Based on technology developed by Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft’s IntelliMouse Explorer arrived with a price tag that could be justified by even cash-strapped students like me. Even better, the underside of the mouse was completely sealed, preventing even the tiniest speck of dirt from penetrating its insides, and it improved on its predecessors by working on almost any surface that wasn’t too reflective. I remember getting back to my dorm room and plugging in the Explorer for the first time, wondering who had a rig fancy enough to use the included PS2 to USB adapter. There were undoubtedly a few driver installation hiccups along the way, but once Windows 98 was happy, I fired up Photoshop and strapped in for the smoothest mouse experience I’d ever had. Problem solved.
The changeover from ball mice to optical mice is something few will ever rave about, but I remember it as one of the biggest changes in computer use I’ve personally ever experience. Everything about optical mice is better than ball mice, and using an optical mouse for the first time roughly two decades ago was a complete game-changer.
I still have my opto-mechanical Honeywell 3 button mouse. Plugs thru serial port. It was my default mouse for my Tandy computers. It was miles better than ball MS soap mouse I had.
Thom Holwerda,
I agree optical mice are better technology, however “a complete game-changer”? Very little changed, both the balled and optical mice allowed us to do the exact same tasks the exact same way as before (which is good). Of course it’s better not to have to clean all the muck that gets sucked into ball mice, that’s a nice improvement, but it didn’t change the game. Are cordless mice a “complete game changer”? Yeah I know, I’m nitpicking, but the headline just feels exaggerated and untrue.
To me a “complete game changer” means something drastically different from what preceded it, like bitcoin or touchscreens.
No, really, optical mouse really flicked away the need to constantly open the ball trap and scrub the cylinders from accumulated dirt. I’d say that one other strong “game changer” was the mouse wheel, preventing you from having to slide the slider up and down (or left and right, some mice having two wheels for that regard), and then the mouse wheel click (opening tabs) then the mouse wheel tilt (previous page, next page). Finally mouse macro keys provides the essential shortcuts to save you from fingers’ gymkhana (Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V) when I had my first WOP-35 from A4Tech. Now owning a Logitech G600 fully configured, can launch compilation then debug (step in, step out, set breakpoint) without touching the keyboard but for additional tasks.
Btw, still have an Atari ST with its ball mouse, hard edges, two buttons, low dpi (have to fly over back the mouse on my desk). The difference is striking.
Kochise,
I’ll give you the mouse wheel improved UI interaction. The shortcut buttons less so IMHO (unless you were mac puck user, in which case buttons were revolutionary, haha).
Thing is, it wasn’t “constant cleaning”, more like once or twice a week. Not pleasant, but it really shouldn’t take more than a few minutes a week.
With regards to the author’s claims, one of these applies: 1) He’s clearly exaggerating or 2) He didn’t know how to fully clean the mouse and was leaving the rollers dirty.
I’ll concede this – optical mice could be a real game changer for users who found themselves in scenario #2 if they used the ball mice without cleaning the rollers inside, doing that for a long time would have been frustrating as heck! Otherwise though the way we use mice didn’t change at all with optical mice, which is the point I’m making. Anyways, onto more important topics, haha 🙂
I was just going to post the same thing. I never had to clean a mouse ball more than once a month or two. More than that is either improper cleaning, or an excessive filthy environment.
Agreed, I see no major difference: the same interaction, the same mouse pad, the same feel… the differences of a) not having to clean the inside of the mouse once in a while and b) having your mouse last a bit more are minor evolutionary things.
PS: I still use wired everywhere possible because batteries: a) changing them is an additional cost b) you have to worry about having replacements available c) used batteries are polluting
Agreed. I went back to a wired mechanical keyboard. I got sick of the flimsy minimalist keyboards that needed to be constantly fed batteries. A wireless mouse is a great advantage though.
The only change that came with optical mouse as opposed to mechanical one was that you didn’t have to clean it as often. Occasionally, some hair, dust-bunny or dirt would still get under the lens of the optical mouse, so you’d still have to clean it, but it was much easier and much less often.
Other than that, absolutely nothing changed. I really can’t see how you can call such a minor convenience improvement a “game changer”.
And about this same time, I switched to trackballs, first the Trackball Optical, I believe (thumb trackball), and then later, the best HID ever made, the Microsoft Trackball Explorer. I’ve been using the Trackball Explorer for almost 20 years, until finally my last one gave up the ghost last year.
How anyone can use a mouse for anything in 2019 is beyond me.
*And about this same time, I switched to trackballs, first the Trackball Optical, I believe (thumb trackball), and then later, the best HID ever made, the Microsoft Trackball Explorer. I’ve been using the Trackball Explorer for almost 20 years, until finally my last one gave up the ghost last year.
How anyone can use a mouse for anything in 2019 is beyond me.*
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Sorry, a 5-button mouse beats a clutzy trackball every single time. Hell a trackball is almost as bad as a touchpad mouse.
Beat in what? How much time you spent to get used to trackball? What kind of trackball you used?
Used the A4Tech’s WWT-13 trackball, probably the best one : http://xahlee.info/kbd/a4tech_wwt-13_scrolltrack_4d_mouse.html
It just missed kinetic slide with a heavier ball, but all in all, it was really really good.
IIRC I used Logitech T-CE3 about 20 years ago and now I’m using Kensington Expert at work.
I don’t agree. Optical mouse were a big advancement in computer mice, but Microsoft’s mice were always subpar. Pratically all that I used felt cheap, seen a lot that the scroll wheels’ rubber starts to decay and release a very unpleasant oil (?), or their buttons decided to quit. I have a 2nd gen Cordless Intellimouse Explorer whose right button decided to crap out with barely any use. Only MS mouse that I really enjoyed was the first version of the IntelliMouse Pro, huge body that felt great in hand, not like the punny mice we have now that we have to hold with our finger tips.
I’m partial to Logitech, they always had good mice, generally well built and resilient. Even their cheapest are good. Best 2 mice I ever had were/are Logitech, the old ball-based MouseMan Wheel, which withstood lots of punishment, and my current and already venerable G9, which after thousands of gaming hours still works perfectly despite the outer shell coating already having turned to gunk. In between another great Logitech mouse, the MouseMan Dual Optical, of which I bought a 2nd when the 1st’s rubber sides were decaying and really nasty after many hours of use..
Only 20 years? Your youth is showing. 🙂 Thirty years ago, I was using a Boing! mouse on my Amiga 500. That was an optical mouse made by Mouse Systems, designed by Dale Luck, and sold through his company, GfxBase. It used its own special mouse pad that was reflective with different color strips going vertically and horizontally across the pad, allowing the two LEDs in the mouse to track motion. Yeah, a REALLY old optical design. Still got it. It’s a nice mouse, but damn near impossible to find any info about it online. Three buttons, no scroll wheel, and you have to use the reflective pad.
I think I’ve only seen an old school reflective pad optical mouse ONCE in the wild.
My Razer Boomslang, a high resolution ball mouse, with a control panel which allowed you to overclock the ps2 port was smoother for years than anything USB/optical. The responsiveness I could get from that and my CRT monitor cranked up to 85Hz is still unmatched with today’s more latent hardware interfaces. It wasn’t until 120Hz monitors that things even began to approach that level of smoothness.
I agree, mechanical to optical mouse was the best upgrade I have ever made on any computer I have ever owned.