One-button mouse: simple success or tired relic?

It's horrible. I also prefer a mouse with a "ball".

I'm with the single buttoner's on this one. I started out windows but switched to the mac about two years ago. All I had was a Powerbook and I never really got all that used to the trackpad so I always had a 3 button (minimum) mouse on hand. Oh yeah, and I really wish I had heard of Sidetrack a lot sooner. Anyway, I got a PowerMac recently (today's my fifth day with it - Joy!) and since it came with that standard Apple mouse, I decided to give it a try. It would give me something to do while I waited for the mouse that I ordered to arrive. Well, I of course ordered that 3 button mouse right after I got the Mac, and I'm starting to wish that I hadn't. This mouse is easily the best designed mouse that I've ever used, in both form and construction. Scrolling through long pages is nowhere near as much of a pain when you're resting your whole hand on the button. So at this point I'm pretty torn between the two. The other mouse hasn't arrived yet, but there's a pretty good chance that when it does it'll be relegated to being just the 'gaming' mouse. But as for what Apple should ship, speaking from someone who's had to teach a complete noob (my mother) how to use a computer, I can honestly say that I'm glad that Apple chose the one-button mouse. You really would be surprised at how many people never use the second button, and I was surprised at how quickly she got the 'control click' 'command click' concepts. Now if only Apple could find a way to incorporate the two-finger scrolling feature into their regular mice. That would be perfect.

Why don't you get rid of the single button too? If you need to click, you can press ALT+SHIFT alltogether and you click. You need a contextual menu, you also press CTRL.

I cannot use a mouse simpler than 3 buttons and a wheel. It's too painful not to have at least two buttons + "Back" button + a wheel or two

Two solutions: 1) for desktops, put some sort of touch sensitive ipod-clickwheel-like piece on the existing mouse to keep it one button and provide easier scrolling. 2) for laptops, do what other laptop manufacturers do: when you slide your finger accross the right edge of the trackpad, it scrolls. this is wonderful if you've ever seen it in action. its actually better than using a wheel on a scroll wheel.

I'm a recent convert to mac. I am a longtime windows user but was seduced by the mac mini. Now I've bought an ibook and it's great--but the single button mouse is stupid. Windows ability to pullup a context-sensitive menu by right-clicking is a great thing. That type of thing is supported by OSX but I hate having to use my left hand to hold down the control button to get the ONE mouse button to do what I want. Apple should get with it, especially since the mini shows that they want to win converts from the windows world.

As a "switcher" the thing I viewed with most trepidation was the one button mouse. I did however give it a go. It lasted for about three days. The length of time it took Amazon to deliver a replacement. After reading the previous comments I decided to plug it in again and give it a try. I lasted 5 minutes. Sorry guys it really is crap. It's a triumph of style over usability and ergonomics. 1. It's far too low, I don't have particularly large hands but I felt my wrists starting to rebel against it within minutes. 2. Don't care what anyone says it's easier scrolling using a wheel 3. If you don't like the idea of right clicking and prefer to use menus fair enough, but why bother with a mouse at all then. 4. I paid over 1500 for my Mac and got a superb machine and OS but a crap mouse. What I really want now is a Bluetooth mouse but am struggling to find a suitable one. The Apple one is out of the question. The one from MacMice is the same (wrong) shape. Logitech don't offer Mac support on theirs and the MS one only works with their USB dongle (not much point with built in Bluetooth)

Apple doesn't sell any 3-button mice. Their several-thousand dollar video-editing program Shake REQUIRES a 3 button mouse. (I think it likes 4 button mice even better) It wont open if you don't have one installed. Clearly, they understand the value of the 3-button mouse, or they would have rewritten the program to not use three buttons. Even if you never use a second button, I can't see how someone could live without a scroll wheel. And I can't understand how people can stand using trackpads. I've got a laptop, but I carry my trusty piece-of-crap $20 MacAlly blue light/mouse (if you have one, you'd understand what I mean... the dang thing has a light on it that lights up my room at night). The wrist is stronger and will move faster than the tip of a single finger.

For some reason with that hack that does the 2 finger trackpad scrolling on the non supported PowerBooks, (and mabye on the real machines), if you put 2 fingers on the trackpad and click, it right clicks, but as soon as you move the mouse, the menu disappears...

All mac notebook users should look at sidetrack. http://www.ragingmenace.com/software/sidetrack/index.html This is the absolute best utility I have ever installed on my mac. I can do anything with the one-button trackpad. I am able to tell it that I want to click in the upper-right hand corner and read that as a right click...it never misses. I can tell it that I want to scroll like on any other notebook...scrolls perfect. (doesn't require two-fingers). I can do more with my mac one-button trackpad than I can with any windows two or three button trackpads. give it a try. they have a free trial.