[GRLUG] new mouse

[Dan Pilcheck]

On Mon, Mar 29, 2010 at 11:16 AM, L. V. Lammert <lvl at omnitec.net> wrote:
> At 03:28 PM 3/26/2010, you wrote:
>
>>I love my old Trackman Vista.  The ball is on the fingers though, not the
>>thumb.  An optical version with a scroll-wheel would meet my definition of
>>perfect.
>
> The only decent replacements on the market today are Kensington -
> they make at least three models with nicely sized trackballs - none
> of the thumball junk like Logitech. The Pro models are $70+, but a
> NICE replacement for my old Microspeed units (especially that they
> come PS/2 instead of RS232).
>
> It was a little tricky to get the button configuration correct in
> xorg.conf, .. and the Pro has a tendency to go bananas (spurious
> clicks) when switching between machines running on a KVM, but not big
> problems. The problem I have seen occur when switching from Windoze
> to X, so I don't know if it's an issue with the h/w or the Windoze driver.
>
>         Lee
>

I had thrown the Kensington out of the pool becasue I didn't see a
wheel, but on second look, the ring around the trackball acts as a
scroll wheel?
I'm looking for a desktop replacement at work (and home soon enough),
without kvm.

For the experienced "Ballers" on the list, do you find the finger ball
better than the thumb ball?

The Orbit (http://us.kensington.com/html/17531.html) appears to be a
reasonable compromise, and it has the scroll ring.
Google says it can be had for around $30. I don't know if I can quite
justify $100 on a mouse at the moment.