Find me a new mouse

[Tora Ziyal]

Every time I scroll past this thread, I think my cats could help out...

 

[Jadzia]

 

[B.J.]

What kind of mouse do you have know? I personally love the simple ones:

This is a Microsoft "basic optical mouse". I think that is has a very soft scroll wheel and it i wide enough not to hurt your finger.

The ones I have now are very similar to this, and basically is just what came with the computer. I think the problem lies in the fact that none of the scroll wheels I've seen have a wide flat middle, they're all curved across the top. That curved surface combined with the curved surface of my index finger equates to an almost point contact rather than a wide surface contact like the L & R buttons, and that's what makes it painful after a while.

 

[Tora Ziyal]

OMG, that's wonderful!

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

I use the Microsoft Wireless Laser Mouse 6000 v2.0 at home, work and previously with my laptop (which had a terminal failure).

I like the shape, the 2 thumb buttons, the rubberized scroll wheel and the fact I can get them on ebay for around $17 each. 2.4Ghz, so I haven't had any interference.

All mice seem to have a short lifespan, so I don't want to spend a lot of money on the damn things. I have 6 spares at the moment.

 

[David cgc]

How about a Logitech trackball rather than a mouse? It has a decent sized scrollwheel. In any case, I never use the middle button -- can you avoid it by reprogramming the functions?

This. I swear by this particular one, to the point that I actually have two because it periodically drops off their website and I'm afraid they've stopped making it.

It'd be nice if they updated it to use Bluetooth rather than their USB wireless dongle, though.

 

[Naira]

I had assumed the mouse had a "sleep" function so that it wouldn't just sit there sucking energy 24/7 but apparently not so it goes through batteries.

All wireless mice I had went for months without needing batteries. BUT, I once had a mousepad that for some reason did not let the mouse sleep and so the batteries went down in days. It took me a while to figure it out.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

How about a Logitech trackball rather than a mouse? It has a decent sized scrollwheel. In any case, I never use the middle button -- can you avoid it by reprogramming the functions?

This. I swear by this particular one, to the point that I actually have two because it periodically drops off their website and I'm afraid they've stopped making it.

It'd be nice if they updated it to use Bluetooth rather than their USB wireless dongle, though.

I just got this one not too long ago. Love it! I agree that Bluetooth would be nice, although the crappy old computer I'm using would need a dongle anyway since it doesn't have Bluetooth.

 

[Trekker4747]

I wonder though if they make in balled-mice anymore? The optical ones are so awesome I sort-of doubt it.

Yes they do. The cheaper optical mice are in the £5-10 range. The cheapest ball mice are under £5, so they are still available as a budget option.

http://www.argos.co.uk/webapp/wcs/s...ogId=1500002701&langId=-1&searchTerms=6754680

I have used optical mice for only 3 years, beginning in 2008. They do have three negative points:

- Opticals go to sleep, so they take a second to wake up when pushed. Ball mice do not.

- Ball mice have a nice friction with the desk and the spinning ball creates a nice inertia. This makes it easier to be quick and precise with them. Optical mice are basically just plastic boxes that are slid about with very poor tactile feedback.

- Optical are fussier about surfaces and don't always behave as they should. So sometimes with precise graphics editing, if pushed a little bit forward, the pointer will step one or two pixels in a different direction. So they're prone to error when it comes to small precision movements.

I'm sure somewhere out there there is a optical mouse with decent tactile feedback to it just a matter of finding it, I suppose.

What I hated about balled-mice was that how easily the ball would pick up lint and crud and eventually become hard to move so you had to open it up, clean the ball, pick lint out of the hole, pick lint out of the rollers, etc. It was too much maintenance for such a simple device. Any tactile work/precision problems an optical mouse may or may not have I've never experienced and it "waking up" to me never takes even as long as a second.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

I never did like optical mice that much. That said, both my trackballs are optical and they work just fine.

Ball mice pick up gunk like nobody's business. So do my trackballs, so I have to clean them regularly. It's not a big deal, though. I plan to use my Kensington Expert Mouse until it dies, and it came with a 5-year warranty.