3-Button Mice - An Endangered Species?

eschasi asks: "eschasi recently got a new job, which includes a new PC on which to run UNIX and X. After much grovelling through the vendor catalog and the used equipment boxes for a simple 3-button mouse, he finally had to bring one from home. Shortly thereafter he was browsing the local CompUSAs and BestBuys, and saw not a single actual 3-button mouse. Oh yes, there were things which masqueraded as 3-button mice, but they weren't. They were scroll mice where you had to depress the scroll to get a middle click, or where the third button was under the thumb, or where the third button was unreachable because of the scroll. Sun's still come with 3-button mice, so there must be some being made. Are these still in the retail market anywhere? Frankly, they're too small for eschasi's big hands. The only place a basic 3-button mouse was found for sale was eBay, and they guy selling it called it 'rare.' Is the classic 3-button mouse largely dead? If so, what are you folks moving toward?"

Comments

How is a scroll wheel mouse not a three button?

[wowbagger]

I don't understand why the story poster differentiates between a "three button mouse" and a scroll wheel mouse in which the wheel is the third button.

True, some scroll mice have the problem that the wheel will generate scroll events when the scroll wheel is clicked. If this is a problem, then simply configure X to NOT recognize such events. Voi la - a three button mouse.

Re:How is a scroll wheel mouse not a three button?

[I Be Hatin']

I don't understand why the story poster differentiates between a "three button mouse" and a scroll wheel mouse in which the wheel is the third button.

Because the middle button on a wheel mouse is a lame excuse for a real button. My middle button is a big , wide button with a stable feel to it. In other words, it's intended to be a button. The middle button on every wheel mouse I've tried is narrow, awkward, and obviously not intended to be a button in the first place.

Re:How is a scroll wheel mouse not a three button?

[sporktoast]

Myself, I'd certainly differentiate between a scroll-wheel mouse and a generic three-button mouse. When I want to press the middle button, I don't want it rolling around under my finger (or tilting, the way some of the track-point style ones do).

That said, I think the poster just isn't doing his homework. I realize that Micro Center is only in about 13 States, but their online store seems to have about a half dozen likely candidates. $1.50 for a white Belkin, or be a big spender and plop down a whole fiver for the same, but in black.

Re:How is a scroll wheel mouse not a three button?

[nocomment]

because in newer x apps (galeon for example), the third button on the scroll actually does the same thing it does in windows ( becomes a multi-headed arrow in a circle, which you simply move the mouse about to scroll in any direction ).

Really, a Scroll mouse with third button emulation is the way to go. YOu get the best of both worlds with that. YOu get the scroll events in the apps that recognize them, and still get to keep middle-click pasting.

Re:How is a scroll wheel mouse not a three button?

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't understand why the story poster differentiates between a "three button mouse" and a scroll wheel mouse in which the wheel is the third button.

Usually the wheel has more tension that a button - it's a bit harder to press, which is noticible if you have RSI. But sometimes that can be fixed by opening up the mouse and removing a spring.

Re:How is a scroll wheel mouse not a three button?

[Snowspinner]

Open Intellipoint

Take that function off of the button.

ALL DONE!

Re:How is a scroll wheel mouse not a three button?

[yosemite]

I have been using a logitech 2 button/wheel button optical mouse for at least a year. After using this device for extended periods of time I can confidently say that its just as easy to use a middle scroll as a middle button.

I have learned.

I can't speak for you, or the freakish condition of your flippers, but for me it is just as easy to use a thin scroll wheel as a fat middle button.

Re:How is a scroll wheel mouse not a three button?

[DrZaius]

The productivity gained by the scroller is worth not having a real button. The scroller functioned fine and did not have a problem on every scroll mouse I've used. I use X quite a bit, which means a lot of middle mouse button clicking. Sticking with Logitech and Microsoft through the ages has served me well.

Everyone I've ever discussed it with agrees that the optical scroll mouse is the pinacle of mice technology.

Re:How is a scroll wheel mouse not a three button?

[IM6100]

What is 'Intellipoint'? I've never installed one of those CD's that came with a MS wheel mouse into Windows. And I've never seen an 'intellipoint' app on my X based machine (NetBSD with fvwm2).

The middle button simply acts as the third button on my machine.

Re:How is a scroll wheel mouse not a three button?

[Brandybuck]

I'm using the original Trackman Marble 3-button. It's awesome.

What's wrong with a scroll wheel? Several things. First, most scroll mice aren't wide enough for three fingers to rest naturally. A two button scroll mouse that isn't any wider than a two button non-scroll mouse is too narrow.

Second, given a wider two button mouse that I can comfortable rest my middle finger on, I need a scrollwheel that is stiff enough that I'm not scrolling accidentally all the time.

Third, a scrollwheel isn't a button, even though it can act like one. It doesn't feel like a button. What if instead of two buttons and a scrollwheel, there were only one button and a scrollwheel? Click on the scroll wheel for the RMB. Do you think people would be happy with that? Of course not!

Fourth, and most important, why shouldn't I have a real middle button? Since 98% of my computing is done in a UNIX environment, that middle button gets used a lot. More often than the right button in fact.

A scrollwheel is convenient. I won't deny that. But why must it be on the mouse. Think about it. You don't position anything when you're using a scrollwheel. And you don't need any fine control over it. A scrollwheel on the middle-bottom of the keyboard would be much more convenient. Or keep it on the mouse but put it on the left side by the thumb.

Re:How is a scroll wheel mouse not a three button?

[leonbrooks]

I use an AOpen O-35G total-of-five-buttons-including-one-on-a-scroll-wh eel optical mouse. The two scroll-wheels are both fairly broad and positive, but only one of them is clickable. I saw this as a shortcoming when I first bought it (wanted an extra button), but IRL I use the second wheel for scrolling and the first as a button. That way, I don't risk "nervous finger", a disease occasioned by using Microsoft scroll-wheel mice that treat the gentlest caress of the wheel as a click. The AOpen mouse is also lighter than most other mice (except for frail/unreliable brands like Dexxa), which makes it less wearing to use, and more manageable for kids.

Specifically for children, I use and recommend a matchbox-sized optical scroll wheel mouse I get from Big W's stationery department. It is labelled "GO TECH COMPUTERWARE | Keycode: 439 2347 | Model: IA20074B | N433 | Made in China". The red LED in it is easy to change for another colour. The LED's frequency/spectrum doesn't seem to matter, as long as it is high efficiency.

Re:How is a scroll wheel mouse not a three button?

[Belgand]

Because using the arrow keys (which, incidentally, can scroll much, much faster when held down for a bit) was such a phenomenal pain. I'm glad that we're past those terrifying days of yore.

Before scroll mice came around I wasn't aware that anyone actually used those little scroll bars. I just use mine to keep track of where I am in a document. The people using the little buttons on the bar quite frankly scare me.

Re:How is a scroll wheel mouse not a three button?

[FreeForm Response]

A scrollwheel on the middle-bottom of the keyboard would be much more convenient.

Check it.

Maybe not the middle bottom, but still pretty cool, if you ask me. Microsoft may suck at a lot of things, but they can usually churn out pretty decent hardware.

Re:How is a scroll wheel mouse not a three button?

[hummassa]

If you are 16hr/day using your mouse, 6-7days/week, you'll need to reduce number of mouse/keyboard round trips after a while.

Re:How is a scroll wheel mouse not a three button?

[cdrudge]

Many Logitech keyboards have a scroll whell along the left side of the keyboard as well.

Re:How is a scroll wheel mouse not a three button?

[Belgand]

Round trips? I'm not quite certain what you're doing with your other hand, but I'm quite capable of keeping on the arrow keys and one on the mouse. Scroll wheels are just far too slow for moving more than one or two lines at a time.

Re:How is a scroll wheel mouse not a three button?

[Fluffy the Cat]

There's no simple way for an X application to tell whether a button 2 event is from a 3 button mouse or from a scroll mouse. Clicking the middle button on a 3 button mouse gives you the scrolling behaviour in galeon.

Re:How is a scroll wheel mouse not a three button?

[jwbozzy]

Agreed. I've been using IBM Optical Navigators (mmm blue light up scroll wheel) exclusively for a year now. Before that, MS Intellimouse Explorers. These each have 4 or 5 buttons. There are no 3 button mice anymore because the scroll wheel IS the button. It's called an advance in technology, and in this case it is time to move on

Re:How is a scroll wheel mouse not a three button?

[irc.goatse.cx troll]

"some scroll mice have the problem that the wheel will generate scroll events when the scroll wheel is clicked"

Its worse than that, even when not even touching the wheel HalfLife will randomly register an event, which is a real pain considering I have my mousewheel down set to switch to a flashbang and mousewheel up set to switch to a grenade, so out of nowhere in the middle of a fire fight I'll be force to pull out a grenade, leaving me unable to shoot for about 500ms, enough time to get shot in the face :/

Re:How is a scroll wheel mouse not a three button?

[hummassa]

Which hand? Maybe you're lucky and left handed, but my arrow keys are in the right side of the keyboard, the same side as my mouse. To use them with my left hand (hours and hours a day...) would be very, very uncomfortable.
As to being slow, it's configurable (at least on KDE and moz), and you can make it quicker holding ctrl, alt, or whatever you have configured to be "mode page up/down on scroll wheel"...

Re:How is a scroll wheel mouse not a three button?

[Anonymous Coward]

remember, dont buy belkin, they fucked up big time

Re:How is a scroll wheel mouse not a three button?

[qed123]

I picked up a Logitech optical mouse from Wal-mart like a year ago, and before I had actually tried it, I had many of the same reservations as you. However it took like 20 minutes for me to fall in love with the scroll wheel/middle button. I find that I rest my index finger on the scroll wheel, and my middle finger on the right button. I've never really paid too much attention to the pure size of the mouse however, if it got much bigger it would definitely start being a little cumbursome. Now the wheel has these notches. I agree with you if it was easy for the wheel to turn all of the time it would be annoying. However it has like these 18 degree notches in the mouse and unless you turn it beyond the notch it doesn't scroll at all. And to be honest with you, the scroll wheel just "feels" like a middle button to me, the click and pressure and everything involved in pushing it down just feels right on. And I know you don't think that a scrollwheel on the mouse would be very convienient...and at first I definitely wondered why the heck you would want such a thing?? But hey it's soooo nice to be able to click anywhere on a page or document and be able to scroll up and down without moving all the way over to the app scroll bar. I should add that if you have the keyboard stashed away, like to make room for a bowl of cereal when your checking the morning news sites or Slashdot, the scroll wheel is very very useful, especially with middle button set to open link in a new tab in the background in Konqueror or Mozilla. Also the only time that the scroll wheel depressed behaves like the stupid (turn into scroll mode, move mouse up and down to scroll browser) is in Mozilla, and I'm pretty sure that that's an option during compile time. Otherwise it behaves exactly like a middle mouse button in every other application and environment. I think I had to add a line to my XF86Config file, but since then it just works awesome in practically every X app.

I guess I am giving this mouse a big couple thumbs up. It being optical I've never needed a mouse pad and it's never needed cleaning, and the greatest thing....it's Extremely inexpensive, like in the $10 range (or maybe less, it was like a year ago when I got mine.)

You should check it out and see if you like it!

Re:How is a scroll wheel mouse not a three button?

[Glonoinha]

Is it my imagination or did that Microsoft keyboard take the function keys and make four groups of three across the top (deviating from the normal four groups of three)?

Holy fuck, why not just rearrange all the keys on the damn keyboard while they are at it. I don't even think about keyboarding anymore - after 20+ years the keyboard is simply an extension of my thought process, words move from my head to the screen in a swift fluid motion ... and things will go bad when they start dicking with the layout.

Look at the keys in the center cluster, the insert/delete/home/page up/down/ are all fucked up too.

Microsoft if you are listening, don't jack with the layout. Keyboard layout isn't an opportunity to express your artistic inner being, it is a standardized user interface. You will sell a LOT more keyboards if you extend the standard layout rather than fuck it up. I want one of those keyboards with a scrolly wheel, but there is no way I am buying that whacked version.

That said, FFResponse, I agree with you 100% - Microsoft makes some killer hardware, mice in particular. You can have my Microsoft 5 button Intellimouse (red light) when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers. As I recall, their joysticks are top notch also.

Re:How is a scroll wheel mouse not a three button?

[Snowspinner]

Intellipoint is what those CDs you never installed have on them.

It's the driver/configuration utility for Microsoft pointing products. It's what let you make the middle button not send you into the weird and rather useless auto-scroll mode under Windows, and instead reliably act as a third button, which is what was being complained about.

Re:How is a scroll wheel mouse not a three button?

[ShavenYak]

What's really funny is that I'm sure they rearranged the center cluster to save space. But then, they wasted that space and more with the huge expanse of darker plastic on which they've put five tiny buttons, a rocker, and a wheel.

That's like the epitome of bad design, but it's not just Microsoft. All the "internet keyboards" have similar idiocies. I guess that's why I still use an IBM Model M at home.

Re:How is a scroll wheel mouse not a three button?

[HTH NE1]

Maybe you're lucky and left handed, but my arrow keys are in the right side of the keyboard, the same side as my mouse.

That's one of my gripes about keyboards. The way they add all the additional keys on the right it is like they expect you to either use a left-handed mouse or a keyboard tray that's longer on the left than the right.

Give me a keyboard where the numeric keypad is on the left side instead. Or a three-piece keyboard that lets me place the numeric keypad, cursor key cluster section, and main keyboard where I want them.

Re:How is a scroll wheel mouse not a three button?

[spinkham]

I also like a big old style normal third button... When I play Quake, use the middle button as reverse, right button as forward, and left button as shoot.
I also do a lot of cutting and pasting in X, and a real button is just so much easier then a scroll weel for me.

Re:How is a scroll wheel mouse not a three button?

[Rysc]

I second that. Belkin cheapo 3-buton mice are crap.

Re:How is a scroll wheel mouse not a three button?

[spinkham]

BTW, I use an older Logitech First Mouse 3 Button, they are still avalible, and are a pretty good quality mechanical mouse. I have been keeping my eyes out for an equivalent optical mouse, but so far no luck.
I have a big old ratpadz plastic mouse pad that makes the mechanical mouse ok if I keep it clean, but pure optical would make me happier..

Re:How is a scroll wheel mouse not a three button?

[Brandybuck]

However it took like 20 minutes for me to fall in love with the scroll wheel/middle button.

It took me a whole week before I got rid of mine. During that entire week I was very uncomfortable with it, but I figured I would adjust to it. I never did.

Re:How is a scroll wheel mouse not a three button?

[NeMon'ess]

I like the idea of 4 groups of 3 buttons. If I'm not looking at the screen, feeling for the key I want would be just a little more simple.

As for the center cluster, they've been made more useful. In Windows, the Insert key is almost never used anymore. The Delete key is quite often used, and makes more sense to an inexperienced user than the Backspace key. I, and probably the majority of others, use Home more often than End. In the new arrangement, Page Up and Down are one key-width closer.

Re:How is a scroll wheel mouse not a three button?

[Glonoinha]

I can agree with what you are saying and still retort with this :

In today's vehicles the pedal arrangement is : Clutch, Brake, Gas. Most people don't give it much thought anymore and rely on muscle memory to create a direct link from thought to vehicle control. It may be argued that rearranging them Clutch, Gas, Brake is more efficient, but that won't stop a million people a year from killing themselves with the new arrangement. More likely, the cars with the new arrangement won't sell very well and the company is screwing themselves out of LOTS of sales because they fukt with the arrangement.

See also : Dvorak keyboards.

That said, I was ready to buy one of those Microsoft keyboards until I noticed they tweaked the key arrangement. I wonder if Logitech has taken any artistic liberties with the layout on their new keyboards - I like Logitech keyboards just as much as MSoft.

Re:How is a scroll wheel mouse not a three button?

[SamHill]

Is it my imagination or did that Microsoft keyboard take the function keys and make four groups of three across the top (deviating from the normal four groups of three)?

Dell did the same thing with their ``Performance USB Keyboard''. I couldn't believe it, and, sure enough, the first user to get one of these keyboards asked for an old one. Since then, we order their cheapo PS/2 keyboards.

Re:How is a scroll wheel mouse not a three button?

[Anonymous Coward]

And "newer X apps" run on Windows now?

Re:How is a scroll wheel mouse not a three button?

[Zork the Almighty]

They'll have to pry my Logitech MouseMan out of my cold, dead, hands. Yes, the only picture of it I could find is on a Russian page. I knew I should have bought another one of these to keep as a backup :)

Re:How is a scroll wheel mouse not a three button?

[Sunnan]

If a wheel is as nice to push/press as a button, why don't we have three wheels instead of buttons?

I hate scroll wheels. I don't mind thumb buttons (though they're easily hit by mistake).

Re:How is a scroll wheel mouse not a three button?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd be careful buying any new keyboard these days. Both Microsoft and Logitech seem to have implemented this silly "f-lock" key - your function keys only work as function keys if you press "f-lock", otherwise they're pointless Internet navigation keys! And it's a hardware switch, unlike numlock and capslock, so there's no way to make it default to "on", oh no, you have to press it every time you switch your computer on.

Now that is fucking stupid.

Re:How is a scroll wheel mouse not a three button?

[wolrahnaes]

The Logitech diNovo Cordless Desktop should fit your needs fine.

It is a Bluetooth based combo of the MX900 mouse (same as the MX700, but Bluetooth), a keyboard, and a seperate numeric keypad. The keypad also has a display for using it as an independant calculator and for displaying e-mail and IM alerts.

It's $249, so it's kinda expensive, but if you have the cash to blow, I'd say go for it.

Re:How is a scroll wheel mouse not a three button?

[anthonyrcalgary]

"What's wrong with a scroll wheel? Several things. First, most scroll mice aren't wide enough for three fingers to rest naturally. A two button scroll mouse that isn't any wider than a two button non-scroll mouse is too narrow."

My mouse.

I've got big hands and that little thing is fine... I shudder to think how much they spent on ergonomics consultants, because this thing is fantastic.

There's some SunOS 5.8 machines at work that it doesn't work on, but for the most part I prefer it to whatever mouse is already on a system that I'm using.

Re:How is a scroll wheel mouse not a three button?

[Sxooter]

One other thing they did was to put the top row 6 on the LEFT instead of the right. touch typists and most other ergo keyboards put it where it belongs, on the right. If they insist on putting a 6 on the left, why not put a duplicate one on the right where it belongs so touch typists aren't constantly cursing their shiny new MS keyboards.

I solved the problem by just bringing in my own damned keyboard from home at work.

Re:How is a scroll wheel mouse not a three button?

[ls -lR]

I agree completely. I don't know what kind of backwater these people are living in, but the thought of actually having to move the mouse pointer over to some thin little scroll widget to move text up and down gives me shivers. The scroll wheel is a godsend, and looking back I don't know how I got along without it.

I happen to have my middle button/scroll wheel mapped to "close window" which I find very useful. It takes a little getting used to but I find that the action of moving over the little "X" widget to close a window or dismiss a dialog is so common that I save a great deal of time being able to do it with a single click, without moving the pointer. And yes, I find the scroll wheel 100% usable as a mouse button, with no regrets. It may take a little practice but it's definitely worth it for the scrolling function gained.

One thing to watch out for is cheap mice. I can certainly see how crappy $5 mice might have a substandard scroll whell. I have a branded mouse and the click of the wheel is perfect.

Re:How is a scroll wheel mouse not a three button?

[Mr. Slippery]

Maybe you're lucky and left handed, but my arrow keys are in the right side of the keyboard, the same side as my mouse. To use them with my left hand (hours and hours a day...) would be very, very uncomfortable.

Actually, while I'm right handed I moused left for several years to help balance out the stress on my hands. Mouse left, operate arrow keys with right.

I hurt my left wrist a few months ago so I'm mousing right for a while to give Lefty a break.(Actually, not mousing but trackballing - Logitech marble mouse, best ambidextrous solution I could find. Large ball worked with fingers, not thumn, four buttons, no scroll wheel.)

Re:How is a scroll wheel mouse not a three button?

[Ambush_Bug]

look, the poor guy just wants to know where he can buy a
real 3 button mouse..... and here slashdot goes debating the whether or not he should want one, and
restating the reasons he can't find one.

personally i don't give a rat's ass if you have a touch screen and click everything with your genitals, or if you do
everything in emacs... i think people should use what they're comfortable with.

So I'll restate the question for him: Where can you find a real 3 button mouse for a PC with no scroll wheel?

I have one in my drawer...... a real big fat logitech which was quite nice. But I hated having to clean its balls all the time and decided to go with an optical mouse (yes, with a scroll wheel). Maybe I should put it on eBay... muahhahaha!

And just to add more fuel to the flame war, my 3 button scroll wheel mouse is quite functional on my Mac.... just in case you were wondering. ;)

Re:How is a scroll wheel mouse not a three button?

[Ambush_Bug]

actually, upon closer inspection, i misinterpreted the question. the question is "is the 3 button mouse dead?"
and "if you don't use one, what do you use?"

so i guess the answers are: "yes" and "a scroll wheel mouse, stupid., if i'm interpreting correctly.

i take back my pissy troll.... cut me some slack, it's
early in my time zone.

Re:How is a scroll wheel mouse not a three button?

[Axess Denyd]

There's already a scroll wheel on a keyboard on the lower right.

Only it's called "cursor keys".

The point of a scroll wheel is that when doing things such as looking at web pages, you tend to always have one hand on the mouse. The other does not sit at the keyboard the whole time.

And as a left-handeder, my thumb is not on the left side of the mouse. I decry you as a racist.

Re:How is a scroll wheel mouse not a three button?

[Tower]

IBM sells mice (like the one I use at work) that have three real buttons, and the scroll thing (not a wheel, bigger than the trackpoint nub) that is quite usable. See an example at IBM's web site. The third button is smaller than the other two, and in front of the scroll point, but it fits well, and I find it great under multiple OSs (I switch between WinXP, AIX, and Linux at work, both via KVM and VNC sessions).

It very well may be made by Logitech (as many of the IBM kb/mice have been over the past few years), so I'm sure someone else makes one that is the same, but I find it to be a nice compromise without having to ever press the wheel. I think *that* is the best of both worlds.

Re:How is a scroll wheel mouse not a three button?

[jesboat]

I agree with this: I'd take a two-button plus scroll-wheel-button mouse any day over a plain three-button or a (god forbid) two button. My real prefrence is that Logitech trackball. The thumb rolls the ball, and the fingers operate a left and right button, with a scroll-wheel-button in between. It's like a mouse, but instead of moving it, you use your thumb on the ball. It's really nice. There's a new even nicer wireless model that fits my hand better, but it's more expensive. ANYhow, this is just my $0.02

Re:How is a scroll wheel mouse not a three button?

[rsadelle]

Fifth, RSI. I have a scroll wheel mouse at work, and I got used to scrolling every time I wanted to move down a page. Then my knuckle started to hurt all the time. It took me a few days, but I finally realized that it was hurting because of the scrolling. I've retrained myself not to use the scroll wheel, and now my knuckle is much better.

Re:How is a scroll wheel mouse not a three button?

[bill_mcgonigle]

A scrollwheel is convenient. I won't deny that. But why must it be on the mouse.

I've been meaning to try one of these as a scroller to go with my scroll-less trackball.

Just need to find my desk first...

Re:How is a scroll wheel mouse not a three button?

[aldoman]

I agree - I very rarely use the function keys in either OSX, Windows XP or Fedora Linux so I just 'peck and hunt' for them. Grouping them into smaller groups would make it easier...

Let me see

[ttfkam]

Standard 3-button mouse or wheel mouse. And you want the standard 3-button? Hunh?

There's a reason they're not being sold as much. You can click a wheel perfectly well, but you can't scroll a button.

Re:Let me see

[trentfoley]

You can click a wheel perfectly well, but you can't scroll a button

Sounds like a song by REO Speedwagon.

While the wheel can and does function as a button, I can understand the frustration of the poster. I have used various wheel mice and have yet to find consistent feel even between identical models (logitech cordless freedom pro excluded). On some mice, scrolling the wheel inadvertently generates clicks if the spring is too soft. If too hard, you generate scrolls when having to force the click.

For those that are used to a true 3 button mouse (we are slowly dying off) there will never be an acceptable substitute.

And, yes, I am typing this on an IBM Lexmark Keyboard. clickety clickety clickety

Re:Let me see

[OneFix]

StrongBad agrees :)

Re:Let me see

[rekkanoryo]

I use a Microsoft Trackball Optical (I hate M$, but I have to admit they make damn nice keyboards and mice). Actually I have 4 of them, one on each of my PCs. They provide a consistent feel on the scroll wheel, and the wheel is sufficiently large to pose as a 3rd button for me. There are also two extra buttons that are slim and long on the outside of the mouse--these are excellent for remapping things to the mouse. And they are very difficult to hit by accident, but not difficult to click on purpose.

On the other hand, I've found that the Logitech scroll wheels are far too soft and sometimes register as many as five scroll events when it should register only one. I will, however, admit that I haven't yet tried the model you speak of.

For regular mice, I've found the Microsoft Wheel Mouse Optical the ideal mouse--its scroll wheel has an identical feel to the four Trackball Opticals that I have. It is a basic mouse with just two buttons and the scroll wheel that can act as a middle button. It's the ONLY non-trackball mouse I've ever found that fits my hand properly--all others are too small.

Hope this helps

Re:Let me see

[anthony_philipp]

they dont actually make them, they have others make them and put their name on it. but i agree their hardware aint too shabby.

Re:Let me see

[schon]

You can click a wheel perfectly well

If this was true, there would be no mice with buttons - you'd have them with three scroll-wheels instead...

As a previous poster already said - imagine if your RMB was a scroll-wheel - how happy would you be with it?

The fact that mice come with buttons and wheels shows that they are not, in fact, the same.

Re:Let me see

[ttfkam]

I never said they were the same. Okay, let me rephrase: You can click a wheel in place of a third button perfectly well. A large portion of the consumer population seems to agree with me.

Just because a scroll wheel can be used as a button does not mean that it's logical to have nothing but scroll wheels. You are trying to adapt the notion of ad absurdum, taking a particular facet of an argument to its most extreme case. This rarely works with engineering. For example, a suspension bridge may have three towers over the span. By your logic, because having twenty towers would be untenable, suspension bridges are foolish.

The fact that mouses come with buttons and wheels shows that they are not, in fact, the same. We are in agreement there. I am merely asserting the wheel mouses are largely superior in that button-only mouses lack the ability to scroll -- a very common activity for most of us with a GUI -- while wheel mouses can scroll in addition to performing all duties of the button-only mouse. Add to it that most individuals either don't use the third mouse button or, like me, did not find it to be such a vast hardship to hone the required hand/finger coordination to use both the third button feature and the wheel.

If three wheels were sufficiently easy to use (and a suitable usage were found), I'd advocate for them too. As it stands, I doubt that they would be. On the other hand, I do find single wheel mouses extremely easy to use.

Re:Let me see

[Anonymous Coward]

A large portion of the consumer population seems to agree with me

No, a large portion of the consumer population moved to a wheel mouse from a two button mouse and never saw the need for a true 3-button mouse.

Re:Let me see

[ttfkam]

Then why have mouse manufacturers been shipping drivers that map the third button for years?

Does everyone use the third button? Of course not. There are many folks (novice Mac users) who use just one.

However, your rebuttal serves my point better than yours. The consumer population in general sees value in a wheel where they didn't see (as much) value in a third button. Whereas the third button never really took off (for whatever reasons), the wheels caused a huge influx of new mouse purchases. I think that speaks volumes.

In addition, even with a two-button mouse, you can click both buttons to simulate a third button (a chord): a single step. The alternative for mouses without a wheel (on OSes that support it), is to hit the third button to enable mouse scroll and again to turn it off: a two step process. When switching between apps/windows, one is better. Then again, with the wheel acting as a button, you have the best of both worlds.

Re:Let me see

[mph]

You can click a wheel in place of a third button perfectly well. A large portion of the consumer population seems to agree with me.

You can do work in Windows in place of Unix perfectly well. A large portion of the consumer population seems to agree with me.

This may be true, but it's irrelevant. Some of us, myself included, strongly prefer a real, honest-to-god, middle button that's just as big as the other two, and feels like the other two. Yes, we could use a wheel, just like we could drink Pepsi instead of Coke, or eat french fries instead of onion rings, or even drive a Ford.

Faking a proper button with a wheel, like faking a proper keyboard layout (control next to A, Esc next to 1) with xmodmap, is a pain in the ass inflicted on us by the Windows-centric market. Fortunately, I still have my Logitech 3-button mouse and my Sun mouse. My precious...

Re:Let me see

[stu42j]

On the other hand, I've found that the Logitech scroll wheels are far too soft and sometimes register as many as five scroll events when it should register only one.

I find it odd that you would say that. I have found the scroll wheel on my Logitech to be much stiffer than the one on my Microsoft.

In fact, Microsoft recently decided to remove the 'click' on the wheel while Logitech said that their research indicates that users like the 'feedback'. Perhaps the two companies have swapped positions.

Re:Let me see

[rekkanoryo]

I've owned two Logitech optical mice that are the same model (I can't remember the model offhand, but it's a $30 model) and used at least three others similar to it. Both of the ones I've owned have an extremely soft wheel click--in fact, I can barely feel the click at all--and the others are only marginally better. Some of Compaq's rebadged Logitechs are even worse, which is something I thought utterly impossible, although I have found one that had a proper feel to it. It was the mouse that came with my mother's Compaq Presario 5400US.

Humor me and make it a point to stop by the mouse display in your local Circuit City, CompUSA, etc. next time you go and find a MS Trackball Optical. Try its wheel out. I haven't found a person yet that doesn't prefer the feel of that wheel to any other brand's.

Re:Let me see

[madcow_ucsb]

Agreed. Nothing pisses me off more than sitting down at a computer (be it running XP, Linux, or Mac OS) and seeing my mouse doesn't have a wheel.

Actually, what pisses me off more than that is brainded apps somehow written to not respond to the wheel...

Re:Let me see

[schon]

You can click a wheel in place of a third button perfectly well.

No, I can't.

Just because a scroll wheel can be used as a button does not mean that it's logical to have nothing but scroll wheels.

Why not? You said that a wheel is better than a button, because you can "click it perfectly well". Why then, does it not follow that all buttons should be replaced by wheels?

You are trying to adapt the notion of ad absurdum, taking a particular facet of an argument to its most extreme case

Of course, to show how absurd the statement really is. (Which you haven't refuted, BTW.)

By your logic, because having twenty towers would be untenable, suspension bridges are foolish.

No, my logic says nothing like that. Because you can't have a suspension bridge with no towers.

I am merely asserting the wheel mouses are largely superior

Actually, you asserted that the wheel mouse is perfectly superior. So, it thusly follows that there is no need for buttons at all. (After all, if something is perfect, then it cannot be improved upon.)

Re:Let me see

[stu42j]

My Dad used to have a MS Trackball Optical and I don't remember the wheel but the hole that the ball sat in was not perfectly round so the ball would stick when you tried to roll it. He ended up getting a Logitech instead. I will try to remember to check one out the next time I have the chance, though.

Just for the record, the Logitech MX700 that I got for Christmas last year has a very stiff-click wheel.

Re:Let me see

[ttfkam]

You can't click a wheel as a third button even after giving a little bit of training time? Methinks you have some hand coordination issues that far outweigh the need for a third button.

Scroll wheel

[Cuthalion]

Is the classic 3-button mouse largely dead? If so, what are you folks moving toward?

You mean what did everyone start using so long that nobody even makes the old 3-button mouses anymore?

Most people I know use wheel mouses, duh. I use a Logitech Trackman Wheel.

In Windows the third mouse button was never very heavily used, which is why it's being relegated to the secondary function of the scroll wheel, which gets used tons. I for one find the soft rubbery click of the scroll wheel a sublime tactile sensation. Plus it scrolls stuff!

Though really, what's wrong with clicking the scroll wheel to middle click? It's in the middle (like the old middle button used to be) and if you have a stiff enough one (logitech!) then you won't also accidently scroll while doing it.

Re:Scroll wheel

[Thing 1]

I for one find the soft rubbery click of the scroll wheel a sublime tactile sensation.

Your finger goes from solid form to gaseous without stopping at the liquid state in between? Neat!

PS Welcoming the sublimating overlords as well. ;-)

Re:Scroll wheel

[Brandybuck]

Though really, what's wrong with clicking the scroll wheel to middle click?

Because it's not a button. I work in a UNIX environment 98% of the time, and I actually use the middle button more often than the right button.

Would you accept a mouse that didn't have a right button but a scrollwheel instead? You can still click on it, so what's the problem? My guess is that you wouldn't like it though.

Button Numbers on Mice

[Bombcar]

Didn't you get the memo? The number of buttons is like the size of the subwoofer or speed of the processor! Get with the timez!

1 button mouse: Click your single |3u770n, n00b!
2 button mouse: Stiff, corporate dweeb.
3 button mouse: Trying to be cool
5 button mouse: Cool in a Yugo sort of way
7 button mouse: Almost there.
9 button mouse with scroll wheel: H4x0r g0d!

Of course, I blow everyone away with my 105 button mouse.....

Re:Button Numbers on Mice

[srmalloy]

9 button mouse with scroll wheel: H4x0r g0d!

I couldn't find a nine-button mouse with scroll wheel, but I did find a ten-button trackball with scroll wheel... but the most outrageous mouse I've ever seen was a three-button mouse that also had a ten-key numeric pad and an array of programmable buttons -- something like thirty or forty buttons all told.

No wheels?

[MachDelta]

IMHO, yes, 3 button mice without wheels are dead.

Why? Wheels are just too handy for browsing the web to not have one. And since quite a few million people tend to use teh interweb on a regular basis, wheels are quite popular. So it only makes sense that you'd find them on every product out there - consumers want, producers give. Hell, i've got a scroll wheel on my keyboard! (Logitech Elite)

For most people, theres just no good reason NOT to have a wheel on their mouse. The third (middle) button function is built right into the wheel (wheel-click), so you loose nothing while gaining extra functionality. Whats not to like? :)

PS: I use a Logitech MX500, and its awesome. Two thumbs up (just beware of Logitech's drivers :P)

Re:No wheels?

[meta-monkey]

I love my Logitech MX500. It's great in OSX 10.3, because I map the Expose features to the extra buttons. I love having the "show all windows" feature right under my thumb.

Re:No wheels?

[antdude]

Does anyone here actually don't use the wheel feature on amouse? I don't really like it because I do not have an index finger (four fingers on both of my hands since I was born with multiple physical disabilities). Same for middle button. :(

Re:No wheels?

[p7]

The problem isn't the wheel. It is that with only two buttons and a narrow scroll wheel, some people (My self and eschasi apparently) can't comfortably use three fingers for all the buttons. With my old Logitech Mouseman Cordless, I could have three fingers on the buttons in a natural position. On my new MX700, to put my middle finger on the wheel causes me to have to hold my middle 3 fingers together which gets very uncomfortable after a little while.

Now as to why I need it... My reason, is I am a gamer. When playing action games it is handy to be able to bring the extra finger into action on the mouse.

Re:No wheels?

[leviramsey]

Agreed 100%... I'd have no problem with a wheel mouse if the wheel was at least 50-60% wider...

Re:No wheels?

[jcenters]

I recently purchased a new iBook G4 with 10.3 preinstalled. Playing around with expose and my Logitech two button+scrollwhell mouse, I tried setting the right mouse button to show all windows.

I was so pleased with the results, I have left it that way, just using ctrl-left click for right clicking. It provides the fastest window navigation of any window environment I have ever used. (Windows, Mac 9/X, various Linux environments)

Expose really makes me wonder how much longer Apple will stick with the one-button/no-button mouse. Sure, the idea of a buttonless mouse is neat, but having total window access at the touch of your fingers and scrolling capability greatly outweighs the novelty of a "simple" mouse.

Re:No wheels?

[Dr. Smeegee]

I lucked out and got the full compliment of phlanges, and I _still_ don't like wheelmice. I have hoarded a mess of old PS/2 Mouseman ergo-mice from Logitech. I have thought seriously about gutting a newer USB led mouse and sticking it's innards in one of my Mouseman bodies, but fear that chimera would be a pain to get working.

I have purchased a Happy Hacking Keyboard to go with the Mouseman and have had many fewer cases of RSI flareups. (Wouldn't be much help to anyone not living in vi all day! :-)

The Mouseman narrows considerably toward the base of the palm and has large buttons that follow the contours of your hand at rest. You might want to give one of them a try if your unusual finger configuration gives you fits.

Re:No wheels?

[Anonymous Coward]

I get lots of spam promising 50-60% wider and longer.

Re:No wheels?

[futuresheep]

Here's a tip: Get some Teflon Baking Sheet liner. It's the best for these mice.

Link

It's feels like you're on a sheet of ice, well, without the coldness. I've had one scotch taped to my desk for several years now, and it's just now needing replacement. Using a regular mousepad feels like slogging through mud compared to the Teflon Sheets.

105 button mouse

[satanami69]

I was hoping to see a keyboard that had a mouse wheel sticking out the bottom and you'd have to move it around with two hands.

So disappointing...

Re:105 button mouse

[Bombcar]

I know..... I was thinking about that myself. But I can't find one. Let me know if you ever see one!

Re:105 button mouse

[Anonymous Coward]

I really hate Dan Patrick.

Me too. Dan Patrick, you are EVIL and MEAN.

I actually have a good answer to this question.

[Anonymous Coward]

And it is one of the cheapest mice you can buy, and semetrical too, so it's ambidextrous.

But I refuse to post it in protest of this moron's referal to himself in the 3d person.

Not google, but froogle

[satanami69]

Although they are the same.

Search: large 3 button mouse

Plenty to choose from.

Re:Not google, but froogle

[Kris_J]

Froogle is superb. Here's a link for "3-button mouse -scroll".

WTF

[Frequanaut]

Seriously, the wheel is just fine for a middle mouse button.
Looks like it's a slow news week. Isn't there a SCO story to post or something?

Re:WTF

[mallan]

No, it's not just fine. I've bought 4 wireless optical scroll mice to try them out, and I returned all four. One major problem is that I can't comfortably rest all three fingers on the mouse - the mice are designed for two fingers. But the biggest problem for me was that if you accidentally scroll the scroll button during the click motion, you lose the click. Plus, there is a lot more down motion required for a middle click than a regular click. I've found them too frustrating to use, so I keep going back to an old 3 button.

I suspect that most of the people claiming that the two button wheel mice are 'just fine' have been using two button mice all along. If you're used to using a real three button mouse in a *NIX environment, it's difficult to switch. The three button mice are just better for most operations.

These mice are nice to use, but they're expensive, not ambidextrous, and they don't have a wireless version:
http://www.contourdesign.com/pmo/

Re:WTF

[Frequanaut]

Yes, it is just fine.

It's not my problem your fingers are too fat.

Do you have trouble dialing the phone as well?

j/k.

Re:WTF

[lewp]

To obtain a special dialing wand, mash the keypad with your hand now :(.

what's wrong with mice with 3 buttons

[joelja]

logitech has had several generations of mice with a button or more than one that falls under the thumb...

I have in the past mapped that as the middle button.

the mouseman dual optical has 4 + the wheel axis the current mx700 has more like 9.

Third Button vs Pinkie Finger.

[saden1]

If you want to hand cape yourself then Yes. Be warned though, like the pinkie finger, you won't notice its usefulness until its gone.

Re:Third Button vs Pinkie Finger.

[gdarklighter]

hand cape yourself

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's Superhand?

Re:Third Button vs Pinkie Finger.

[Anonymous Coward]

able to masturbate in a single thrust!

Not google, but froogle-Mom n' pop

[Anonymous Coward]

I find it amusing that he says eBay's the only place you can get three-button mice. There's a mom-and-pop computer shop on the other side of town that has a plastic tub filled with older mice, and goobs of keyboards. Let alone NIC's, sound cards, video cards, cables, etc. CHEAP!

Re:Not google, but froogle-Mom n' pop

[Anonymous Coward]

Plus, any fleamarket you go to will have hundreds of 3 button mice -- all tied into one great big knot.

IBM -- I have a 3rd Button, and a Scroll*Point*

[Hollinger]

I stand by my IBM Scrollpoint Optical. You get a very nice ambidexterous mouse that happens to have three buttons, and instead of a scroll wheel, you get a pressure sensitive scrollpoint, which is similar to the eraser heads featured on IBM laptops. The scrollpoint even glows blue, contrasting the red LED for the optical sensor.

360 Degree scrolling is very useful.

Re:IBM -- I have a 3rd Button, and a Scroll*Point*

[CowboyNick]

Yes I remember when I got my first optical mouse which was a Logitech that had a blue LED. The thing was so bright that I used to rest the mouse pad on top of it at night so it wouldn't keep me awake at night in my room.

Re:IBM -- I have a 3rd Button, and a Scroll*Point*

[Deternal]

Whoa, I got to get me one of these.

"Thats when it hits you. You are SO ready for IBM"

On another note I HATE scroll wheels - why? Buttons are better for the button part - and regardless of how I arrange my mouse and desk, if I use a scroll wheel during 7-8 hours at work and then 3-5 hours at home my arm becomes pretty useless and I have to NOT use a mouse for an extensive period. This being despite using the keyboard and shortcuts a lot.

I think thats a pretty good reason, considering I've never had the problem with a 3 button mouse and I have to admit that I have sat at a computer for entire weeks sometimes (think Diablo, Quake etc.) where I have used the mouse extensively.

Re:IBM -- I have a 3rd Button, and a Scroll*Point*

[WoTG]

I've never understood that little eraser head... it just doesn't work for me, or for the people whose machines I was using. I've tried it on a laptop, and on a scroll mouse. It just doesn't feel or work right. Although, I guess it might work ok if it's only used for up/down left/right scrolling, rather than as a pointer too.

Re:IBM -- I have a 3rd Button, and a Scroll*Point*

[Hollinger]

I actually don't like them either. A lot of computer users who first worked with a touchpad seem to dislike the scrollpoints too. At the same time, lots of people seem to love the little things. I think that might be why IBM has given both a scrollpoint and a trackpad on several of its recent laptops, which I recommend highly, by the way.

As far as use as a simple scroll function, it works pretty well. You might have to tweak the gains a little bit to get the sensitivity where you like it, but it works quite well. My only complaint is that I rarely see the model I have (linked in my previous post) in Brick and Mortar stores.

Costanza

[irix]

eschasi asks: "eschasi recently got a new job..."

George is getting upset!

Re:Costanza

[Anonymous Coward]

Jimmy thinks you need to calm down.

What did you say?

[vasqzr]

Did I hear you say 3 mouse buttons?

Only 1 here.

all hail the one-button mouse!

[Anonymous Coward]

I have been using X with a three-button mouse for years (started in middle school on a DEC something or other).

I hate it.

Right now I'm using a logitech marbleman trackman whatever it is thumb trackball with three "real" buttons (no scrollwheel). I have replaced the clickers with higher-resistence clickers (Omron is the brand, available at digikey). At least once a week, I paste shit into my terminal windows by accident. My fingers must be fat or heavy or I'm just "special" (in the "mentally retarded and must wear a motorcycle helmet to keep from hurting myself" sense) but I hate it.

Usually I have to stop what I'm doing, paste into /dev/null and check the letters one by one .. OH SHIT I just emailed the president a list of my favorite porn bookmarkers, sent a copy to the company printer, and deleted my inbox!!! ARGH!!!!

Although I consider myself an alpha geek I can't stand the way X works. Can somebody please tell me how to TURN OFF all the buttons except the left one, and make it so you have to hold down modifier keys to do stuff, a-la-Mac? Please?

Re:all hail the one-button mouse!

[saintlupus]

Can somebody please tell me how to TURN OFF all the buttons except the left one, and make it so you have to hold down modifier keys to do stuff, a-la-Mac? Please?

Run X on the Mac. With the standard mouse.

I use Debian, and there's some sort of entry to make under /proc to tell it what keyboard codes to use for the middle and right click on my iBook.

--saint

Gamers have known about this for ages

[UnknownSoldier]

I started with a 2 button MS mouse.
Switched over to a 3 button Logitech mouse ("the claw"). It was awesome for fraggin.
Logitech's 4 button wasn't as good.
Logitech's 5 button (thumb + wheel) was alright.
Logitech's MX700 (8 button) rocks.

Re:Gamers have known about this for ages

[scotch]

Eventually, you'll just have two keyboard that slide around on your desk on little balls. 8 buttons? Wow - what do you do, CAD work?

Re:Gamers have known about this for ages

[UnknownSoldier]

> 8 buttons? Wow - what do you do, CAD work?

Nope, its for Diablo 2, BF:1942, and MOHAA :)

Trust me, in action heavy games, you don't have time to fumble around hitting the right key.

Re:what's wrong with mice with 3 buttons

[StenD]

logitech has had several generations of mice with a button or more than one that falls under the thumb...

They do? I've seen ones I've seen have buttons which would be under my pinky, which isn't exactly useful, but never one where the extra buttons would be under my thumb.

Here you go

[n00bieriffic]

Hop your happy ass over here and get your 3 button mouse.

Don't always just look on the shelf, ask somebody.

-------

Re:Here you go

[R2.0]

And here:
http://froogle.google.com/froogle?q=3+butto n+mouse

Yet again, Google is your friend.

Perfit: Quite possibly the perfect 3-button mouse

[helixblue]

I've been using 3-button mice since the PC Paintbrush IV days, and I have to say, I still use them every day. Nothing like that big middle button to slap to pop browser links into new tabs, and paste text.

At first I used to be a fan of Logitech, SGI and Sun's 3-button mice, but now I don't leave home without a Contour Perfit Mouse. It's 3-button, and there are not only left and right handed versions, but multiple sizes for each. It melds into your hand, so you only have to inch forward a bit of muscle in each finger to press a button. Very nice and ergonomic.

I'm dying to try out their new optical mice myself. They were pretty slow to the game there, to be sure. I do like where they've put the scroll button for those.

Long live the *real* middle button.

memorex

[larry bagina]

I bought a memorex 3-button mouse for around $5 at best buy a couple months back. It replaced my old logitech mouseman 3-button which had worn out after 5 years of use.

I recall 3-4 other types of traditional 3-button mice available, with varying degree of fanciness (USB, wireless, etc).

I think they even had some 5-button behemoths.

PS - what's with this 3rd person shit?

Re:memorex

[Brandybuck]

PS - what's with this 3rd person shit?

We are very glad that the first person plural was not used upon us.

Re:memorex

[Haxwell]

> PS - what's with this 3rd person shit?

Haxwell is glad somebody else noticed that, too.

Emulation

[fm6]

I guess if you're used to a simple three-button mouse, nothing else will do. But those of us who came to X from Windows have a simple workaround: XFree can emulate a three button mouse on a two button mouse. You just press both buttons at once. Dunno if this works on other X implementations, but I can't believe the XFree guys are the only ones to think of it. Then again, given the parochial nature of the Unix world, I guess it's possible.

Maybe it's not too late to re-program your mouse hand.

Trackball!!!

[CyberVenom]

Personally, I use a trackball. Not a thumb-trackball either; I prefer the whole hand trackballs. At work I have 2-button optical kinsington that works fairly well, but at home I have some weird-ass trackball that I got at the LA computer fair. The thing has a roller-optical system like the ball mice, but runs fairly cleanly, doesn't skip like an optical trackball if I spin it too fast while playing Quake, and has 2 scroll wheels and 3 buttons. One button (left) for my thumb, and two on the right that I can selectively press with my pinky by flexing it at the first or second knuckle (sounds hard, but it is really convienient!), the ring finger runs both scroll wheels (only one at a time, but very fast to move between) and the other two fingers roll the ball (allowing me to do things like jumping, shooting, running, selecting an inventory object, and panning in a complete circle endlessly, all at once, and without stopping to re-center my mouse.) ;) To top it all, the trackball fits my big hand fairly well. I'm still waiting for Logitech to come out with a corded version of their TrackMan Optical. :(

Miscrosoft's

[Kethinov]

5 button miscrosoft mouse w/scrollwheel > * (note: i use this mouse in linux ;)

Re:Miscrosoft's

[Phil Wilkins]

The don of mice. Great for left and right handers.

Re:Miscrosoft's

[Kethinov]

Yep. That's the one I was talking about. I have two of'm. That mouse is one thing Microsoft not only did right, but did very-fucking-well(tm). I feel limited when I use any other. I particularly love binding the farleft and farright buttons in games.

Re:Miscrosoft's

[L3WKW4RM]

5 button miscrosoft mouse w/scrollwheel > * (note: i use this mouse in linux ;)

Can anyone point to instructions on getting the rest of these buttons to work in XFree86? I've got my scrollwheel and middle button working, but I've not had any luck with the two side buttons.

Re:Miscrosoft's

[Yottabyte84]

1) They do not work when it's hooked up to the PS2 port, you need to use USB

2) Set moust protocal in X config to ExplorerPS/2

3) put `xmodmap -e 'pointer = 1 2 3 6 7 4 5'` in an X startup script

Re:Miscrosoft's

[L3WKW4RM]

Thanks, that's worth a USB port!

What I want

[splattertrousers]

I know this is a bit off-topic, but I want a scroll wheel that I can somehow paste on my keyboard. It will go right above the arrow keys (just above the left or right key on my inverted-T arrow key section). That way I could scroll easily with my hands on the keyboard. Anyone seen something like this?

Re:What I want

[kommakazi]

Maybe you should be contacting the patent office rather than telling everyone your (imho) really good idea.

Re:What I want

[Zero Sum]

Logitech Internet Keyboard. Scroll Rocker Switch (which you asked for) plus browser start, history, open url, home, send to back, print, back, forward, stop, refresh, search, find, add bookmark, open bookmarks and "hot links". All work in X (Mozilla, Konqueror, kmail etc..) except for "hot links" (I don't use windows at all so I don't know what that is supposed to do)

However I rarely use those buttons as the Logitech Trackman Marble FX is so easy to use and in addition provides scrolling both vertically and horizantally.

Re:What I want

[Anonymous Coward]

All work in X (Mozilla, Konqueror, kmail etc..) except for "hot links" (I don't use windows at all so I don't know what that is supposed to do)

That one is easy: Under Windows this opens your "My Pr0n" folder, under Linux there is no such folder, but I am sure you can configure it to open your ~/.pr0n/ directory. ;-)

Re:What I want

[ForceOfWill]

They have that. It's called page up and page down.

This guy obviously doesn't know how to use google.

[kommakazi]

I searched '3 button mouse' and like the third result was this one from Labtec, which is just a normal 3 button mouse like he is looking for. Also on the first page of results was another 3 button mouse from logitech. Both of them seem to fit the description of what he's looking for exactly.

Focus on 3rd PERSON, not 3rd button!

[quakeslut]

eschasi asks: "eschasi recently got a new job, which includes a new PC on which to run UNIX and X. ... he finally had to bring one from home. Shortly thereafter he was browsing ... Frankly, they're too small for eschasi's big hands. ...

quakeslut, for one, hopes that the use of 3rd person is more dead the the 3 button mouse!

Honeywell/Keytronics 3 button/0 ball mouse

[Packets]

I still use a honeywell mouse, I don't know the exact vintage of this one, but it looks about 10-11 years old, possibly older.

Its one of the few deviations from the 'ball' system of mice. Instead of a ball that can get dirty and muck up the internal workings of a mouse, or a stupid opitical system (who remembers the old gridline mousepads!) it has 2 rotating discs that are angled so that they rotate on up/down and left/right movement.

Until I get a 5 button optical+scrollwheel mouse, I'm sticking with this one, I love it to bits.

"logitech mouseman wheel"

[fist_187]

i feel your pain about how clicking the wheel is rather stupid compared with clicking an actual button. the mouse i'm using right now, logitech's "mouseman wheel" ps/2, has the 3rd button under the thumb instead of between the right and left. it doesnt take much getting useful, and i find its more natural than normal 3 button mice... for 3 buttons, i have 3 fingers instead of 2.

this mouse is logitech model # M-CW47 if it matters.

Re:"logitech mouseman wheel"

[fist_187]

"getting useful" = "getting used to" ... if you are absentminded as i seem to be.

Scroll wheels are already obsolete.

[Zero Sum]

I have a differing opinion.

I use a LogiTech Trackman Marble FX.

Left button, middle button and right button AND if I tilt my thumb slightly it hits the fourth button and the 2" (approx) ball becomes a scroll SPHERE. It scrolls both vertically and horizantally. I have had the device for a number of years, it has never needed cleaning and about the only improvement that I could think off would be batteryless IR (which I don't think exists yet).

Every person who has sat at my desk and used it has gone out and bought one. There is simply nothing better in the marketplace that I or anyone I know has ever seen.

It makes any other kind of pointing device look sick.

Re:Scroll wheels are already obsolete.

[Anonymous Coward]

Finally somebody who has a clue.

The Trackman Marble FX (the original!) is THE best pointing device. Strangely enough it is widely unknown, and people seem to object to it - without actually trying to use it - because it is different. It's accurate, reliable and has a lot of functions. Great for work, great for FPS. The only thing that is somewhat difficult is right-dragging; but that's something you do not need to do often.

You would have trouble prying my TM FX out of my cold dead hands.

Re:Scroll wheels are already obsolete.

[AllUsernamesAreGone]

Logitech Cordless Trackman Optical is the closest you'll probably get ATM - different styling than the FX and it is radio, rather than IR, cordless.

Re:Scroll wheels are already obsolete.

[Anonymous Coward]

I've got both a Trackman Marble FX and a Cordless Trackman Optical.

While the Cordless is ok, the Marble FX' ball runs much smoother, and its buttons are better placed.

I guess Logitech had to make some changes for the Cordless to keep the ball from falling out.

Re:Scroll wheels are already obsolete.

[WM_NCDESTROY]

I have one of those(it's my first trackball device) and I like it, except that I have it connected to a KVM switch and evidently the kvm doesn't pass all the button and scroll events properly, because when I try to scroll up with the wheel it generates a "Back" event and my browser (any of them - IE, Moz, Firebird) goes back to the previous page. You can imagine how annoying that could be, especially when a big page has to reload and I have crappy starband internet. Argh!

Re:Scroll wheels are already obsolete.

[Confessed Geek]

Heh Welcome to the world of trackballs. Marbles are nice, but real men go with either the Kingston BIG ball tracball, or the MS optical Explorer series. ;) Seriously though I much prefer the larger control sphere. Then you can use 2 or 3 fingers to control the ball with more accuracy and have 5 buttons, plus scroll, but scroll sphere. Check it out. If you like the marble you will probabably fall in love with the optical explorer.

It will take a litte bit of extra configuration to get all your buttons working under linux though.

I had to add a script to my x startup that runs /usr/X11R6/bin/xmodmap -e "pointer = 1 2 7 6 3 4 5"
But that is just to get my personal preference as to which button does what.

(thumb "left click", wheel, "middle", pinky "right" , middle "scroll ball in mozilla", thumb2 "right click w/ applicable"

Re:Scroll wheels are already obsolete.

[jx100]

Agreed about the Kensington mice. I'm not left-handed, but I've trained myself to mouse lefty. the Kensington's symmetrical, so, unlike all sorts of other trackballs, it works great for this. In addition, the keyboard is now balanced, with the keypad and mouse being on opposite sides.

I never got the extra buttons to work properly though, and the wheel is a little touchy.

Re:Scroll wheels are already obsolete.

[Zero Sum]

I don't know the Kingston but I do know the MS Explorer series. After reading your post I get the impression that you have not even seen the trackball I was talking about (Logitech Trackman Marble FX). It is the size of a billiard ball and so smooth and sensitive that I can move from one corner of the screen to another with just one (any) finger. Your hand shrouds the ball which as over 50% of its surface exposed. The Explorer is not in the same league. Nor is anything else I have ever seen.

Re:Scroll wheels are already obsolete.

[Nef]

Here here! (?? is that right?)

I've been a trackball user since building my first 486DX4100 machine and the days of GLQuake and QuakeWorld. I started with a buddy's Kensington Orb that he thought was broken and replaced, and I simply tore apart and cleaned, restoring it to perfect working order. He let me keep it for showing him how to safely clean the LED's, wheels and sensors. They weren't horrible as trackballs go, but required a lot of cleaning (as they weren't 'truly' optical).

Ultimately I decided the ball was just a bit too small for detail work, PhotoShop and gaming. I went in search of a new trackball. I saw the new line of TrackMan trackballs from logitech. Truly optical, only moving parts being the ball (which hardly ever needed cleaning, provided you don't eat while you spin) and the momentary switches used for the left and right mouse buttons(although I only ever had to do that once after spilling Dew on the sucker!) The 2 side mounted programmable buttons were a godsend when setup properly using the Mouseman software in Windows and served as a trusty middle button in X. My only complaint at all was that long periods of resting your wrist on the 'ergo' base of the unit would cause killer cramps, you could even see the blood collecting at times. I only wish they could have made that part with a softer or more forgiving material. I like the idea of the new wireless Fx's, but their practicality is in question when it comes to gaming. I don't exactly feel like forking over the cash to find out it bombs in DooMIII or HL2.

I've also tried the MS Explorer series, and the speed ring or whatever they call it is intriguing, but again the balls are miniscule in contrast to my FX, and I just love the side hole for my thumb (think fine adjustments to a selection area in PhotoShop, or a pseudo 200 yd. shot with a rail in Splinter Cell and take the guys eyeball out) I know I'm being a fan-boy here, but it really is the best combo of features. I recently found a couple on e-bay for 40 bucks each still in the original packaging. I now have 2 at home, plus the Logitch Cordles Mx duo, and and MS Natural Elite w/ an Fx at work. If anyone can suggest a good replacement, I don't think I'll be able to keep up with the slowly escalating auction prices and scarcity.

Re:Scroll wheels are already obsolete.

[Confessed Geek]

Ooops. You are absolutly right. The mouse you are talking about is VERY similar to the MS Explorer I was bragging on. When you wrote about the trackman Marble I was remembering the older logitech trackballs with the much smaller thumb controlled ball. Mea Culpa!

And to correct my earlier post, I should have said Kensington, not Kingston.

Re:Scroll wheels are already obsolete.

[Ambush_Bug]

i like the idea, but i have trouble using the marble and holding down the button to do "drags"..... maybe i'm just that uncoordinated. or maybe i didn't play enough centipede as a kid.

Re:Scroll wheels are already obsolete.

[Anonymous Coward]

Bah, that's too imprecise. Besides, you can do the same thing with a Trackball explorer but you can also use the wheel.

The wheel has a better feel. Often I do not want to scroll sideways and it's annoying when not using a wheel.

Re:Scroll wheels are already obsolete.

[drgnvale]

In addition, the keyboard is now balanced, with the keypad and mouse being on opposite sides.

Speaking of balanced keyboards... does anyone make a keyboard with the numpad on the left? I've always hated this about the keyboards I've owned; I either have to type off to the side or have my mouse way to the right.

Re:Scroll wheels are already obsolete.

[Demonspawn]

What type of KVM do you have? My friend has a KVM that has the same problem, altho I cannot remember what brand/model it is offhand.

--Demonspawn

Re:Scroll wheels are already obsolete.

[LearnToSpell]

The only thing that is somewhat difficult is right-dragging; but that's something you do not need to do often.

How difficult? I right-drag all the time with mouse gestures, so I'd hate to lose that. I find touchpads difficult in that regard too.

Re:Scroll wheels are already obsolete.

[Anonymous Coward]

Here here!

Where? Where?


[It's hear, hear! :) ]

Re:Scroll wheels are already obsolete.

[Nef]

d'oh!

That's what I thought, but was too lazy to look up something I couldn't just plug into google. I gess that makes me as bad as the story submitter.

Re:Scroll wheels are already obsolete.

[Zero Sum]

Bah, that's too imprecise. Besides, you can do the same thing with a Trackball explorer but you can also use the wheel.

Methinks the imprecision is in the user not the device. I have never seen anything else that come close to a Logitech Trackman Marble FX in regard to precision.

Problem with the scroll "button"

[MikeDawg]

While I consider myself a pickier sort of computer (and computer equipment) user, I honestly have no complaints with using the scroll wheel as a middle button. When I had an IBM PS/2 (8086) I had a Logitech Mouseman with the 3 buttons (and an ergonomic slope). Anymore I am more than happy with using the scroll button as a 3rd button. As I said, being a picky computer equipment user, I really like my Logitech MX500 I think it treats me about as well as any mouse has.

Thumb button

[Gadzinka]

I bought one of the first optical+radio mice on the market from Logitech and I fell in love with it. It has wheel doubling as a button and the thumb button.

Today when I use the mouse I keep my thumb on the additional button and index finger on the wheel, occasionally moving it to right or left button. I can't imagine any other way of working with mouse anymore.

Robert

Old Logitech Mouseman

[Anonymous Coward]

I can still get the old wedge shaped Logitech 3 button MouseMan OEM from my local computer store. Try asking around. I think Logitech might still be making it as an OEM product.

obsolete hardware and lame question

[den_erpel]

Well, for this time, I have to agree with some of the 'Flamebait' moderated posts, this is a very lame question...

So, you are basically asking why you are no longer able to buy obsolete hardware (3 button mouse)? Especially considering the fact, that for the same price, you get a mouse which offers the exact same functionality (3 buttons) even more, it offers a scroll wheel (i.e. 5 buttons).

Basically you are wondering why you get more for the same price, because this is what it is: even though you are offered 5 buttons, noone is forceing you to use them. Configure your system to use only 3 (press the wheel as you point out).

I would assume that most people opt for these systems and since the 3 button mouse only has a subset of the functionality of this wheel mouse, it is not worth the effort to produce them.

Makes sense to me, ...

Well, this is about the most stupid comment I made. Let's have some more coffee...

Maya...

[dr00g911]

Maya was ported from the SGI platform -- so originally many features were coded to support the 3-button mouse.

To this day, the Win and Mac ports still rely on the middle mouse button. (ob one-button-Mac jokes commence...)

Any workstation I've worked on, I've been able to map the scroll-wheel-click to middle mouse button features -- no matter the platform.

An aside: Maya has hands-down the best interface I've ever seen for controlling a 3D camera in a window. It relies on the alt-key and all three mouse buttons that you gesture-click. Very, very fast precise and intuitive.

I'd be interested to try something like that with the new MS mice that scroll up down and sideways. /aside

My current favorite Maya/Comfy scroll click mice (many don't feel good) of late are the Logitech MX series and the Click! series corded opticals (for a few reasons -- ie corded vs. wireless for single-pixel precision, more Mac-like weight, clicker 'feels' right as a MMSB).

Hope this helps

Maya!

[robson]

Alias/Wavefront's Maya was designed for a 3-button mouse, since the application began on the SGI. The middle mouse button is utilized for common operations like panning, zooming, and rotating the viewport. Sure, you can do it with a wheel mouse, but it's pretty uncomfortable.

3 button mouse obviously dead

[portscan]

the 3 button mouse is clearly a thing of the past. i just bought a 7 button mouse (+scrollwheel--so technically 10 mouse click events). This thing is sweet, and although i haven't set up 3 of the buttons yet in Linux, the mouse is kicking ass right now.

[logitech mx700 wireless mouse...awesome]

The optical ones don't seem to exist at all

[jazman]

Logitech are still selling 3 button mice with balls, and they are VERY cheap - around 10-15 quid in PC World (UK), last time I looked.

I don't like the scrolly-wheel clicks because the springs are usually quite tight (to prevent accidental clicking when scrolling, presumably). Generally I don't have a need for a scrolly wheel because I use the keyboard most of the time and PgUp/PgDn/cursor keys work do the grunt work of my scrolling requirements, and I find the scroll bars usually more accurate than the scrolly wheel anyway. I map the middle button on my Windows PCs to double-click - consequently it gets used all the time and a strong spring is very tedious.

However I would like to upgrade to optical, as I'm sick of cleaning my balls. For any company that wants to produce 3 button optical mice at a reasonable price, say about 20-25UKP, I, PERSONALLY, have an instant market of 7 mice (1 for each of 5 computers plus two spare.) Multiply that by the number of geeks in the world - business opportunity anyone?

Re:The optical ones don't seem to exist at all

[bhtooefr]

I personally don't mind wheels, as I rarely see the need to middle-click under Windows (or even Linux - I run KDE), and the middle button is mapped to left+right on just about every 3-button or wheel mouse. BTW, I can't drag with the wheel on this MS IntelliMouse 1.3A (it's my school's box, and it's not a bad mouse - Dell made good keyboards, and they package great mice), but I can middle-click just fine. A Logitech First Mouse Wheel is an even better middle-clicker, as the wheel is sunken further between the buttons, and it has a plastic area that isn't a button around it (making it easier to steady the wheel). The Logitech Optical Mouse isn't NEARLY as good of a middle clicker, as it is designed similarly to the MS IM in the wheel department (but less sunken), and the Logitech wheel isn't at all as stiff. What I want is a good basic mouse, like the older version of the First Mouse Wheel (the new one is called "First Wheel Mouse" to distinguish it from the FMW (Compaq and Dell OEM M/N: M-S48a)), except in an optical version.

Re:The optical ones don't seem to exist at all

[Anonymous Coward]

However I would like to upgrade to optical, as I'm sick of cleaning my balls.

Even if you upgrade your mouse, I recommend that you continue keep your balls clean.

Re:wtf?

[KDan]

What world is the article's author living in? Here in this office I have to bring my own wheel mouse to work because all the lame mice around here are plain 3-button mice (Compaq-rebranded logitech MouseMan mice). You must be on another planet!... How do I get there?? :-D

Daniel

Create a stock

[jschrod]

What do I do?

When I realized that 3-button mice will get rarer, and that many people take a scroll wheel as an excuse for a real button, I bought 7 Logitech Pilot Mice. They'll serve for a while.

If PS/2 will not be available any more, I'll need an USB adapter; but I think they will be available.

Re:Create a stock

[Anonymous Coward]

If PS/2 will not be available any more, I'll need an USB adapter; but I think they will be available.

There is no reason for a USB keyboard or mouse, we don't compile USB support into our linux boxes, USB storage is a huge security risk, printers are connected via ethernet and all our KVM switches (servers) are PS2. If there's a reason for USB anything I'd like to hear it. The 3 button Logitech pilot mice are standard on all our machines, I don't see that changing ;-)

SGI 3-button mice

[Zarf]

All though balled, I am using an SGI 3-Button mouse right now. I have stock-piled these jems against the inevitable coming darkness of three-button-mouse-less chaos that is sure to consume the rest of the twenty-first century. You should have prepared for these new dark ages my friend. I and my comrades in arms have. We are ready. And, nobody gets to use our three-button-mouse stock pile... not without getting through our perimeter defenses and down in to our bunkers they don't!

they still sell them..

[gl4ss]

at least over here(regular logitech 3 buttoners, and cheapo 3 buttoners).

however, not in optical form.
not that i miss them tho, the wheel is of more use.

-

Re:they still sell them..

[nickos]

3 button optical mouse

MX-500

[Vilim]

I originally had just a regular microsoft optical wheelmouse, the kind that only had one scrollwheel (clickable) and no side buttons or anything. Then when I got my laptop I found that a touchpad was horribly inadequate for any sort of small moter work, so I picked up my Logitech MX500. This is without a doubt the best mouse I have ever used. At school in one of the GIS labs we have 3 button mice but I still like my logitech better, the wheel just begs to be clicked.

When my trusty Microsoft mouse died on my server (Ok its not quite dead but every hour or so it will stop working completely for ten minutes). I went out and picked out another logitech MX500.

They are damn fine mice I don't know why the poster would need a regular 3 button mouse

Re:what's wrong with mice with 3 buttons

[herulach]

They do. Unless youre left handed and thats a sly moan about there not being enough left handed mice.
check out this page

Or if you are left handed and do want a button under your thumb:
Check here

who dislikes scroll wheels?

[kwench]

I don't. I prefer optical scroll wheel mouses. With PS/2 adapter (so they work with FreeBSD).

Re:who dislikes scroll wheels?

[Anonymous Coward]

With PS/2 adapter (so they work with FreeBSD).

FreeBSD still doesn't support USB mice? That's it, it's official. BSD is... nah, it's not funny anymore.

Re:who dislikes scroll wheels?

[The Bungi]

Um, bullshit. FreeBSD at least supports USB mice just fine since 4.0. 5.x supports it even during interactive installation.

Hope that helps.

Re:who dislikes scroll wheels?

[kwench]

Well... take this:

uhci0: Intel 82371AB/EB (PIIX4) USB controller irq 0 at device 1.2 on pci0
uhci0: Could not map ports

Kernel recompilation with PCI_ENABLE_IO_MODES does result in a total hangup on boottime.
So... no USB for this computer.

Dude, get the scroll mouse

[whovian]

I used to work on macs exclusively, which as you may know come with ONLY ONE BUTTON. By the time I was seeking a 3-button mouse, hardly a vendor sold -- much less manufactured -- them any longer.

Dude, get the scroll mouse. You'll get used to it. And, as other respondants have readily pointed out, the wheel gives extra functionality in a single movement, rather than a keypress+middle button event. For example, you can transverse your web browser's (mozilla's) history using just the middle button, rather than use the window menu bar, ALT keypress combinations, or mouse context menus.

Logitech makes a fine basic three-button/scroll mouse (model S69). Your hand will probably wrap around it a little bit; it will not be fitting your hand like a catcher's mitt.

Re:Dude, get the scroll mouse

[whovian]

(apologies for the self reply)

Actually I own a Belkin USB 3-button mouse, but its size is a bit smaller than even the Logitech PS/2.

Scroll wheel makes it easy to find the middle

[scruffy]

I like the scroll wheel as the middle button. My fingers can find the middle button by feel rather than me having to look.

I love scroll wheels, personally

[ActiveSX]

Unfortunately, my cordless Mouseman Pro's wheel doesn't function anymore, and is only usable as a middle button. It's like the worst of both worlds.

Re:what's wrong with mice with 3 buttons

[1eyedhive]

nice to see they still make that sucker, mine's developing a phantom left-click.

nice and big, though i just use my middle + index on the top and thumb/ring on the side buttons, i use em to strafe in FPS's.

Re:Perfit: Quite possibly the perfect 3-button mou

[Dr. Smeegee]

I would wager that these mice are super comfortable, being so ugly and all! :-)

"With a name like 'Painful Rectal Itch' it's gotta be good!"

CADD work often requires a 3-button mouse

[michael noah]

And many CADD workers are used to the standard button, not a little scroll wheel. I'd guess that many of these people don't care about browsing the web, either.

I actually work at a large corporation where this is the case for many clients of mine, and I've had a lot of trouble finding a simple 3-button mouse for them.

We source our PC's from Dell, and they have 0 3-button mice on their website, and my sales representative could only find 1 that they would resell to us.

I'll agree with the author that this seems like a trend, and not necessarilly a good one.

bit off topic - keyboards

[b96miata]

While the article was on the subject of mice, I thought I'd take the discussion as a chance to ask a question that's been bugging me lately...

Has anyone else notice how many of the new keyboards coming out these days have the ins/del/home/end/pgup/pgdn cluster sideways? Personally I find this one of the most annoying things to come down the line in years. My 8 year old original microsoft natural keyboard is about to give out, and I had to resort to buying used for a replacement since so many of the new ones come with this moronic arrangement....


...rant over

For God's sake

[Anonymous Coward]

have you never heard of pricewatch.com. search there. I found over a dozen places selling basic 3 button mice in under 30 seconds....

ASK SLASHDOT to find things for me
ASK SLASHDOT to comparison shop for me
ASK SLASHDOT to do my home work

what's next?

ASK SLASHDOT to fuck my girldfriend for me?

Re:For God's sake

[Anonymous Coward]

ASK SLASHDOT to fuck my girldfriend for me?

No, see, Slashdot readers know how to talk about computer mice, but that's totally out of their league.

Re:For God's sake

[Zork the Almighty]

ASK SLASHDOT to fuck my girldfriend for me?

If you're girlfriend is an internet server (plausible), that can be arranged.

Re:For God's sake

[OrangAsm]

Is this the new girld server I've been hearing so much about? I've heard this daemon listens on many ports and that you must connect to them in the proper sequence. I'm guessing something along the lines of 13/tcp, 517/udp, 79/tcp, 513/tcp.

43/tcp your daddy now?

Re:For God's sake

[Anonymous Coward]

More like a gangbang...

Re:For God's sake

[Anonymous Coward]

Especially if she is from Taiwan and is called Via Ceethree.

Dammit

[Glonoinha]

First line should read : (deviating from the normal three groups of four)?

Masquerading???

[argel]

Look for a four or more button mouse and assign the middle mouse button to [one of the ]the thumb button[s]. I assume there is a way to do that under Linux. Under Windows the logitech software lets you do it.

No offense, but why would I want a mouse without a scroll-wheel??? KDE supports the scroll-wheel. I assume Gnome does (or will in the future).

Re:Masquerading???

[John Hasler]

You also assume (erroneously) that everyone uses either Gnome or KDE.

thumb third button is very convinient.

[motyl]

I was using for some time a mouse where the third button was on the left side. I have to say that it was more comfortable to press than the third button usually is. You will probably need one day to get used to it, but then you will like it really !

And I had no problems with using scroll wheel as third button as well.

Logitech Wingman Gaming Mouse

[hirschma]

If you look hard enough, you can find them either on ebay, or someone selling old stock. Here's a review.

Good size, very comfortable, no need to clean it very often. Not one glitch in four years.

jonathan

Re:Logitech Wingman Gaming Mouse

[gid]

I have two of these mice, they're great. Although I don't use them anymore, I use the scroll wheel too much with java programming in jdeveloper.

I used to use them for gaming (Quake 3 mostly), but now I switched to a logitech usb dual optical mouse w/scroll wheel, it glides more reliably, without needing cleaning every week or so, plus it's a bit more comfy, it's a handful at first, but it really first just right. I guess I was just used to the tiny mice before.

Kinda strange, logitech doens't list any of these mice on their web page, which I take to mean they don't make them anymore. I hate how all the mice are suddenly going cordless, just what I want, yet another device I need to buy batteries for.

Why is a scroll wheel on a mouse?

[mr_mischief]

Because where else are you going to change weapons in without taking your hands away from your fire or movement buttons?

Of course, a driver for the pedals on a driving or flying control set which use right pedal for forward and left pedal for backward would be cool...

TA-DA!

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.computergate.com/products/item.cfm?prod cd=JMSLS35

Behold the almighty three button, non-scroll wheel mouse.

grovelling?

[dubl-u]

After much grovelling through the vendor catalog

That's a great image, but perhaps you should check a dictionary. Either that, or you need to start dealing with more friendly vendors.

Re:grovelling?

[CaptKilljoy]

>>After much grovelling through the vendor catalog

>That's a great image, but perhaps you should check a dictionary. Either that, or you need to start dealing with more friendly vendors.

He's referring to the slang definition of grovelling from the Jargon File.

http://www.catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/G/grovel.html

I need some input as well

[Anonymous Coward]

I've got an EVEN BETTER request... A 3-button mouse (no wheel) OPTICAL, and Serial/PS2 Compatible (NOT USB).

The best I have found is a 3 button optical serial mouse.

A picture might help

[Anonymous Coward]

I didn't understand until I saw this. That's pretty cool.

Laptop keyboards

[Anonymous Coward]

I've noticed that, while a few laptops still have something resembling the standard arrangement of these keys, more and more are putting them in non-standard positions. Dell, for example made this change recently, not that anybody sane would buy a Dell laptop. At least IBM still does it right... and Thinkpads come with three buttons! Yay IBM!

You think you're being smart...

[Anonymous Coward]

...but you're not.

Three-button mouse? Try a FIVE button

[Valleyman]

The mouse I'm using has five buttons: the standard left and right, a scroll wheel, and two little ones on the left side that you use your thumb to operate (unless you're a lefty). These buttons can be configured to do whatever you want using the software that came with it. By default the buttons are used to go back and forward in a browser window, but I changed them to page-up and page-down. Oh, and don't bother asking where I got it; it was a b-day gift :)

Scrollwheel mouse on the Mac

[Chris Tucker]

I use an Elecom mouse designed by Shirow Masamune on my 5500/225 under OS 8.6

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.

Too easy

[embobo]

People have posted links to 3-button mice already, including the cheap memorex and belkin mice and the costly perfit mice.

You can get ten three-button logitechs for $59.99 from CompUSA. You should get ten, because they are an endangered species.

I found these when I was lamenting the demise of 3 button mice. In despair I bought a 7-button logitech with scrollwheel. I never knew what I was missing. I will never go back.

The real challenge would be to find a ~$20 3-button optical mouse (for PCs, not Sun).

Haven't changed....

[CmdrTHAC0]

One fine day in October 2000, I headed into the local OfficeMax and dropped $25 on a 3-button Logitech for my shiny new Linux box. It's working great, and if it ever dies, I don't know what I'd do.

I could never use a wheel. My middle fingertip almost reaches the mouse cord, so unless someone puts a wheel way down there, they'll always be too awkward to use even for scrolling.

Carpal Tunnel Warning

[sakusha]

I had an old Logitech 3 button ADB mouse, it was the default mouse for MkLinux way back in the dark ages. It was the most unergonomic mouse I ever used, it gave me finger cramps after using it for an hour or so. Definitely the worst designed product I've ever seen. The Logitech Wingman and other mice I saw in this thread are quite similar in design, I wouldn't touch em with a ten foot pole. Maybe the mouse was just too small for my hand, but this was a pretty darn big mouse. So just consider yourself warned, be sure to test the ergonomics before buying.

Logitech 3 buttons still available

[cowbutt]

In the UK, at least, from dabs.com. Personally, I use the scroll-wheel equivalent of this mouse.

--

I just bought some today...

[Anonymous Coward]

I read this article, realized it was time to get a new mouse, and headed out to Micro Center in Troy, Michigan.

A Belkin three button mouse...$1.49. I bought three of them and am thinking about heading back for the rest. Not as heavy as I'd like it to be--oh, for the days of the original Amiga mouse or Microsoft's original bar-of-soap mouse--but I'll manage. Maybe I'll get a friend to fashion a chunk of metal to fit inside it to weight it down.

CG artists use 3 buttons

[frenchie323]

I work with Maya all day long and 3 buttons are required by the software (probably because it started on Unix). I can't seem to find a 3 button mouse for my home computer, so I use a scroll, which, with heavy use, hurts my hand. Depressing a scroll button is a lot harder than a regular one. I have to find a mouse with a soft button...

Extra buttons are also great for games

[Mitchell Mebane]

I also use an MX500, albeit under Windows. I've found the extra buttons to be great for use with games that support them, particularly FPS games. No more moving my left hand from wasd to quickly switch to a particular weapon. :D

"Mice", not "mouses"

[Anonymous Coward]

You say "virii" too, right?

Look on ebay again

[Aczlan]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item =2771791518&category=3678
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item =2771791555&category=3678
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item =2771831739&category=3678

This is the result of going to ebay and digging for about 15 mins
http://search-desc.ebay.com/search/search.dll?quer y=3+button+mouse+-scroll&catref=C3&ht=1&sosortprop erty=1&from=R10&sacategory=23154&sotextsearched=2& BasicSearch=



Aaron Z

Re:Scroll wheels obsolete....nahhhhh!

[Anonymous Coward]

I use a Logitech Trackman FX. It works real good
for me. I use a Tyan Tiger MB with a couple of
really fast procs for my SuSE/w2000 system in
which SuSE gets to haul and destroy all the
trash that windows systems seem to suck out of the
air by design and refuse to delete....now if game
designers, more of them, would just design for
linux and not so much for window$$...
Really that cordless Trackman is the best gamers mouse since God created little green apples. The only other mouse with big balls was
the old Kensington. It was'nt optical though,
its balls ran on steel trolley wheels like the
old skate wheel conveyor belts that stores have
to unload their garbage...i mean grocery trucks.

Did you search the web?

[petard]

I was recently wondering about this myself, so I searched a bit. 3-button mice are widely available, and are still being manufactured:

• USB
• USB
• PS/2
• PS/2

Or, if you don't want Belkin to get another dollar of yours due to the recent BS they pulled with their routers, there are many others:

• PS/2
• fancy optical
• fancy wireless and optical
• PS/2

That's just what I found during 10 minutes of STFW. And I didn't take all the abuse you did by asking here :-)

let's nominate the 1 button mouse for extinction

[The Lynxpro]

This is my only peeve with Apple these days. Now people will say "just go ahead and buy a different mouse" but that is not the point. Because of Apple's one button policy, I won't be buying their Bluetooth enabled mouse. That is money that should've went to Apple. I think at this point in the game, every PC and Mac sold should be bundled with a 2 button + scroll wheel.

Now, why again do we need a 3 button mouse if a 2 button + scroll wheel is offered? :)