Why haven't Apple computers shipped with 2 button mouses?

J

Johndoemanny34362

Registered
I mean, we are in the year 2005 and even though Apple has the mighty mouse, and they are still shipping G5's with the single button, no scroll mouses. These computers deserve a two button mouse with a scroll wheel. Even though the right click menus are not useful at all sometimes, there are plenty of things that need scrolling and alternate functions. They should start shipping their computers with 2 button mouses instead of making us buy them separately. I don't get it, right click and scroll are the most useful hardware features and you shouldn't have to do more work to buy them! They have been "standard" in the industry for 15 years already.
 
I thought all the G5's that come with peripherals such as the new IMacs and PowerMacs did now come with mighty mouse..?
 
The mighty mouse does not ship with them. Plus i think the mighty mouse has a very weird and impractical design. Apple should just by 10 dollar optical mouses and just ship them... How hard can it be?
 
I absolutely love my mighty mouse and I think once again Apple has done something different to make an existing product better through their typical "think different" innovation.
 
New iMacs and new G5 towers all ship with the mighty mouse. If you order a Mac mini with a mouse, that will be the mighty mouse. The old standard one-button mouse is no longer available, but would be new in the box with older systems.
"Weird and impractical" ?
 
Right-clicking is #1 most confusing "feature" of a computer to non-geeks and non-average users. The thing about contextual menus is that they are not constant. Some apps have them, some apps don't. What IS constant is the menu bar. It's always there.

Scroll wheels, however, should have been there a long time ago in the Apple mouse. This is definitely a no brainer.
 
Well maybe new ones do but the ones at my music lab didn't. Thanks guys, now i know (even though i am not planning on buying a mac). Right click is neccessary for EVERYONE, no lame excuses accpetable.
 
SuperTyphoon said:
Right click is neccessary for EVERYONE, no lame excuses accpetable.
Click to expand...
EVERYONE who is a geek ;) Trust me, go watch an average mom or pop use their computer... to them the right mouse button is a mystery.
 
Still no reason not to have it by default. Even if the average parent doesn't use right click (my mom and dad both do), it should be there. They can learn to use it. Please tell me why it shouldn't be there. It's been with Windows since the mouse was invented! Has it had any negatives? If the person doesn't use it, fine. But it should be there at all times.
 
The main reason it's not there is to make sure developers don't hide feature into contextual menus, like 99% of Windows' developers do. That's how the Mac's OS has been so simple and clean, because of the non-existence of the right mouse button.

Anyways, you should do some research before reposting this question/topic here.. it's been discussed a billion times before :rolleyes:
 
Actually the original mouse had one button and was made out of wood. The one button mouse became the standard on Macintosh computers long before Windows PCs were introduced. They used a laser pointer and keyboard of all things!
I think command+click is a much more efficient way of opening applications. Even command+tab does a better job at application switching. I got the mighty mouse and it works great! I had a two button mouse but it looks drab compared to the one button(with a second hidden button) mouse. The side buttons are a welcome addition for exposé.
 
kainjow said:
The main reason it's not there is to make sure developers don't hide feature into contextual menus, like 99% of Windows' developers do. That's how the Mac's OS has been so simple and clean, because of the non-existence of the right mouse button.
Click to expand...

Wow, just... wow. That has got to be the lamest reason i have ever heard in my life.
 
Why not just convince the teacher to get two-button mouses? Problem solved. Or just bring in your own PC mouse and hook it up. No more worries for you. Nuff said.
 
No one seems to buy the argument that right-clicking is confusing for new users. Well, I've seen it first hand, and it definately is a problem.

I teach an Intro to Computing course at a local university. The scope of the class is basically becoming proficient in the MS Office suite, some intro to databases, and html basics. I teach both Windows and Mac labs.

Course statistics are showing that the mac users have better grades. Come to your own conclusions on that one. But the interesting thing came just a couple of weeks ago when the database section came up.

We were supposed to have a section on Filemaker for the mac labs and Access for the windows labs. Well the wonderful IT group removed Filemaker without telling anyone so we put the Mac folk in the windows lab for a couple of classes so they could do the Access project.

I had to field the better part of a dozen questions about what was going on when people were clicking and weren't getting the results they expected. They were right-clicking and weren't aware. Past those questions, I had to explain that right-clicking was the same as ctrl-clicking on their mac. But as I watched, they still would accidentally right click when they didn't mean to.

Sorry this got so long, but long story short, the multi-button mouse was a much larger issue that I ever imagined, and I wouldn't have believed it if I didn't see it with my own eyes.

That said, I don't expect you to hop on my ship here, but perhaps take it into consideration.
 
It really has to be seen to be believed, but the general population aside from geeks do have a problem with the right mouse button. Many seem to have a problem with knowing when to right click, and when to left click. Work in tech support some time, and I guarantee you that by the end of your first day of work, you'd have seen many cases where people do not know how to click buttons correctly.

It may be a 'lame' reason to you, but there are people who seriously have problems with multi-button mice. And it's not just mom/pop types.
 
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