Microsoft makes pretty good mice. This one looks well designed. - Alan Le

shiny! - Mona Nomura

let me guess... closed-source drivers? huh... - A.T.

@silpol - and yer point for such a stupid comment?? open source is not the end all be all ya know and gawd forbid some company out there that actually wants to make that thing they call money and the fact that the money goes to people who have rent / mortgages to pay or a family to feed - fuck comments like that really piss me off sometimes. - Steven Hodson

Calm down Steven :) - Yuvi

@Silpol: Yeah. They aren't even publishing the device blueprints! Horror! - Yuvi

Looks like someone ate the brown Cheerios this morning. - Akiva Moskovitz

HAHAHAHHAHAHAHHA - Mona Nomura

doubles as a usb bottle opener? - Anthony Citrano

I so didn't expect the conversation on this link. Microsoft makes a mouse and designed it to work against Windows, I don't see anything wrong with that. - Alan Le

@Alan: You just don't understand! The world *will* come to an end if MS doesn't release GPL drivers for all of their hardware products. - Chad Myers

@stevenhodson: There's nothing wrong with either closed or open source... Nothing to get angry for, come on :) - directeur from NoiseRiver

@steven conversely, your comment is extremely smart and to the point, leave alone impersonallity and wittiness... just one little thing tho some people get paid for open source - A.T.

[obligatory meta-conversation] It's weird how a MOUSE can cause a conversation about opensource drivers. just sayin. - Yuvi

Steven: Aren't we talking about mouse drivers? Is Microsoft planning on charging for the mouse AND the drivers, or just the mouse? If they're charging for just the mouse, isn't it in their interest to make it as usable as possible on as many different OSes as possible? I personally don't care if they make the drivers open or closed source, it just seems to me that open source drivers would spur more sales of the hardware, which is the bit they make their money from. - David Worrell

@David: Err, you mean I need to install SEPERATE MOUSE DRIVERS for Linux? I never quite remember installing one for windows.... (I could be wrong - maybe fancy ones do require sep. drivers. But, I've got a wireless one that needs no special drivers) - Yuvi

@silpol - true enough some folks do get paid for working on open source projects that are then used by companies to either directly or indirectly to make money from. The problem is that the *common* perception of open source is that is all about free software. While you may not have intended for that reaction I get really tired of people taking potshots at companies in the software busines because they want to make money and this is seen most often by the rabid OSS advocates. Why there is this assumption that everything software companies do *must* be open source or they are just being thieves irritates me to no end. It is also extremely irritating that this attitude is 99% of the time directed to MS and the Windows OS but Apple can do anything it likes in locking down it's software path and make money from it. - Steven Hodson

Yuvi, that's just the problem and quite astute: some open source (and Apple) evangelists can't help but interlope into any conversation they can to proselytize their politic. - Akiva Moskovitz

@David yes we are talking about Drivers here and they *are considered* to be free but the fact is that they as has been pointed out something that they use to make money from the products that use them. Does this mean though that being open sourced is going to benefit companies that are making money from those products - no it doesn't and I really don't care if the things are open or closed source either. It just really irtritates me - this assumption that open source is the cure for all our ills. - Steven Hodson

posting token freetard crack, also, sexy! - Eric Rice

If its got trackball capabilities, I'm all for it. Once I got used to trackball I never wanted to go back to a movable mouse. - Melanie Reed

@Yuvi I had my Windows desktop and my Linux box on a PS/2 KVM. My Logitech trackball drove Ubuntu nuts. - MiniMage (FakeLifePerson)

Melanie, amen. I'm a Kensington Expert Mouse user. - Akiva Moskovitz

Stephen, amen. - Akiva Moskovitz

I still use a touchpad attached to my PC. Never liked that mice required desk real estate to be useful. Much better to keep the pointer peripheral stationary. - Sprague D

Wow, that looks like RSI waiting to happen... - Brad Brooks

@Sprague D Same here. My desk real estate is too valuable for the price of a mouse. lol - Melanie Reed

I bought an IntelliMouse Explorer 2 to change the one I used with my former powerbook -apple's mouse sucks- and still works fine. The only thing I got from MS that works as it should. - david medina

I love MS keyboards but never liked their mice. Never seem to fit my hand and the scroll wheels always seem to loose. - Scott Bauer