A good multibutton mouse for X ?

AdmiralAK

AdmiralAK

Simply Daemonic
OK, so I went to my neighborhood best buy store and tried to find a USB mouse.

I looked and looked, I did find mice, USB mice, multibutton USB mice, but none of em looked nice, not were they made by companies which I assume have Mac Drivers.

So my question to you multibutton users is this:
which mouse is good for OS X ?
I want a multibutton one, and preferably an optical one ;)


Thanks

Admiral
 
How many times do I have to tell people on this site.... (just kiddin'!)

Kensington Optical Multi-button mouse with scrollwheel -- has drivers for OSX & OSX.1!!!!


Fantastic mouse with programmable buttons and also an option to vastly excelerate the mousepointer.:p
 
Try out some and see which one suits you the best. I think it's very personal. I, for example, hate Logitech and really like Microsofts mice. Neither Logitech or Microsoft has any drivers for Mac OS X, but most things work anyway, you won't be able to custumize any of the settings though until the manufacturers release the drivers or until USB Overdrive for Mac OS X is availiable. I think Kensington has Mac OS X drivers.
 
I was thinking about getting the Logitech dual optical mouse....but later I just realize I can't stand the slow speed of all the third party mouse under X (I did the mouse speed up trick. I works but the speed is terrible when moving the mouse slow)

I bought the Kensington Optcal mouse because they have the X driver. With the driver I can move the mouse very smoooooothly :)
 
I have a Microsoft IntelliMouse Optical and I have no problems with the mouse speed in either Mac OS X och Mac OS 9. It's the same as with my Apple mouse.
 
I have the Logitech 3 button Wheelmouse. It's not an optical mouse, but it is a 3 button mouse with the wheel acting not only as a wheel but a 3rd button. I purchased this mouse because it was one of the few mice that worked with LinuxPPC 2000 (when it was installed). I did not purchase it for aesthic reasons, it's comfortable (better than the puck that came with my G3) and it works. Just so you know, Mac OS X automatically supports 3 button mice. You really don't need to worry about drivers unless you want to customize the buttons for something other than the standard configuration. Right-button is always "control-click", and the wheel works automatically in most programs for scrolling through windows. In Quake 3 Arena, my mouse is set up through the program such that the left button is fire, the wheel rotates through the weapons, and right-click is zoom - totally awesome.
 
I have been using the Macally Ioptijr which is a three button plus scroll wheel. It is USB and works fine with OSX. Very happy with it.

Dave
 
I wanted a small mouse that was light as well.

A friend had (he has since sold and purchased a Ti/500) a Sony VAIO super slim with the Sony (Windows 98/Sony VAIO ONLY according to the box) mini mouse.

One day, I decided to just plug it in and guess what? I'm using it right now. All 3 buttons work as does the scroll wheel. :)
 
i have a story a lot like that I got a Microsoft Sidewinder joystick for a dell laptop and FS 2000
i couldn't get it to work on the Dell but it works on my iBook with no drivers for it and it isn't even supposed to work on the mac.
 
I've got both the Kensington 5 button optical mouse with scroll wheel and the Microsoft optical Intellimouse.

Kensington: Has drivers (which are not complete). The buttons have a more solid click to them. Kensington mouse has "chording" (pressing 2 buttons at the same time to make yet another type of click). However the shape of the mouse makes it hard to pick up and until I padded it I clicked the side buttons by accident often. I also find that the Kensington mouse (in both OS9 and OSX) a little slower than the Microsoft mouse. By that I mean the mouse click is sometimes registered at a point after where I clicked. This usually occurs when re-sizing a window and can be annoying because it often activates another window.

Microsoft: Much more traditional mouse feel. Easy to pick up and move around. Buttons and mouse seem a bit more plastic compared to the Kensington. Seems quicker to clicks then the Kensington mouse (see above comment). In OS9 had much better drivers than Kensington.

Conclusion: I'm using Kensington now but I prefer the Microsoft mouse. I'll continue using the Kensington mouse now until the Intellimouse drivers come out and then I'll have another comparo.
 
Nobody mentioned the MacAlly iSweetNet. Comes with multiple colours to match your flavor of mac, 2 buttons, scroll wheel, optical and works in Mac OS X.1.
 
Admiral,
I can't persuade you enough to commit to a logitech mouse; and can't dissuade you enough from buying kensington. Especially optical. I have found the ergonimics, the tracking and resolution of the logitech mouse to be unsurpassed. I have tried SEVERAL different Kensington mice and found them to be crap. The last kensington mouse I bought (top o the line Optical Pro) had its switches stop working about 4 months after purchasing causing very sporadic hard-to-diagnose erratic behavior. (A documented problem on mac fixit). The mice would not track on a pretty common surface—formica. the shape of the mouse made it diffucult to manipulate (the sides taper of at a shallow curve to the desktop—similar to the MS intellimouse which I dsiliked for 1. being way to big 2. felt cheap)
I bought the 3 button optical wheelmouse from logitech. It fits the hand very nicely (no more cramps). It feels solid and is easy to maneuver. Logitech seems to be commited to supporting the mac platform (though they have no OSX native support yet). All buttons and the wheel on my mouse work fine in OS X 10.1 without any drivers at all.
Of course you will have to decide by trying them, but I have gone through a bit of pain with the mice I have tried in the past 2 years.
my passionate 2¢
 
I have *always* used a Kensington mouse....the 4 button Thinking Mouse came with me through 3 different Macs - it finally got retired when I got my dual800 ADB-less Quicksilver.

I bought the Kensington Optical Pro which is quite nice, although I agree that its hard to pick up without clicking the side buttons.....but....last week I got the Turbo Mouse Pro trackball from kensignton...absolutely love it (although it's expensive...).

I have never had any hardware or software problems with kensington.....
 
I've used many multiple-button mouses (mice? I never have found out which you're supposed to use) over the years and I will agree with those who posted before: Kensington and Logitech are hard to beat.

Having said that, I'm currently using the Wacom Graphire2. It's a $99 high-quality wireless 2-button mouse with scrollwheel and drawing pen. Mac OS X.1 drivers are advertised on the box and available at the Wacom site & VersionTracker. Pressure sensitivity is supported for programs that are programmed for it. I love this mouse/pen combo. It might be more than you need, but the quality & price were right for me.

Comes with a couple of Mac OS 9 software packages (Photoshop LE and Painter Classic). 3 color schemes. Did I mention it's really cool? :)

http://www.wacom.com/graphire/index.cfm
 
Microsoft.

I know that this name is an alias for Satan around here, but the basic IntelliMouse with IntelliEye function (a two-button mouse with a wheel that also functions as a third button, plus it's optical) is a very good mouse. If it fits your hand, it's great. Naturally supported by OS X, great MS driver for OS 8.6-9.x.

We also have Logitech mice at work that have about the same features like the IntelliMouse. But I have to say that the MS product fits me better here.
 
I found the buttons on that MS mouse to be a little too easy to press down. I was constantly pressing them inadvertently. That might have more to do with my tendency to drink half a pot of strong coffee every morning, though. ;)
 
No, not really. I drink 10-20 espresso on an average day, so I guess I would have the same symptoms. :) Maybe some mice are not of the same quality. I also think that people have different preferences. I like the MS mouse. Others don't. Free will. But I guess with MS, Logitech and Kensington, the list of good mouse-makers is about done. There are of course also cheapo-makers that can be added to the list. Not because their mice are good, but because they're cheap. You can basically grab any USB-mouse, even those sold for PC only, and use them with OS X and OS 9 (with USB Overdrive, a shareware driver for anything USB).
 
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