I have been whining about the lack of a multi-button Apple mouse for years, but today, I finally understood what Steve has been talking about.
I was teaching my mother and grandmother how to use my old computer now that I've replaced it with a shiny new Powerbook. My mouse of choice was a lovely three-button scroll wheel model. For those of us who use our computers regularly, these mice are indispensible tools. We can use all of the buttons without thinking - it becomes a reflex to click with the index finger, right-click with the ring finger, etc. But what if you've never touched a mouse in your life? I can tell you from watching the previous generations of my family handle mice for the first time that it is anything but reflexive.
Teaching my elders to use a multi-button mouse was like teaching a fork and spoon user to eat with chopsticks. Every time the hand reached the mouse, the fingers did a hesitant dance, trying to remember what went where. When asked to click on something, the proper button was rarely the one chosen by the shaking fingers. Learning to use the computer was becoming a painful lesson in using the mouse.
Lesson one ended when my exasperated pupils were fed up with that impertinent mouse, and I was left to ponder what this scene would have looked like had the teacher been an AppleCare tech trying to explain a simple process over the phone. It occurred to me that if my grandmother had called tech support with a three button mouse, the conversation would have ended in heated profanity.
Surely anyone who buys a computer knows how to use a mouse, right? Wrong. My great aunt in Florida has a very expensive screen saver in her study. She bought her computer (HP with a standard multi-button mouse) after much coersion by friends and family so that she could send and receive email. Now, when someone comes to visit, they check her email, print it, and she responds with a handwritten letter. If no one is visiting, she is the proud owner of a screen saver with a terrifying number of buttons attached to it. She has managed to grasp the concept of mouse movement, but the clicking part gets her every time.
If you are reading this forum, you are no doubt a member of the multi-button class of computer users. That beautiful but useless thing that came with your Mac is like the spare tire in your trunk - it's there in the event that your real mouse meets an untimely demise. But before you curse Apple for bundling that lovely piece of junk with your machine, I challenge you to find a completely new computer user and teach them the basics with your mouse of choice. Trust me, you'll be reaching for the Apple mouse within minutes.
I still maintain that a G5 should not be bundled with a one button mouse, and a Powerbook should probably sport an extra button below that touchpad, but for entry-level computers, the one button mouse is the way to go.
