Survey of three-button mice

[wfaulk]

I was wondering if anyone had a survey of mice with three buttons on the top, so that your forefinger, middle finger, and ring finger each have a button to themselves, and the middle button isn't just downward pressure on a wheel.  It's incredible how difficult it is to find a decent mouse with that layout.

Assuming there's not (which assumes my search prowess isn't awful), I'll start with a few I know about, including reviews of ones I've used:

• Contour Perfit Mouse: Intended as an ergonomic mouse, it has three distinct buttons on top and a scroll wheel at the thumb, along with fourth and fifth switches configured as forward and back on one button.
  
  Honestly, I don't know how anyone could find this comfortable as an ergonomic mouse.  They sell it in various sizes (and right and left handed versions).  I had the one they suggested for my hand size, and it was beyond enormous, giving me muscle strain in my forearm.  I eventually settled on the smallest one available, and it's still slightly too big.  The problem is mostly the angle from wrist side to fingertip side.  You have to keep your hand flexed back at the wrist.  It's kind of ridiculous.  Maybe that opens up the carpal tunnel.  Also, with the small one that I was forced into using, I find that the total width of the mouse at the buttons is a little too small.  My ring finger wants to hang over the right edge slightly.
  
  Also, I found that if I used it on my desk, which is kind of a semi-gloss epoxy-looking paint, the mouse cursor had a tendency to wander.  After putting it on a traditional foam+fabric mousepad, that stopped.
  
  Their trial policy is very liberal, though.  No reason to not give it a shot.
  
  
  
• IBM/Lenovo Scrollpoint Mouse: While it has a wheel equivalent on the top in the form of an alternatively shaped nipple mouse, there is no downward activation, so there is a physical button fore of the Scrollpoint doohickey.  It's a little small, but not exceptionally so.
  
  My problem with this one is actually the Scrollpoint.  I don't have a problem with having a wheel equivalent, but it's ridiculously difficult to use.  It requires a significant amount of pressure, and, more irritatingly, a significantly different amount of pressure in each direction.  It just works badly, and I've found that having a poorly functioning feature is often worse than simply not having the feature at all.
  
  I have no reason to believe that the more ergonomically designed version is significantly different.
  
  
  
• Evoluent VerticalMouse: Also an ergo mouse, "top" becomes "side" as your mouse grip becomes a handshake.  Includes a scroll wheel between the fore- and middle finger buttons.
  
  
  
• DECstation mouse: Mouse delivered with DEC MIPS-based DECstation Unix workstations.  Completely round, though with more of a sidewall than the infamous Apple hockey puck, and more the size of a hockey puck, this was the first three-button mouse I ever used (on the first Unix workstation I ever used).  The tracking mechanism was odd, with two angled wheels on the bottom, one tracking up/down motion and the other tracking left/right motion.  It worked well, though, and I don't recall it needing any cleaning.  I also don't seem to recall having trouble with orientation, despite its circularity.  I'm sure that it had some proprietary interface.
  
  
  
• Logitech MouseMan/WingMan mouse: Best mouse I've ever owned.  I have at least three of them, all dead.  I'd probably still be using it if I could repair them.  Biggest problem is that they are ball mice, and the earlier version had no USB option.  Also no wheel, though I don't think that would bother me a whole lot.  In fact, it's so old that it was available as a serial mouse.  I've thought about transplanting some other mouse's guts into one of them, but I'm inconfident of my ability to do that.
  
  
  
• Sun Type 5 mouse: A darned good, sturdy three button mouse.  Came both as an optical mouse (of the type that required a gridded reflective mousepad) and a ball mouse.  Proprietary Sun interface.
  
  
  
• Sun Type 6/"Crossbow" mouse: Sun's new three button mouse was kind of a generic 3-button USB mouse. Probably slightly more well made than generic OEM mice, but not a lot. As I recall, it was optical, which was nice.
  
  
  
• SGI Granite mouse: Again, a simple well-made mouse.  This one is supposedly PS/2, but I hear that attaching one to a PC can be problematic.
  

[Arc'xer]

If your not aware majority of mice have kept the 3rd button under the scroll wheel. In fact not only have they kept it but they are also adding 5-way  scroll wheels(ScUp, ScDn, 3rd down, 4th L or R, 5th L or R), which add 2 addition side buttons to the scroll wheel. And more buttons are being added even to extremes like the warmouse meta or naga.

Though it seems like your buying these mice for ergo reasons. Well like most manufacturers they are probably going to try and follow market norms and well add the 3rd under the scroll wheel, since it's more convenient. If your worried about breaking it, I doubt that is an issue. But realistically it's real hard to give up the scroll wheel since it's just too convenient and helpful.

[Findecanor]

(The dirt and grime on the white mouse in the picture are pencil marks and modelling clay because I was sculpting a few ideas for a mod recently)

Logitech Pilot Mouse. Not the "Logitech Pilot Mouse Optical" or "Logitech Pilot Wheel Mouse".
PS/2, optomechanical. The retail version is white with either multicoloured or (later) black Logitech logo on the top. A granite version was shipped with SGI machines, and looks almost exactly like the other "SGI Granite" mouse that wfaulk posted, except that this mouse is just a little bit more narrow in the back.

I would be using one now if my PS/2-USB adapter did not reset so often. I have been buying replacement after replacement of PilotMice only because I couldn't find a proper USB/optical mouse with three buttons on top.

I think that I have used the DECstation mouse once... but I think that one must have been faulty because it did not track very well. This was way back before the iMac puck.

One thing that I do not like with the Evoluent is that the scrollwheel is the middle button, and what looks like the middle button on the outside is actually the right (menu) button.

If your not aware majority of mice have kept the 3rd button under the scroll wheel.

I think that every middle-mouse button user is very aware of this. The problem is that using the scrollwheel-button feels very awkward and it is difficult to press the button without turning the wheel a notch.
The middle mouse button is most useful under Linux/Unix where there is a long history of using it. In practically all programs, both old and new, it can be used to paste the "Current Selection" at the point that you click. Nine times out of ten when you press a scrollwheel, you will turn it unwillingly, thus scrolling the text in the window, making you miss your mark and paste the text at the wrong point.

Note that the wheel is often located higher up on the mouse than the left and right buttons -- even though it is intended to be used with the longest finger on the hand.
I have started to get pain in my hand from having used the scrollwheel too much with my middle finger.

Thus, from an ergonomic perspective, the scrollwheel design, on top of the mouse is just horrible. I find the thumbwheel on the Contour Mouse or the two thumb-buttons on the OrthoMouse to be better alternatives.

[platon]

Consider this too ...

HP 3 button mouse. Optical, usb, no wheel.

[ch_123]

• DECstation mouse: Mouse delivered with DEC MIPS-based DECstation Unix workstations.  Completely round, though with more of a sidewall than the infamous Apple hockey puck, and more the size of a hockey puck, this was the first three-button mouse I ever used (on the first Unix workstation I ever used).  The tracking mechanism was odd, with two angled wheels on the bottom, one tracking up/down motion and the other tracking left/right motion.  It worked well, though, and I don't recall it needing any cleaning.  I also don't seem to recall having trouble with orientation, despite its circularity.  I'm sure that it had some proprietary interface.

I'm actually going to put up a review of one of these tomorrow (They were a Hawley mouse with part number VSXXX-AA.C03). I think adapters have been made for them before... They're strangely comfortable, and the buttons have a very affirmative tactility. Quite a nice mouse, although I'm not sure how the sensitivity would hold up with a high res monitor.

[J888www]

Nowadays most people find the scroll-wheel to be a necessity therefore the type of mouse with three buttons is of little use. Most of the three button mouse which OP refers is decades out of date in terms of technology, as Arc'xer explained, the third button is hidden within the scroll-wheel. There are some available which are very good. I had the SteelSeries Kinzu, but found it a little "shallow" my palm does not touch the top of the mouse for palm grip, a Razer Boomslang Ltd Edition, Razer Krait..........and other five button (doesn't count) mice. At present my favourite is the Razer Abyssus........


If you prefer something mush more fanciful, then there's the Razer Abyssus Mirror........


I prefer my mouse not to have finger-prints, so the regular one for my paws.
Try it, I bet all my bananas that you'll like it, if you're after a simple mouse.

[wfaulk]

If your(sic) not aware majority of mice have kept the 3rd button under the scroll wheel.

most people find the scroll-wheel to be a necessity therefore the type of mouse with three buttons is of little use

Findecanor already said it well, but just to have confirmation from the OP (me), putting the third button as the lowest priority action of the scrollwheel is mindnumbingly awful.  Again, as Findecanor said, the exacting precision you have to use to get an unmuddled middle-click becomes physically painful in short course, and is far from foolproof.  Beyond the desire to keep the top of my forearm from hurting being precise with my middle finger(!), I have no interest in "ergonomic" mice, beyond the fact that they seem to be the only ones that have such a feature in a currently available mouse.

Also, having a dedicated third top button does not prevent the presence of a scroll wheel.  Both the Contour and the Evoluent demonstrate that.

Having a usable MB3 is far more important to me than having scroll.  I won't deny that having scroll is nice.  But having three dedicated buttons on top is far nicer.  I realize that this is not the case for everyone, which is obvious from the overwhelming number of mice made in the modern configuration.

That's why I specifically mentioned that configuration in the original post; I didn't realize I needed to expand upon it.  As such, the posts that tout the two-button-plus-clickable-scrollwheel mice are OT.  Since those mice are the norm, I'm guessing that you guys are just listing your favorite mice in general.

I'm also not opposed to more than three buttons, as long as there are at least three distinct ones on the top.  And it's worth pointing out that there are a few mice out there that have a third distinct button on top that is significantly smaller than the other buttons.  I'm not talking about that IBM I listed in the OP.  I specifically remember one that has a third button that's about the size of a grain of rice.  (Can't remember what it is now, though.)

I should expand on my original request, I guess:  It would be nice to see a list of all mice that have three top buttons, preferably ones that are well built and also have nice modern features, like scrollwheels, optical tracking, etc.

[wfaulk]

One thing that I do not like with the Evoluent is that the scrollwheel is the middle button, and what looks like the middle button on the outside is actually the right (menu) button.

Now that you say it, I do remember that.  Surely they are remappable, though, using xmodmap.

[D-EJ915]

IMO those SGI granite mice are utter ****e but it might just be the one I have



These are the best:



The Mouseman+ (version with the thumb button) gets an honourable mention.  The Sun Type 6 is fine and is a ball mouse but not as nice as the Mouseman.  The Type 5 is awesome but only works with older Sun systems which kind of sucks unless you use it simply as an X terminal but then the keyboard sucks ass so I guess it's a mixed bag unless you have a rare one with PS/2 ports as well like the Tadpole I have.

[EverythingIBM]

IBM/Lenovo Scrollpoint Mouse: While it has a wheel equivalent on the top in the form of an alternatively shaped nipple mouse, there is no downward activation, so there is a physical button fore of the Scrollpoint doohickey.  It's a little small, but not exceptionally so.

My problem with this one is actually the Scrollpoint.  I don't have a problem with having a wheel equivalent, but it's ridiculously difficult to use.  It requires a significant amount of pressure, and, more irritatingly, a significantly different amount of pressure in each direction.  It just works badly, and I've found that having a poorly functioning feature is often worse than simply not having the feature at all.

I have no reason to believe that the more ergonomically designed version is significantly different.

Actually, I already did a review on the IBM scrollpoint pro here:
http://geekhack.org/showthread.php?t=9070

There is no issue with the pressure whatsoever. IBM provides a driver disc which allows you to modify how much pressure is applied (much like the trackpoint software on thinkpads). So complaining about how hard you have to press it is trivial as it is easily changeable. I myself set it very light; without drivers windows thinks it's a scroll wheel and thus you have to press fairly hard. You also didn't mention that it supports 360 scrolling, again, with the driver CD. You can turn it off and just have locked vertical/horizontal scrolling, so it's highly customizable.

Pressure being applied in different directions was no issue for me. It's basically the same pressure used on a thinkpad trackpoint: so if you hate the scrollpoint, you'll probably dislike the trackpoint as well... which I find better than a touchpad.

The scrollpoint is one of the most ingenious tools ever built in a mouse, and it's absolutely wonderful for panning around when you're zoomed in editing graphics. A few people also liked it for gaming and apparently bought a whole bunch for backup -- they were pretty smart to do that.

Also, the thumb button I set to ctrl+z (it supports a sequence of keys in the driver), so if I want to undo something, I just hit the thumb button, great!

[wfaulk]

IBM provides a driver disc which allows you to modify how much pressure is applied

Does said disc provide a utility for Linux or OpenBSD?  Given IBM's fairly strong level of commitment to Linux, I wouldn't be totally surprised, but I still doubt it.

[EverythingIBM]

Does said disc provide a utility for Linux or OpenBSD?  Given IBM's fairly strong level of commitment to Linux, I wouldn't be totally surprised, but I still doubt it.

Considering it was made for PCs specifically, no.

Compatibility
This mouse is designed to be compatible with industry standard personal computers that contain a PS/2 mouse port or a USB port.

IBM doesn't use Linux on their workstations or PCs as far as I know. Their servers, probably (usually AIX) -- but they're not being used as multimedia computers, so a specialized mouse becomes pointless.

If you want to try the mouse out with drivers, either dual-boot, or get a dedicated windows machine. I find it impossible to do everything I want with one operating system: gives me a reason to have more computers anyways.

[ch_123]

AIX isn't Linux. They did make a lot of AIX workstations though.

I found that the scrollpoint actually operates alright fine under Debian without drivers.

[EverythingIBM]

AIX isn't Linux. They did make a lot of AIX workstations though.

I found that the scrollpoint actually operates alright fine under Debian without drivers.

AIX & linux are both unix.

And the scrollpoint pro (the newer ones) are 800 DPI. Lenovo is just sloppy in their listings... they don't know what's up or down these days.

[ch_123]

AIX & linux are both unix.

Nope. GNU is Not Unix as they say...

I mean, think about it, if that was true, why would offer both AIX and SuSE Linux as seperate options on their servers and mainframes?

[microsoft windows]

I use just about any mouse I got, from an old Microsoft serial mouse from the 1980's to a Dell USB mouse that's so worn that the silver is completely gone in some places.

[wfaulk]

AIX & linux are both unix.

Even if they were, that doesn't mean that the same utility would work with both of them.  It would, in fact, be highly unlikely.

[mike]

Even if they were, that doesn't mean that the same utility would work with both of them.  It would, in fact, be highly unlikely.

I can confirm that a typical AIX software package won't work under Linux, although I seem to remember some effort in attempting to get AIX binaries working under Linux.

AIX is a little peculiar if you're used to other 'real' Unix variants. Not bad (even indeed quite good); just a little odd.

As to why offer AIX and Linux on the same hardware platform, well IBM has traditional AIX customers, and newly arrived Linux customers. If it makes money, why not ?

[ch_123]

They have different capabilities... As far as I know, Sys V Unix is better for machines with lots of CPU and RAM. And from reading the internet, it seems that a lot of bearded sysadmins think that Linux is a joke compared with 'the real thing'. Hard to say where the nostalgia ends and the objectivity begins though.

In what was is AIX unusual?

[mike]

And from reading the internet, it seems that a lot of bearded sysadmins think that Linux is a joke compared with 'the real thing'. Hard to say where the nostalgia ends and the objectivity begins though.

Not all of 'em

Linux historically lagged a few years behind the others in terms of scaling on large SMP/NUMA machines (ones with more than say 8 cores). As an example IRIX would tend to schedule processes within the CPU board that it was previously running on, in preference to running it on a different CPU board; whereas Linux (if it ran in the Origin 2000) wouldn't. In addition Linux tended to behave badly under extreme load - for instance with a Solaris server I can login and 'cleanup' a server with thousands of very active processes whereas a Linux machine may well become unuseably slow.

To an extent there's a certain amount of outdated Linux experience rather than nostalgia at work.

In what was is AIX unusual?

I haven't run an AIX machine for a few years now, so some of this may be off target, but ...

1/ A lot of the configuration information was held in an object-orientated database. Fair enough, but it was quite unUnixy and some people get twitchy in the presence of binary configuration "blobs" that you can't dive into and fix with an editor.

2/ I seem to remember that there was something slightly odd about how it booted ... something about running two kernels ? Or more likely a mini-kernel was booted to boot the full kernel.

3/ The SysV init.d mechanism had been ripped out and replaced with something else (startsvc?). I don't think it went quite as far as Sun's SMF (which happened later) but it was definitely different.

4/ Unlike other Unixes it provided very strict resource limits by default (cpu, disk space, memory); not necessarily bad, but again quite unUnixy.

[ch_123]

1/ A lot of the configuration information was held in an object-orientated database. Fair enough, but it was quite unUnixy and some people get twitchy in the presence of binary configuration "blobs" that you can't dive into and fix with an editor.

That idea is as ingenious as it is doomed to failure, in equal proportions.

[Meg]

You say that you would still be using your Logitech Mouse Man mouse if it worked. What operating system are you using that you are still able to find drivers? I have an old mouse that I think is exactly the same the one on the left as your picture, and that was the best mouse I've ever had, but I had to stop using it long ago because there were no drivers for the next version of Windows at the time. As far as I know, it still works.

[J888www]

HP 3 button mouse. Optical, usb, no wheel.

I presume you have or owned this Mouse, may I Have your opinion on this product ?
I was surprised to find the cost of this Mouse to be at its pricepoint, that's why I requested your opinion.

[wendell]

Just updating the info on this very old but useful thread.

Unless you want an Evoluent, the only current option for a 3-button mouse is an HP DY651A. It is the one in the photo posted above by platon. Just Google for it, as it is still in production and easy to find.

There was a similar model now out of production but can still be found, model 361781-007. It appears to be the same except that it has a 10 foot cord (vs. 6) and there is a small choke near the plug.

[vun]

Now that the thread is already necroed I might as well add that the Logitech G600 also has 3 mouse buttons on top, although arranged slightly differently from most 3-button mice.

[microsoft windows]

You can get old three button mice pretty easily, just so long as you don't mind using a PS/2 or serial mouse. I've got a few laying around in my computer lab as a matter of fact.

[wendell]

You can get old three button mice pretty easily, just so long as you don't mind using a PS/2 or serial mouse.

I don't mind, but my computer sure does. How the heck do you hook a serial mouse into a USB port?

[Topre]

Now that the thread is already necroed I might as well add that the Logitech G600 also has 3 mouse buttons on top, although arranged slightly differently from most 3-button mice.

The G600 has three "tradition" buttons where you place an index, middle, and ring finger on. Not including the scroll wheel, there is another two buttons. Including the scroll wheel, then there is a total of eight buttons on the top of the G600.

[vun]

Now that the thread is already necroed I might as well add that the Logitech G600 also has 3 mouse buttons on top, although arranged slightly differently from most 3-button mice.

The G600 has three "tradition" buttons where you place an index, middle, and ring finger on. Not including the scroll wheel, there is another two buttons. Including the scroll wheel, then there is a total of eight buttons on the top of the G600.

True, but this thread seems to concern itself mainly with the traditional mouse buttons, otherwise it would be moot as if you start counting the scroll wheel as a button then you've got a choice of just about every mouse with a scroll wheel ever.