While I anx…anch…ankshu…await the arrival of my first NEW Mac (having had a couplea older quadras and the like when they were put out to pasture) I figured I’d ask y’all if you bothered learning to use the Ctrl+button for stuff or did ya just get a two buttoned mous and be done with it?
I’m getting an iBook, so I figgure for at least PART of the time, It’ll be keyboard+buttonwork.
I use my right thumb on the keyboard so seamlessly that I had to stop and think abut what you were asking!
I rather prefer the single button mouse, with CTRL+Click there is essentially no way to inadvertantly click with the wrong button (which is nice on a laptop) and since the Mac OS is designed with one mouse button use in mind, it isn’t as big of a hassle as many people seem to think it would be.
One thing is certain, if single button mice were more common, I would spend a lot less time at work telling people, “Ok, now just click there. No, I mean with the other button. No, that’s the scroll wheel, click with the left button.”
Try it, you may like it, otherwise, use your old mouse. I switched from using PC’s (running windows and linux) a few years back, and I’ve never felt much urge to switch to a two button mouse.
Used to use the CTRL button, but I’ve now got a two-button optical mouse with a scroll wheel. It has really enhanced my experience of OS X. Recommended.
Mostly the single button trackpad, but for some tasks, I plug in a three button optical.
Cool, Thanks guys. Now if only this thing’d get off backorder. <whistles to self>
I love my 2 button mouse.
But part of that is that I use a PC and a Mac, so it makes it easier to switch between the two.
My elderly, umm, ancient, OK damn near antediluvian WallStreet PowerBook is ADB-native and USB only with the aid of PCCard. While I admit a two-button optical mousie would be a nice thing to have, it doesn’t outweigh the need to avoid committing myself to always having to have the USB card in one of the CardBus slots. (FireWire card is rather permanently in the lower). So I’m still using single-button, ADB II, lozenge-shaped traditional white Apple rodentia here.
When I got my iBook, I predicted that the single-button trackpad would have me sprinting to the office supply store to get a three-button mouse within a week. I came from the Unix side, so I thought the central button / scroll wheel was indispensible.
But I adapted very quickly to the trackpad, and I haven’t been bothered at all by the single-button mouse. I’d be nice to have a scroll wheel, but it’s not worth the effort of getting a mouse and lugging it around with me.
I wouldn’t mind a wheel, but my little round blue and white tiny tiny one button mouse works just fine for me.
I use a mac and a pc at home and a pc at work. Switching back and forth is nuttin.
Two button all the way, baby. I have been that way from almost the start (I got my first Mac in 2000).
This thread is better suited for In My Humble Opinion. I’ll move it for you.
Cajun Man
for the SDMB
I prefer a one button mouse.
On my Powerbook, I use the trackpad and single button. On my desktop, I use a Wacom drawing tablet and the included wireless mouse, which is two buttons with a scroll button. I’m indifferent about either, I’m just as efficient with one button as I am with two, and go back and forth between right-clicking and button+clicking.
In OS 9, click-and-hold was all you needed to get contextual menus, but that’s been largely abandoned in OS X for some unknown reason. EVen so, I still prefer one button. However, the Exposé feature in Panther is possibly worth the second button.
I have a mouse with sox buttons. A multi-button mouse is one of the Windows things that Apple should’ve adopted a long time ago.
Two-button scrolly optical here, but that’s 'coz I’m a power geek. 
I do keep the one-button original optical mouse around, though, for when a computer-phobic person wants to use my iMac. It’s painful watching people cope with multiple-button mice sometimes.
You might want to check this out.
Exactly the same for me.
I just got a new computer (iMac G5, baby!), and I’m giving my old computer, including Logitech keyboard and mouse, to my grandmother. I’ve had no problems adjusting back to the one-button mouse. The only thing I miss is the scroll wheel and I don’t miss it so much I want to spend $30 on a new one. Of course, if I set up the old computer for Grandma and the MX 310 is too much for her, I might take it back and give her the mouse the iMac came with.
Oh yeah, and it’s anxiously.
Since I do lots of design, drawing and image manipulation, I really need a 2-button (click and click lock) mouse. I also have a scrolling wheel, but usually forget to use it.