessible with just one button, Apple has made the system a lot more comprehensible to people who aren't into computers. The contextual menus are shortcuts, and you can use the full system without ever knowing about them. When you're ready, you can purchase an inexpensive mouse with a second button, and away you go.

I've seen way too many Windows programs where you have to right-click to access parts of the program. Perhaps that's why the "Windows keyboard" has the almost-useless "contextual menu" key between Ctrl and Alt to the left of the spacebar, where you can hit it by accident and screw up what you were doing?

Besides, mice are a personal thing. A mouse that's comfortable for one person is hell for another. (I'd love to meet the person that thought the original Apple USB mouse, the hockey puck, was comfortable.) It's not such a bad thing for people to buy an unbundled mouse.

When I used a Mac, I was quite impressed by the quality of the shareware out there. The ratio of good software to crap -- and some of it is *very* good, without even a commercial equivalent, like USB Overdrive -- is much higher on the Mac than Windows. I think some of it may be Visual Basic. It's really easy for a non-programmer to sit down and roll out a complete piece of junk, and have delusions of actually making money on it.

I've found that, when it comes to both shareware and interesting binary hacks, the Mac has a much healthier community than Windows.

On the other hand, the Linux open-source community is even better...

I have dual monitors on my mac, both at 1600x1200, and it takes 3 lift-up put-downs of the optical mouse, with the senstivity put all the way up. Now on my PC with dual monitors, I can traverse the whole screen(s) quickly with one motion.

However, I'll take Logitech over Microsoft any day. I still haven't forgiven them for AmigaBASIC. And Kensington still uses mechanical pickups.

While it may not be the best for gaming, use of an IBM TrackPoint, built into the keyboard, makes for very efficient use of hand and finger motion, resulting in a lot less "brain strain". No more hunting of the hand between an external pointing device and the home keys. It's even more efficient than an integrated trackpad.
See this for an example.
The TrackPoint even works with MacOS and MacOS X, using USB Overdrive.

I have the MS Intellimouse with 5 buttons and a scroll wheel too. On a mac. Just install an extension [USBOverdrive.com], reboot, and voila. Plus you can configure all buttons too. This is a non-issue. Beginners like the simplicity of a zero-button mouse. 'Power users' can buy a multi-button mouse. End of the story.

I like my single button mouse. Control + click gets the same result as the right click and is just as simple (for my purposes). If you want a multi-button mouse, buy it and add Alessandro Levi Montalcini's USB Overdrive to take full advantage. Works with joysticks and gamepads, too (if InputSprockets doesn't suffice.).

Oh yes, I know, I'm getting off-topic now.