I have used a Wacom tablet as my pointer since 1997, it’s faster, more accurate, and tends to avoid any wrist problems. I now find using a mouse very awkward and clumsy.
What do you use?
What about touchpads on laptops?
Oh yeah. I don’t have a laptop so I forgot about them.
Well, that can safely come under Other.
I use a trackball not because I’m a nerd but there’s no room for a mouse on the desk.
On the home PC, I’ve got a Wacom Intuos. At work, just a regular mouse as mainframes barely understand mice, never mind pressure sensitivity.
Wacom Tablet for me too! (I’m on my third one… I seem to recall that the first one had a 9-pin serial port. 
)
I also use the touchpad.
I use a mouse; whenever I buy a new one (every few years), I get the absolute cheapest corded mouse I can find.
I have a Wacom tablet that I got for Photoshop work but I could never get the hang of it. Even with PS I’m still better with my mouse.
I don’t see how using a mouse can cause wrist problems. I keep my wrist fixed on the desk, and move the mouse solely with my fingertips.
I use a trackball because it doesn’t require as much real estate as a mouse.
I have mostly used a mouse. I have considered a trackball. I hate and despise the pad on my note book. I was using my son in laws the other night and it had sort of a short stalk in the middle of the key board. seemed to work well.
My mouse is about ready for the big hole in the sky. I will see what I find under my tree. I may buy a trackball and relegate one to the notebook.
I was never affected either, but some apparently were. RSI and all that. It was quite the watercooler talk in the late 90s.
Perhaps it wasn’t caused by mouse use, I’m not sure if that’s been investigated further.
I use a wireless Logitech thumb-trackball, because I use the computer from my couch. This way I don’t need a mouse pad. I used a rigid one with a regular wireless mouse when I first set up my living room computer w/flatscreen, and bought the trackball last January. Best accessory I ever bought myself. If that makes me a nerd, so be it, you can pry it from my cold, dead hand!
Mouse on the desktop at work, trackpad on my netbook at home. I don’t personally like ‘special’ input devices (the only reason I have to care is that I work in IT support, so I occasionally have to cope with other peoples’ split ergonomic keyboards, vertically-oriented mice, trackballs, etc)
Mouse all the way…I don’t even like using trackpads on laptops…if I’m going to be using one for an extended period of time, and assuming it’s on a desk/table and not actually in my lap, out comes the travel mouse.
I’m surprised that so many people say they use trackballs because of a small desk/space. I just did an experiment…I went from one edge of my monitor to the other (I’m guessing it’s a 22 or 23" widescreen,) and it used less than two inches of desk space (I had it on a pad of paper turned sideways, and it went just shy of five “college ruled” lines.) According to wikipedia, each space is 9/32 inch, so that works out to roughly 1.5 inches. And I don’t have mouse pointer acceleration turned on, so that’s a fixed distance regardless of how fast I move the mouse.
And it may sound at first like that’s too sensitive, but it’s really not…at all (just checked and it’s exactly in the middle for pointer speed options in the ‘mouse’ area of control panel). In fact, I may go turn the sensitivity up a tad (I just moved to a new office at work, so today is the first time I’m using this exact computer, and haven’t gotten it set up exactly like I like.)
Trackball. It takes up less real estate, and with my quad monitor setup, I can give the ball a spin and cross two or three monitors at once.
Not voting because I use too many things. Mouse at work. Trackball at home when my laptop is actually on my desk. Wacom tablet for art and some games. Mouse nubbin (I have no idea what it’s called…) when I’m goofing off away from the desk.
Take your pick.
My personal favourite (“clit-mouse”) is conspicuous by its absence.
I love laptop touch pads. Using a mouse always made my hand hurt - my actual hand, from being draped over the mouse.
My brother and mother both prefer a mouse. I got a wireless mouse as a backup, because one of the buttons on my touch pad was sticking. My mother “stole” it for her laptop. Then she showed it to my brother, and he “stole” it and took it to work. This despite the fact that it’s pink and he hates pink.