[HN Gopher] I haven't used a mouse for 14 years
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I haven't used a mouse for 14 years
Author : speckx
Score : 44 points
Date : 2026-03-18 17:36 UTC (5 hours ago)
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(TXT) w3m dump (axelk.ee)
| bigyabai wrote:
| Anecdotal, but I haven't used my Magic Trackpad 2 since I bought
| a trackball (Kensington Expert Wireless). Removes all the same
| wrist strain issues while retaining flick accuracy of a mouse.
| RobotToaster wrote:
| +1 on trackballs, I use a sanwa gravi myself
| pimlottc wrote:
| Logitech MX Ergo fan here!
| thebrain wrote:
| This is the best. I use it for work as well.
| dewey wrote:
| I love the Magic Trackpad and I've used exclusively for years, at
| some point my wrists start to hurt and I'm now stuck with some
| Logitech MX Vertical.
| JojoFatsani wrote:
| I can't use the trackpad for too long without getting RSI type
| feelings.. I am trackball these days.
| swiftcoder wrote:
| I'm in much the same boat. Daily Apple trackpad driver for the
| past 15 years at least, maybe more. Every time I have to use a PC
| with a mouse it kills me a little (and don't get me started on
| those trackpads cheap PC laptops ship with...)
| krunck wrote:
| I despise trackpads. They feel so sloppy and approximate. Mice
| work great for my needs. But the best laptop pointer for me has
| been the pointing stick:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pointing_stick
| mikestew wrote:
| _I despise trackpads._
|
| And yet I'll use nothing else. Conversely, I have never gotten
| along with pointy sticks, all the way back to the original 1993
| Toshiba Portege[0] despite their apparent popularity.
|
| [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynabook_Portege
| kaypro wrote:
| You have me beat by two years and I never knew about the three
| fingers drag. Great find... thanks!
| mikestew wrote:
| I don't know, does a trackpad count? In one sense, no, it's not a
| mouse. In which case, I guess I'm in the same boat. I don't know
| if I even have any mice in the house anymore.
|
| OTOH, I thought this might be a post from a keyboard shortcut
| wizard.
| tejohnso wrote:
| I haven't used a mouse in ages, but I haven't used a trackpad -
| ever. I've never found one that matches the accuracy, speed, and
| overall joy of using TrackPoint to move the mouse cursor.
| nine_k wrote:
| I love trackpoint for navigation and UI control. But it's not
| that great for drawing / painting (even though I did use it for
| that, successfully).
| D13Fd wrote:
| Yeah it's really a shame that the track point wasn't adopted
| globally (I'm assuming for patent reasons, but surely any
| patents must be expired by now).
|
| For years I used a Trackpoint external keyboard plus a mouse.
| The track point is great for small movements when you're
| primarily typing, and the mouse is great for when you are
| primarily moving the cursor.
| zabzonk wrote:
| One of my favourite features on my Asus Zenbook (Windows) is the
| "Disable Touchpad" hotkey.
| jeffbee wrote:
| I mean ... it's great that they gave you a slight
| accommodation, but that's at best a bodge to workaround bad
| hardware and software.
| zabzonk wrote:
| Actually, the pad is not too bad - I'm just really not into
| trackpads.
| JoshTriplett wrote:
| I spend most of my time using a ThinkPad laptop touchpad, but the
| critical property that makes it usable for me is the physical
| mouse buttons. I find it incredibly awkward to use any system
| without physical mouse buttons, or any system where tap-to-click
| has not been disabled.
|
| I tried, on my current laptop, to see if I could get used to
| having tap-to-click enabled _even without actually using it_ ; I
| wanted to see how far off I was from being able to deal with any
| non-ThinkPad. I ended up turning it back off after a few days,
| after many many clicks I didn't want to click.
| D13Fd wrote:
| My wife feels the same way as you. I guess everyone is
| different. To me, tap-to-click and two-finger right click feel
| the best by far.
| vladvasiliu wrote:
| Why do you find this better? I find it awkward to have to
| contort my hand to hold the button down when dragging around.
| This was already the case with older trackpads with the buttons
| below, but now all trackpads with physical buttons I've seen
| have them above (probably intended for the trackpoint).
|
| I really hate the hinge-style trackpads, but even on macs, I
| always enable tap to click and double-tap-drap to hold. On mac
| os and linux you can enable a "persistent hold for a short
| while" which allows to lift your finger briefly without losing
| the hold. Never found a similar setting on windows, which
| drives me crazy whenever I absolutely have to use that os.
| JoshTriplett wrote:
| > This was already the case with older trackpads with the
| buttons below, but now all trackpads with physical buttons
| I've seen have them above (probably intended for the
| trackpoint).
|
| I think they're officially intended for the trackpoint, yes.
| But I find buttons-above convenient, because if I rest my
| arm/hand in a relaxed fashion on the laptop palm rest, I can
| use my pointer or middle finger for precise movement, and
| click with my middle or ring finger.
|
| That said, I'd take buttons-below over no buttons. With
| buttons-below, I'm using my middle finger to mouse and my
| pointer finger to click, and that's still reasonably
| comfortable.
|
| In both cases, I find it better because: clicking the button
| requires a _deliberate_ action that won 't happen by accident
| while using the touchpad; there's no delay required to
| confirm if touching the touchpad is a click something else,
| it's _never_ a click; there 's nothing timing-based at all,
| motion is motion and clicking is clicking; right-click and
| middle-click have dedicated buttons (I probably use middle-
| click _many times_ more often than right-click on any given
| day, to open links in tabs and to close tabs).
|
| This isn't something that could be solved with a better
| touchpad or better software.
| vladvasiliu wrote:
| > if I rest my arm/hand in a relaxed fashion on the laptop
| palm rest, I can use my pointer or middle finger for
| precise movement, and click with my middle or ring finger.
|
| Huh, interesting. I just tried this, and it's indeed quite
| comfortable to use the index finger to operate the trackpad
| and the middle finger on the buttons. Middle + ring feels
| awkward to me, probably because of the size difference
| between my fingers. I suppose it never occurred to me to
| try it this way because I usually use my middle finger on
| the trackpad.
| veilrap wrote:
| I exclusively use trackpads like Magic Trackpad 2 when I'm on
| MacOS. But I exclusively use a mouse when I'm running Windows and
| Linux.
|
| MacOS just seems more tailored to the touchpad experience.
| Windows and Linux more tailored to the mouse experience.
| seabrookmx wrote:
| Modern GNOME distros (Ubuntu and Fedora when running Wayland,
| for example) work pretty well with a trackpad. You get all the
| usual Mac-style gestures: two finger scrolling, pinch to zoom,
| three finger horizontal swipe for workspaces, three finger
| vertical swipe for "expose" style app overview, etc.
|
| I'm running a Framework 13 and other than the physical click
| requiring more effort than the haptic "click" on a Mac, it's
| pretty dang similar.
| ryandrake wrote:
| I switched to a mac trackpad years ago due to hand pain that
| comes whenever I grip/use a mouse. Something about that half-
| closed-hand light grip has become just super painful.
| Unfortunately I still need to use one for FPS gaming, just
| haven't found a controller to match the speed and precision
| needed to aim and fire at a game opponent.
| dkenyser wrote:
| I'm in the same boat when it comes to gaming. Primarily use a
| trackball mouse and have used it for some games like World of
| Warcraft or Path of Exile but a traditional mouse is still king
| for any FPS game.
|
| I did learn recently that Zowie released an ergonomic version
| of their mouse that I plan on checking out though.
| Unfortunately there's just not a ton of options out there for
| ergonomic gaming mice.
| HerbManic wrote:
| Consider trying a vertical mouse. They look odd and the first
| day or two it is strange but after a while it becomes second
| nature. It was only after using one for a few mo ths that I
| realised most of my issues with typical mouses.
|
| Also it is funny going back to a standard mice, it feels like
| you are awkwardly using a tiktak for input.
| ryandrake wrote:
| Yep that's what I currently use--it's the only way I can even
| bear holding one.
| thenthenthen wrote:
| Some people use console controllers on pc playing competitive
| FPS games (see for example TheBrokenMachine), maybe thats an
| alternative for you? Personally I think it would take me 5+
| years to get used to tho...
| apparent wrote:
| > macOS setup guide used to include an option to turn on three
| finger drag, but now it has been hidden in the accessibility
| option.
|
| I don't understand why Apple does this. It's like the "allow ANC
| with one AirPod" setting, which is also inexplicably an
| accessibility option.
| drivers99 wrote:
| Thanks for mentioning that. I have one hearing aid so I've had
| to take it out so I can wear both AirPods when I want noise
| cancellation at all with AirPods. (I can also stream to the
| hearing aid but it is very tinny, completely lacking bass.)
| nashashmi wrote:
| Windows has something better than three finger drag. It has
| single finger second tap and hold. Plus extended zones for when
| the trackpad is not big enough to stretch across
| vladvasiliu wrote:
| But it misses the killer feature that both macs and Linux have
| and makes this glorious: allow lifting the finger for a short
| time without letting go of the selection.
| ternera wrote:
| The Magic Trackpad and Logitech MX Master 3s mouse are an
| excellent combination for me. I see benefits from both.
| rootusrootus wrote:
| I've tried them all. Trackpad, trackpoint, trackball, all of
| them. I keep coming back to a mouse. Everything else is either
| frustrating and finicky, or it induces RSI after a few hours.
| tokai wrote:
| Did you try a mousetrapper?
| thibaut_barrere wrote:
| What worked for me is "logitech lift", one left handed the
| other right handed. When they are connected I set up my Mac to
| disable the trackpad.
|
| That + sport and standing desk, did wonder to me.
| drivers99 wrote:
| I detest the trackpad on my Windows (Linux soon) laptop, so I
| have to use an external mouse with it, but I use the "magic
| trackpad" on my personal and work macbooks including external
| ones without issues (except if I have to drag something very
| far; this three finger drag seems to make it nicer although it
| wouldn't work if I needed to make sure not to let go like when
| dragging files around). Just wanted to point out that there's a
| big difference.
| vladvasiliu wrote:
| I don't daily drive a mac anymore, but I seem to remember
| that it allowed you to hold the selection with one or more
| fingers, and move another finger on touchpad for the actual
| moving part. You could lift this last finger without letting
| go of the selection.
| rootusrootus wrote:
| I wanted it to work, I really did. I even went so far as to
| buy an external magic trackpad, because people raved about
| it. That trackpad is in mint condition ... in my closet.
| tokai wrote:
| >I am still amazed by Mac's Trackpad quality to this day. I used
| to own Windows laptops, and most of their touchpads are so shit
|
| I have hear multiple times that patents are the reason for the
| bad trackpads outside of Apples products. But I have never been
| able to find a confirmation.
|
| Talking about mouse alternatives I would like to give rollermouse
| a shout-out. Beside the relaxed arm position they give, I really
| like that they invite to use both hands at the same time. With
| the similar workload between both hands and arms I find the over
| all strain lower even with repetitive tasks for a long time.
| hmokiguess wrote:
| I'm on 12 years and I didn't know about the 3 fingers drag,
| thanks for sharing!
| baggy_trough wrote:
| It is utterly insane that 3 finger drag isn't the default or at
| least not buried 3 layers deep inside accessibility. Apple, what
| are you doing?
| latexr wrote:
| I didn't use to be as buried before System Preferences became
| System Settings.
| bee_rider wrote:
| I thought it was going to be about someone who'd fully embraced
| the terminal.
|
| Preferring a trackpad to a mouse seems not so unusual, right? I
| guess sticking to it so completely is. I prefer marble-mouse type
| devices, but I can't say with any certainty that I haven't
| accidentally touched a mouse in the past 14 years.
| kstrauser wrote:
| Wish I could use a trackpad as-is. My wrists are mildly FUBAR
| after decades of computer work/obsession, and now I'm having to
| deal with it. _For me_ , that means that continual wrist
| pronation freaking _hurts_.
|
| Let your arms hang straight down. Now bend your elbows and lift
| your forearms so that they're at 90o to your body, i.e. parallel
| to the ground. Notice that your hands are naturally oriented so
| that if you were holding a pole, it would be much closer to
| pointing downward than sideways. Rotating your wrists "inward" so
| that your hand is parallel to your desk, in the position to use a
| trackpad, is not their normal position.
|
| I used a magic trackpad for quite a while until I found myself in
| agony by the end of the day. One of my coworkers told me he was
| exploring using vertical mice and that caught my attention. I
| tried one and it stopped the pain, like, immediately. Mousing
| around was awkward for a few days until I got used to the
| different hand orientation and movement, but that passed quickly.
| Now I'd never, ever go back to a trackpad.
|
| I'd considered making a little block to mount my magic trackpad
| sideways at, say, a 45o angle to my desk so that my wrist wasn't
| so pronated, but even then it nudges you toward radial and ulnar
| deviation which can also become uncomfortable over time. I'd
| rather just painlessly use my vertical mouse which uses forearm
| movement and write extension/flexion to zip the cursor around my
| screen.
| amarant wrote:
| Sounds like you might benefit from something like the UHK[1].
|
| It's got tenting, which approaches that natural tilt to your
| hands, and there are several mouse add-ons to choose from, I'm
| sure one of them will suit your needs.
|
| [1]https://uhk.io/
| kstrauser wrote:
| Yeah, something like that is awfully appealing. I don't have
| as much trouble with typing as with trackpadding for whatever
| happy combination of reasons, the biggest being that I taught
| myself to type after playing piano for many years first, and
| so completely ignored "proper" home-row typing in favor of
| piano-like "move your hand around and wiggle your fingers"
| typing. I'm still one of the faster typists I know, so doing
| it "wrong" hasn't held me back at all.
|
| But. If my hands start to hurt while typing, I'm definitely
| trying something like that as my first keyboard experiment.
| TheAmazingRace wrote:
| I get the love for Macbook trackpads, but Lenovo really nailed it
| with the ThinkPad trackpoint and glass trackpad combo, especially
| on more recent models.
| egypturnash wrote:
| I haven't used a mouse since about 1999 when my index finger told
| me I'd been doing entirely too much double-clicking in my Flash
| animation job. It's been all drawing tablets since then. I have a
| mouse that I use on the rare occasion of playing a game that
| requires you to move the view by pushing the cursor against the
| screen edges; I have to hold it in a weird, awkward grip because
| that tendon _still_ starts screaming if I try to use it to click
| a mouse button.
| giancarlostoro wrote:
| Trackball gang here. Nulea seems to be my latest iteration, I've
| tried a bunch of them.
|
| When I first learned of them I thought they were ridiculous, but
| it really saved my hands going ergonomic w/ the Trackball and
| Keyboard (Microsoft Ergo style - Nulea as well).
| anarticle wrote:
| I have tried to go completely mouse/trackpad free with
| vimari/vimium, scoot, and rectangle. Worked relatively well, and
| helps me move things around as fast as I can think.
|
| web moves: https://github.com/televator-apps/vimari mouse moves:
| https://github.com/mjrusso/scoot window moves:
| https://rectangleapp.com
|
| Drag lock is a good setting, just test drove it and will be using
| it.
| seanwilson wrote:
| I like laptop trackpads because it means you're always close to
| the keyboard, so you can easily switch between cursor and typing
| without only relying on one. It's good for UI design work for
| example.
| Ancapistani wrote:
| If, like me, you like to script your Mac environment setup, the
| following two commands SHOULD do the same thing:
| defaults write com.apple.AppleMultitouchTrackpad
| TrackpadThreeFingerDrag -bool true defaults write
| com.apple.driver.AppleBluetoothMultitouch.trackpad
| TrackpadThreeFingerDrag -bool true
|
| Unfortunately I've not been able to verify this, as it doesn't
| take effect until you log out and back in, and I'm in the middle
| of a task. Once it's done I'll test it and either update this
| post or comment with my results, depending on how long it takes
| me.
|
| ETA: I tested it, and the behavior is correct when I log back in
| after running the above. Oddly though, the settings aren't
| showing as turned on in the settings panel. If anyone has a
| scriptable solution to that I'd love to hear it.
| themadturk wrote:
| When I do use a mouse, I use a Logitech Lift because horizontal
| grip mice are uncomfortable, but now that I've retired and 99% of
| my time is on my MacBook Air, it's all trackpad, and my hands
| don't seem to mind it.
| drdec wrote:
| can anyone recommend similar hardware compatible with linux? that
| also supports the three fingered drag and other stuff mentioned
| in the article?
| agys wrote:
| The three finger drag is an ergonomic marvel, combined with
| tapping (vs. clicking) and a couple of four finger gestures it's
| perfect. I don't use (or drag around) a mouse since very long;
| not even when heavily using Photoshop and similar pointer-heavy
| applications.
| bartread wrote:
| It's funny: I'd never given it a moment's thought until I saw
| this piece but I've realised I'm probably the same. The only time
| I've used a mouse since maybe 2012 or so is on the odd occasion
| I've fired up an FPS on a laptop rather than on a games console.
| And that's it.
|
| (I've tried playing FPSs with trackpads as well but, even with
| Mac trackpads, which remain far and away the best, it is not a
| good - or even acceptable - experience. Mouse all the way for
| fragging action.)
| bombcar wrote:
| Trackpad works fine for everything - but mouse + keyboard still
| wins by far for FPS.
|
| "Right click and drag" is just not something a trackpad does
| well.
| snowwrestler wrote:
| The three finger drag pattern comes from Fingerworks, the
| multitouch trackpad company that Apple bought to get their
| multitouch tech.
|
| A Fingerworks trackpad is when I switched away from a mouse, and
| in some ways it was even better than a modern Apple trackpad.
| First it was huge, maybe like twice the area of a MacBook Pro
| trackpad. It had no click switch at all. Taps only, which were
| very reliable.
|
| It also lay flat on the desk and was only a few mm thick. So it
| felt like just resting your hand on the desk. And it was possible
| to just passively rest your hand on it with no reaction. So using
| it, my hand and wrist were totally relaxed when not moving the
| cursor (most of the time). Whereas with modern Apple trackpads, I
| sometimes get spurious inputs when resting my hand on it.
|
| It also had tons of gestures that were mapped to keyboard
| shortcuts. So an "opening the jar" arcing motion with 4 fingers
| opened whatever file was currently highlighted. And "closing the
| jar" closed the current window. Etc.
| simojo wrote:
| One of my buddies has beaten minecraft many times using only his
| mac trackpad. In fact, he's better than I am with a mouse.
| satisfice wrote:
| "Mouse!" --- Rafael Alonzo's I.T.F. Technical Computer Institute
| Ad (by way of SNL)
| Rendello wrote:
| I've always hated trackpads, they always made my fingers
| extremely sore and I didn't find they worked well. Someone told
| me "you're just not used to it", like I hadn't been already
| trying for 20 years!
|
| The Mac trackpad, however, is wonderful. I enjoy using it.
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