• thejevans
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    5 months ago

    The mouse was never the best tool for a lot of computing jobs, it was just what caught on.

    I still primarily use my computers as a desktop, and I don’t like it when software requires me to reach over to my pointing device. When it does, the majority of the time I reach for a trackball which is far more comfortable.

    After dabbling with tiling windows managers in Linux some years ago, I came to realize that pointing devices are often the slow way to do things.

    The main thing I want a pointing device for these days is for scrolling through documents and web pages, and the vast majority of mice are just bad at that. Precision scrolling is only available on a handful of mice, and its niche enough that consistent software implementation is just not a thing.

    I’ll still keep a mouse on hand for playing the occasional video game that works better with one, but that’s not really how I like to play games usually.

    • nocturne
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      5 months ago

      Back in something like 2003 the computer I had at work had a trackball instead of a mouse. I hated it, until I finally replaced it with mouse and found myself really missing my trackball. Still use them 20+ years later.