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High-Quality 3-Button Mouse For X? 35

Posted by Cliff from the just-the-classics-and-nothing-fancy dept.
An Anonymous Coward whispered the following question into my ear last night: "Does anyone know a good-quality, high-resolution three-button mouse that works nicely in X? I'm talking about just three buttons and no 'Internet' gizmos."
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High-Quality 3-Button Mouse For X? More

High-Quality 3-Button Mouse For X?

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  • I second that. I have an original mouseman from 4 years ago and it still works just fine. The thumb area is nice and smooth usage tho :)

    Logitech now sells the same mouse as a gaming mouse. It's gray but looks and works the same. In fact I bought 2 more. One for work and the other an extra for home.

    go to the logitech site and check under gaming.

    narbey
  • These mice are great. I never did like the wheel, so instead these have a rocker switch. No more rolling the finger. The "middle" button has been moved to the thumb which is a bit weird. Overall, a great mouse.
  • the best quality mouse there is. Some people think the need for a special mouse pad is a drawback, but I don't understand why... its purpose is to make it really accurate. It will never skip because of gunk building up on the rollers the way ball mice all eventually do. And the latest ones don't even require an external power supply the way the old ones did; my new one plugs right into the PS/2 port. The emulation is transparent so no need for special drivers as with the old serial ones either.

    Unfortunately you can't buy them in stores but you can order direct from MouseSystems. At least I did before... looks like the website is kindof hosed right now though. Lousy marketing, great mouse.
  • Logitech makes some decent stuff. My wife got me their Marble FX and I alternate between that and a regular mouse and just the variety helps my wrist problems a little. It took a little getting used too but I've even been using it in games. Still kinda sucks for graphics apps but I want a pressure sensitive pad for that. Linux sees it as a regular Logitech mouse with the third button working without any changes. I haven't tried to get the fourth button to work.

  • My favorite pointing device of all time is the Kensington TurboMouse [kensington.com] trackball. Four physical buttons, one chord. I bought it for my Mac clone, and the software it came with allowed me to do all sorts of amazing things. Program a button to save bookmarks in Netscape? Sure. Avoid Apple's control-click workaround for having one-button mice? Sure. Build a whole menu of things accessible with the click of a button? That, too.

    Now that I'm running Debian, I don't get all those wonderful features (although I suppose I could if I bothered). But I still have a three-button trackball that's large enough to use with the palm of my hand or with several fingers instead of a single fingertip, and has the potential to do even more.

    The TurboMouse equivalent for the PC is the ExpertMouse [kensington.com], which looks to be exactly the same trackball I have (except for the wiring). Newer solutions include the TurboBall [kensington.com] (four buttons, large ball, and a mouse wheel), which I might consider as a replacement for my TurboMouse if I ever buy a newer machine; and the Orbit [kensington.com], which only seems to have two buttons, but still has a large ball.

  • Try the Logitech Trackman Marble FX [logitech.com]... it is Definately the way to go for this.
    Note that this has been my experience, and I in no way suggest that it is for everyone!

    I have had tendonitis since I was 12 becaues of computing, and this is the only pointing device I can comfortably use.
    I have tride the Cirque glidepoint, and an unending number of "ergonomic" and other mice.

    Pointing and clicking/dragging etc, simultaneously (with your hand it lesat!) is deceptively easy, I tend to put the thing in leftie mode even though I use my right hand, simply because it feels bore comfortable and doesnt hurt as much. I also lay my hand at roughly 30degrees off the main axis (the longest length of the trackball), rather than perfectly inline with its length... This also seems more comfortable to me

    Again, the key is always, like any good doctor will advocate: take breaks!
    Human interfaces for computers are decidedly torturous and unnatural and not, despite excess marketing hype, ergonomic. Taking regular, or even irregular, breaks and sretching is the one true path to pain free computing.

    Also, the Trackman Marble FX has at lesat 3 buttons (4 if you can get it to recognize it in Linux, I havent tried).

    Good luck!!

    An old sig
    a bit drops in

  • About two years ago I found a Kensington 'lifetime' mouse that uses two wheels on the bottom instead of a mouse ball, so you never have to clean it (hence the "lifetime" moniker) I'm really happy with it, and it came with an assortment of replacement button panels, one of which was a three button one so it works great in X.

    I hope they still make this mouse; I highly recommend it.

  • Something I haven't seen anyone suggest: look on eBay and buy an SGI Indigo2 mouse, or HP 9000 mouse. The newer SGI and HP systems use straight PS/2, and work nicely with PCs. Logitech also makes a really nice 3-button, if I remember right HP actually uses these mice. But it's always neat to have a granite mouse connected to your PC, even if it does offend the SGI fans ;)
  • The logitech Trackman MArble FX is one of their funky shaped ones, real nice

    It takes some getting used to but it works real well, especially for games. The 3 buttons near the thumb make for some nice binding in most games.

    I have trackman's on all my computers both unix and windows, they work real nice. In X it sees it as a 3 button mouse no problem.
  • The logitec trackman marble is very comfortable - I no longer get the wrist soreness that came with using a mouse. Have to get one at work still. Three buttons, or a two with a wheel.

    They have some other marbles that are fnkier shaped and have five or six buttons, but they weren't as comfortable for my hands (everybody is different).
  • Yeah, one of my friends swears by the FX, but I never took the time to get used to it... The extra buttons would be helpful, I bet.
  • Well, there's several reasons... I like the wheel for a few things (make M2 on /. a breeze, por exemplo), but I *need* a third button, and since clicking the wheel (depending on what the driver allows, or if it isn't a good whel) often brings up a strange move tool, or moves while cliking, it's a pain.

    In Netscape, I usually would rather have a third button than a scroll wheel. I like Open In New Window from one click more than I need the scroll wheel (I have an arrow key that does the same thing). For CAD apps, there's no substitute for a third button, and there's little/no use for a wheel.

    Remapping the wheel click to the third button is alright, but is far more clumsy than a real mouse button.

    As stated in another post, my personal fav is the Logitec Trackman Marble (w/ no wheel - it is now sold with a wheel). Trackballs are also rather nice on the wrist (much less strain than a mouse), and are amazingly useful for FPS games - better in my experience, though they take some getting used to...
  • You can buy 100 packs of OEM L. MouseMan for like
    $500 -- five bucks each! Or, you can buy the common comsumer-grade make-it-black- so-it's-cooler MouseMans for $16 each, or you can buy the WingMan (make it graphite-grey, and the put-racing-stripes-on-it!-quality) for $40.

    Who wants a mouseman? If we get a pool (of ~70 commitments) -- I'll buy and sell 'em at cost.
  • Those things were PHAT.
    And they DO still exist. I have a serial one sitting on my AMD K5 linux box right now ,but you can buy new ones... except you get charged $50 and it's now called the "Wingman Gamer Mouse."

    But it's a cool graphite color. ;-)

    The Intellimouse Explorer is wonderful. Extremely comfortable, works on almost anything, and damn, the thumb buttons (default to forward & back in IE/nutscrape) are like crack - once you use them, you can't stop.

    I agree with all those that say MS should stick to hardware. I have an "MS desktop": a Natural Elite KB and Imouse Explorer. very comfy and useable.
  • I'm using a Microsoft Intellimouse and it's wonderful. I really don't think that wheel mouses are much different in X than in Windows. Regardless, I just added the magic settings to XF86Config and it works like a charm for most things.

    Chris Hagar
  • On my little Linux box, I've got a small Logitech FirstMouse that works perfectly. Small, simple, and comfortable, it is. Three buttons and everything.

    So... that's what I'd reccommend. I went for price in this case (My Linux machine is just my little experimentation machine for right now).

    ------------

  • Actually - if you're lucky like me MS will send you a mouse for free without request... One day I came home and there it was at my door. They have been springing up all over my campus (Univ. of Illinois) and no one knows why...
  • I'm still in complete bewilderment as to how people get by on Apples with just a single button. I've used my sister's VERY nice G4, and it is just an annoying thing to have to select a file and move up to a menu to find info on it. Actually, the best 3 button mouse I've ever used was this generic mouse-in-a-box type things that had 3 buttons, no special shape, high resolution, and a PS/2 connection, cost me like 5 bucks. But I'm sure there are better, more expensive ones.
  • I'm very happy with my "4D" mouse; it has three buttons and a thumb button that is equivalent to the middle button. in between the regular buttons, there are wheels: the left one is for vertical; the right one is for the rare horizontal scroll.

    cost $20 at CompUSA, seems to be generic in manufacture, but mine happens to say "MICRO innovations": on it. works great so far.

  • ...the wheel by itself is the third button, and wheel up & wheel left are button four and five. I think you can remap 4 and 5 to something else than scroll up/down.

    Microsoft (!) and Logitech sell very nice, quite cheap wheel mouses. Very ergonomical and pleasant design.

    Please don't tell me "but it's made by Microsoft". Yes it is. And ?

    Stéphane
  • You can put off the funky features of the middle button in the new Netscape.

    I love the unix middle button for openeing in a new page, but realise that the wheel can cause trouble.

    But I have been using a MS Intelli Mouse for some time now, and find it adequate as a 3 button mouse.

    So there.

    But believe me... the wheel does come in useful (even for an old school vt100 - vi person like myself)

    Dom.

  • I'm currently using an old school Logitech Mouseman.

    This thing is great. It's movement is smooth, it's ergonomically shaped, has three buttons, and is the largest mouse I've held, with the exception of some Microsoft mice (though none of these is quite large enough for my mitts).

    The only thing that could get me to switch might be the Intellimouse Explorer, but I haven't had a chance to use one yet, so I can't even say that much for sure.

    I am wondering why no one has mentioned the old-style Mouseman so far, especially considering how popular it was. Oh, yeah! It's because Logitech stopped making their best-selling retail line! Smooth move, Logitech!

    Logitech!! Why have you forsaken me??

    J. T. MacLeod

  • I can't even imagine living without the scroll wheel. I have a logitech mouseman pro. It's a wonderfull wheelmouse with no wires, radio reciever built right in. Getting the scroll wheel to work in linux wasn't too bad to dowith imwheel, but my problem is getting the THUMB button to go. From what I have read, this is an X problem. Any one have any way to gt that thumb button to go?
  • I, too, highly recommend the logitech devices. I've been using the logitech marble trackball (the precursor to this one [logitech.com], without the scroll wheel) for well over a year and I love it. Very responsive, never needs cleaning, and feels great.

    A friend of mine swore by this trackball [logitech.com] but I could never get comfortable with it.

    While I don't much care for mice, I've used logitech mice on campus and their ergonomic mice are certainly better than average.

    Whatever you decide upon, get a mouse or a trackball that is comfortable. Ergonomic works for me but some people don't like it. Remember, though, that you will be using your pointing device a lot. It just isn't worth your while to save a couple of bucks if your wrists are going to complain.

  • I CAN WRITEZ ANY UTILZ FOR LINSUX BUT I USUALLY WRITE MOUSE DRIVERZ FOR WINDOWS IN QBASIC BECAUSE IT IS FASTER. QBASIC IS A 1337 H4X0R LANGUAGE AND IS FAST BECAUSE IT IS NATIVE. NATIVE MENAS THAT IT RUNS DIRECTLY WITH WINDOWZ,. L INSUX AND OTHERZ DON'T DO THIS AND SO THEY ARE SLOOOOWW.

    PS IF YOU NEED HELP WITH WRITING WHEEL MOUSE DRIVERS PLEASE EMAIL ME BECAUSE I AM A KEWL H4XOR!!!!!!~!!!!!!!!!!

  • But I just picked up a Microsoft Intelli-Eye mouse. Smoothest damned thing I've ever used, and it works on everything. I don't have to worry if my mouse surface is perfectly flat anymore, and the stupid little wheel works in X. Haven't been able to get the two side buttons to work yet, but that's probably because I'm using XFree 3.3.5 and not 4.0 (I'm sticking with what works, for now.)

    Anyway, it kicks the crap out of my old mice, but, at $65, you might not think it's worth the price.

    - A.P.
    --


    "One World, one Web, one Program" - Microsoft promotional ad

  • They're like 400 bucks now for a 200 MHz R4400. Not exceptionally fast, but it'll run the latest IRIX release (6.5.5? That's the last I remember SGI sending me anyway) at a reasonable speed.

    The granite mouse goes well with the granite keyboard and monitor, too. . .

    - A.P.
    --


    "One World, one Web, one Program" - Microsoft promotional ad

  • Related to mice, are there any decient trackballs? Preferiabbly something that won't make my wrists worse?

    I know one person who said he put a track ball on the floor, and used is feet to point. I'd like to try it, but most of the old style track balls I've seen are two buttons, and I don't think I could press a button and move the ball at the the same time. (This being a physical problem with the location of the buttons, not a comment on my [poor] coordination)

  • Why would you *not* want a wheel mouse? These things are great, whether it's scrolling a long page in Netscape or switching weapons in Quake3.

    --
    A "freaking free-loading Canadian" stealing jobs from good honest hard working Americans since 1997.
  • Yeah, yeah, it's Microsoft. And yes, it follows the MSNC (Microsoft Standard Naming Conventions). But you can get this wheel mouse with optical tracking from buy.com for $20 (when they get it back in stock) or at CompUSA for $30. The wheel functions as the third button, and of course it's got the nice scrolling feature, too. It's USB, but it comes with a PS/2 adapter. No ball to clog up with muck, no skipping... it's so smooth it's almost freaky. I am completely sold on this thing. If MS would stick to hardware they just might win my heart! :)

    ---

  • I use the Logitech Cordless Mouseman Wheel mouse, which is very nice, and can be used in left or right hand. I set it up as Intellimouse-Serial under XFree86. It's very nice to have one less wire trailing around.
  • I don't know why everyone seems to hate the Apple iMac mouse. I find it to be comfortable and easy to use. A second button would make it more difficult to use, at least for the way I hold the mouse, with my forefinger on the button's dimple and my thumb and ring finger on the sides of the mouse. When I use multi-button mice, I like the cheap Logitech three-button mice. They fit my hand and I don't have to move my fingers around to click the buttons.
  • I second that. In /etc/XF86Config, I use mouse protocol "MouseManPlusPS/2" for mine.
  • Access Micro has one on this page [accessmicro.com] called the "AOC FINGER TRACKBALL" that seems kinda interesting.

    Two buttons on the top near the trackball, and one "trigger-style" for your index finger. The trackball (and top buttons) are controlled with your thumb.

    It doesn't seem like a good trackball for use at the desktop level, since you have to "fit" your hand around it. However, it seems perfect as a navigation tool for a virtual environment (may be good for Quake, too!). I bought one of these for just that purpose (VE nav, not Quake)...
  • logitech makes a nice three-button mouse and a somewhat easier to find four-button mouse that is identical (the fourth button is under your thumb). logitech also has very nice software for windows.

    i use one because the button activation pressure is low enough that i can use it all day without any rsi problems. button pressure is why i don't like wheel-mice. of course the best solution is a sun mouse but you have to buy an adaptor box which makes it a bit pricey.

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