Two button mouse? What's the purpose?

[masterjedi73]

Before I buy my first mac in 8 years (the time of my life I call pc hell) what is the purpose for a two button mouse on Macs? Does it function like it does in windows?

[edesignuk]

Exactly the same as on a PC. I couldn't live w/o a 2 button mouse w/ scrool wheel.

[PalmHarborTchr]

I have an iMac flatpanel running
10.2.8 and use a LOGITECH BJ58
and it USB with two button with
a middle wheel and it so superior
to the apple one button its amazing.
Scrolling is much, much easier with
the wheel. If you want to down
load a jpeg you right click and a
menu comes up with the ability
to download to the hd or clipboard
etc. Throw away the old mouse
and get this and you will wonder
why Steve Jobs clings to the one
button but most telling point is
that at the Apple Store in Tampa,
Florida they do Apple teaching
seminars and the Mac they use
has a two button mouse. Enough
said.

[Westside guy]

Additionally, if you want to play around with some of the X11 (graphical Unix/Linux) applications, many of them have interfaces that assume a two or three button mouse. The gimp, for instance, would be much harder to use with a standard Apple mouse.

[scem0]

Yeah, I have to agree with the other two posters.

I just recently got a new iMac, and it came with an apple pro mouse.

I can't use that piece of ****. I'm sorry, but that mouse is horrible.
1) Can't live without a scroll wheel. This isn't something I prefer, this is necessity.
2) One button. I don't care what anyone says, right clicking is a good thing. It makes everything so much easier.
3) it moves slowly. Even on the highest settings.

scem0

[Foxer]

Not only do I agree, I find a five button mouse almost a necestity. My mouse at work lacks the side (back/forward) buttons and it sucks. I am stuck with what is functionally a one-button mouse when I'm on the road with my powerbook, and it doesn't get any better.

Does anyone know what Apple's hang-up is with designing a two- (or more) button mouse? Surely Apple could design one that not only meets their ergonomic standards, but it would no doubt leave us floored with some cool thing that no one else ever considered. Two-button mice are almost the industry default, yet Apple seems hell bent to buck the curve. Why?

[edesignuk]

Originally posted by Foxer
Not only do I agree, I find a five button mouse almost a necestity.

True that. Now you come to mention it, mine also has 5 (2 regular, thumb button, pushing down on the wheel, and the wheel itself), the Logitech driver is great and you can configure them to do whatever you want, it saves me a lot of unnecessary mouse movements :D

[Maxwell Devine]

I'm using a Micro$oft 5 button mouse which is drastically less exensive than the fancy Logitec and it works really well (the laser is very responsive despite the fact the surface of my desk is black).

What's the point of five buttons you might ask? They're great to use with the Expose feature on Panther. Once you map the Expose features onto a 5 button mouse you can't go back to the two button mouse and the one button mouse becomes an impossibility.

[arson]

I too use a 5-button mouse straight from the belly of the beast (Microsoft) both at home and at work. I don't think I could live without the extra buttons and scroll-wheel. Like Maxwell Devine said, the extra buttons are great for Expose, and them come in handy for back/forward buttons when browsing the web, and if you play games, they're great for that too.

[krimson]

i have a 4 button trackball, and i use the promouse if i need to do more precise work.

[rueyeet]

I think Apple's rationalization for shipping only one-button mice is simply that even raw beginners who can't get the whole left vs right click thing (like both my elderly parents, despite their both being intelligent people, and Dad being a physicist!) can use the default mouse without confusion, and everyone else will have so many different preferences that there's absolutely no use in Apple trying to satisfy any fraction of them.

I, for example, can no longer live without a scroll wheel, but consider a five-button mouse overkill. To each their own.

So Apple both stays out of the mouse business (already pretty well covered by other companies anyway) and gets to keep a well-known idiosyncratic trademark.

[virividox]

must have at least 2 buttons and a scroll wheel another button is fine, but i cant deal with a mouse with more buttons than my microwave.

[junny]

will any USB mouse work with macs? or does it have to be special?

I don't wanna go with that one button thing ;)