Apple’s never made a good mouse. Ironically for a long time the only hardware Microsoft made was a mouse and keyboard, and that mouse was amazing as a basic mouse.
I’m fine with lots of their mice for what they were, which is one-button mice sold at a premium price. I think I’ve used every class of pointing device that they’ve produced at some point. I mean, they were okay in my book. The problem is that they kept producing one-button mice for years, which were just not the future of desktop computer use.
Back in the 1980s, when they were putting together the Mac’s UI, the Apple UI guys had an argument that what people really needed was one-button mice, which were simpler. And, yeah, I remember people, especially older people, who did not understand multiple mouse buttons. My mother used a two-button mouse on Windows for years, and I remember when I told her that the right mouse button brought up a contextual menu — somehow she’d used the computer for years without figuring out what the thing did. She always wanted to be told which mouse button to click in instructions.
The problem is that that argument was tested and frankly lost. Apple started putting context menus into the UI decades back, with a control click. People figured out multiple-button mice. And Apple kept determinedly sticking with the one-button model. They never actually produced a mouse with two physical buttons, only provided a “multi-touch” right-click once that technology showed up.
And as an OS vendor, they were in a prime position to change UI to try to teach people to use multiple buttons.
The round “hocky puck” mouse here was an exception – the ergonomics on that really were not great, and it was easy to grab the thing in a misaligned way, because you couldn’t use the shape to “feel” which way was “up” as readily.
Apple’s never made a good mouse. Ironically for a long time the only hardware Microsoft made was a mouse and keyboard, and that mouse was amazing as a basic mouse.
The ADB Mouse II was a joy to use. Everything since… yeah not so much.
I’m fine with lots of their mice for what they were, which is one-button mice sold at a premium price. I think I’ve used every class of pointing device that they’ve produced at some point. I mean, they were okay in my book. The problem is that they kept producing one-button mice for years, which were just not the future of desktop computer use.
Back in the 1980s, when they were putting together the Mac’s UI, the Apple UI guys had an argument that what people really needed was one-button mice, which were simpler. And, yeah, I remember people, especially older people, who did not understand multiple mouse buttons. My mother used a two-button mouse on Windows for years, and I remember when I told her that the right mouse button brought up a contextual menu — somehow she’d used the computer for years without figuring out what the thing did. She always wanted to be told which mouse button to click in instructions.
The problem is that that argument was tested and frankly lost. Apple started putting context menus into the UI decades back, with a control click. People figured out multiple-button mice. And Apple kept determinedly sticking with the one-button model. They never actually produced a mouse with two physical buttons, only provided a “multi-touch” right-click once that technology showed up.
And as an OS vendor, they were in a prime position to change UI to try to teach people to use multiple buttons.
The round “hocky puck” mouse here was an exception – the ergonomics on that really were not great, and it was easy to grab the thing in a misaligned way, because you couldn’t use the shape to “feel” which way was “up” as readily.
I don’t own any but I still like their mice. I was shocked at how comfortable I found their folding mouse