Today’s comic was inspired by a recent Gizmodo article entitled “It’s Time to Exterminate the Mouse”. Of course, trackpads are not the end all be all of computing; I use both depending upon the task at hand. With design packages, I find the mouse a much more precise tool. But in terms of alleviating wrist problems with daily use, the trackpad wins hands down. Do you prefer mice to trackpads? Yay or nay – sound off in the comments below.
-Krishna
Mice. Definitely Mice. Trackpads suck at playing the games I play.
I’ve had a chance to work with both at the same time, lately (2 machines)…. right hand mouse/keboard, left hand on a built-in trackpad on a compact keboard (on the second machine). The nature of the work is more on the IT side, where I don’t have to draw, or select much. The trackpad makes navigating easier (even left handed, and I’m I rightie). Its got its uses. Paraphrasing what you mention, the task dictates the tool.
Keyboard + finger-twisting hot key combos.
haha! I like your caption better, Michael! :D
Long time since I edited hex offsets.
Mice all the way. A trackpad doesn’t seem “accurate” enough but it’s probably just me not used to it.
Mice definately, it isn’t like pinching and such can’t be done with a mouse, heck on the first Mac OS, the bottom right corner of each window would do that! Plus I don’t get fingerprints on my monitor, plus my hand/finger does not get in the way of what I am seeing on my screen regardless of size.
Trackballs, definitely. A trackball combines the best of mice and trackpads (accuracy and no wrist pain). I use a Kensington Orbit Optical, and love it.
I generally prefer the experience of Apple multitouch trackpads specifically. (Other trackpads do not compare favorably, somehow. I used to think this is more of an OS issues, but recently The Verge reported how much better a MacBook Air running Windows feels than other laptops wrt. trackpad behavior.)
I wish they’d go back to making notebooks with trackballs on them. It frustrates me when I reach the edge of the trackpad and I just have to move the pointer that one extra centimeter I don’t have…
Well its easy to make the trackpad working in Linux…but its harder to do Photoshop with the trackpad.
Mouse. I’ve got ten thumbs, so a track pad would not be very useful. Truth be known, if hot key combos were still readily useful, I’d much prefer that.