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Which IBM mouse..

Which IBM mouse..

  • Original IBM PS/2

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Late IBM PS/2

    Votes: 10 83.3%

  • 90s IBM NetScroll

    Votes: 2 16.7%
  • Total voters
    12
  • Poll closed .
R

Raven

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Location
DE, USA..
My Presario 425 (my first and main one) is currently sitting on my desk, not fully hooked up. I long ago decided that my favorite keyboard, my Model M Spacesaver (1987) is paired with it, because it's just so damn nice, and so is this machine.

Anyway, in the past I've been using a 1987 original IBM PS/2 mouse (one which I was lucky enough to get NIB for only $10 on eBay a few years ago.. if I realized how odd that opportunity was I would have bought a bunch). I've been considering perhaps using a different IBM mouse, as I have a small collection of them.

The beige ones that would match are:
- Original PS/2 mouse, date 1987 (matches keyboard date)
- Late PS/2 mouse, unknown date (got it with a Toshiba T4400C looong ago, the machine it came with has died but the mouse lives on)
- IBM NetScroll mouse, dated somewhere around 1995-7, has scroll wheel (I got this one lightly used in box :D)

The machine itself is a Compaq and is from 1994.

I'm thinking that the most appropriate mouse would be the middle one - it's old enough to match the keyboard, and new enough to match the machine. It's also a bit more usable than the original PS/2 mouse (which is fun, but odd).

I set up a poll for it, because I felt like it.. lol

Vote for what you would choose in this situation, post an explanation if you like.

Edit: Forgot to post pics! :O

 
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I'm leaning towards the later IBM oval-shaped mouse. Period appropriate, "vintage vibe" without the usability issues presented by the original PS/2 mouse (I have a couple of each).

If you happen to be USING the computer, go scroll wheel. Using an old box for kicks is one thing, but punishing yourself with having to drag scroll bars is insanity.

Nice keyboard, by the way. Are you on geekhack? If so what username?
 
Middle one. I have a bunch of both of those older IBM mice and the more rounded one feels better in my hand for long periods. I keep the older ones for the old PS/2 towers I have.

Don't you have any old Compaq keyboards and mice?
 
kishy said:
I'm leaning towards the later IBM oval-shaped mouse. Period appropriate, "vintage vibe" without the usability issues presented by the original PS/2 mouse (I have a couple of each).

If you happen to be USING the computer, go scroll wheel. Using an old box for kicks is one thing, but punishing yourself with having to drag scroll bars is insanity.

Nice keyboard, by the way. Are you on geekhack? If so what username?
Click to expand...

I love that keyboard - I bought a tool and cleaned it out.. I keep it in flawless condition (or at least as flawless as it can be considering the rust on the backplate inside that happened before I got it). I'm not on Geekhack, but I've read several threads there in the past on various Model M topics. I'm bad at doing more than one forum at a time, so I pretty much live here on VCF.

I do "use" the machine, but scrollwheels don't help much in DOS or Win3x (and I rarely use Win3x on this particular machine, so even if I find a scrollwheel driver it won't do much for me).

Everybody so far seems to agree with my initial supposition, so unless in the next few days I look and the votes all massively swing elsewhere, I guess I'm going with this.

Anybody know what year the middle mouse is from, by the way? I couldn't find too much info on it - all I know is that it's a PS/2 mouse and that there's also a version with beige buttons.

Edit: Just realized how ironic it is that I'm using my Win95 mousepad on a machine that doesn't run Win95.. I've been considering putting it on there again, to see how well it works with the upgrades I've done since I got the machine. It was barely tolerable with the stock 4MB RAM (it might have had 12MB, I don't recall too well if it had RAMsticks or not) and 25Mhz 486 that it came with.. whoever owned this before was crazy. It was even an upgrade install from Win3x, heh. I've got a 133Mhz Evergreen 586 and 20MB RAM now, so it has a shot.

Unknown_K said:
Middle one. I have a bunch of both of those older IBM mice and the more rounded one feels better in my hand for long periods. I keep the older ones for the old PS/2 towers I have.

Don't you have any old Compaq keyboards and mice?
Click to expand...

I have no appropriate Compaq keyboards, and the ones I like on eBay are too expensive. Also, with a retro comp, I prefer a buckling spring by far on a machine I'm going to use frequently. I even use them on my main desktop half the time or more. As for Compaq mice, I have two. One is a Logitech rebrand (it sucks), and the other is possibly the appropriate mouse for this machine, but it's missing the ball and ball cover iirc, and isn't nearly as nice as the IBM stuff. Plus if I'm already using a non-Compaq keyboard, might as well choose a different mouse.

Ironically, I find the classic PS/2 mouse's shape slightly more comfortable, but the buttons are something I've never gotten used to.
 
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The middle one -- I like those mice a whole lot. Except mine did in fact stop working... after awhile of usage it would make the cursor go bezerk flying all over the place.
Mine was all the same colour though, the buttons weren't the darker beige.
 
I am logitech man myself for mice (bought my first mouse, a MouseMan C Series, back in 1989 still have it and still use it!) but from your choices I'd go for the middle one!
 
Microsoft serial mouse (v1 or v2) are nice, I keep a few around for DOS machines (you can use serial to ps/2 adapters with them I think).
 
No one mentions Genius mice--the rectangular ones. My first and one I liked a lot. I've got a bunch of no-name 3-button serial mice kicking around for "just in case" with the "Surplus Software" logo on them. Anyone remember them?

In my work area, I use a couple of big trackballs (they use a ball about the size and weight of a standard billiard cue ball), mostly because my table top is usually pretty cluttered when I'm in the middle of something. I've also got a couple of those Cirque pads, but never could get used to them.
 
The middle IBM mouse dates to the mid 1990s. I know the IBM PC 330s and 350s I worked on in 1995 came with them, but I think they were shipping even earlier than that.

My Compaq keyboard and mouse from 1994 are long gone. The keyboard was OK. Not buckling spring. Not great. But OK. The mouse was terrible. Not comfortable, and the action on the buttons never felt right.
 
An unrelated-to-the topic question, but since this poll pretty much agrees on what to use, perhaps a little variety might be in order.

Who uses their mouse with their non-dominant hand? Way back in the stone age, I started using a mouse with my right hand but after a few months of working with a schematic design program began to develop RSD something awful. So I switched my mouse to my left hand and found that it had many benefits, in addition to reducing RSD. One is that I can do things with my dominant hand such as write or punch keys on a calculator while operating a mouse. It's probably been more than 20 years since I used a mouse with my right hand.

Am I strange, or is this common practice?
 
Left-handed people often do this, and some right-handed as well, like yourself. Personally I spent a few weeks learning to type with one hand, either hand - this means I can type with my left hand while mousing with my right. My left hand, however, is not adjusted to clicking or properly holding a mouse, heh - same result, though, I suppose.
 
Chuck(G) said:
Who uses their mouse with their non-dominant hand? Way back in the stone age, I started using a mouse with my right hand but after a few months of working with a schematic design program began to develop RSD something awful. So I switched my mouse to my left hand and found that it had many benefits, in addition to reducing RSD. Am I strange, or is this common practice?
Click to expand...

I was never able to switch hands. My fix for RSD is 1000 mg of flax seed oil and 200 mg of Vitamin B6 daily when it starts to act up. And last year, I got a deep tissue massage (at a reputable chiropractor's office) in my right shoulder, and it hurt like crazy for a couple of days, but after that, I felt 17 again.

But the supplements saved my career.
 
Chuck(G) said:
I started using a mouse with my right hand but after a few months of working with a schematic design program began to develop RSD something awful.
Click to expand...
So RSD is Rodent Sourced Disorder?

Dave Farquhar said:
My fix for RSD ... I got a deep tissue massage (at a reputable chiropractor's office) in my right shoulder
Click to expand...
Or perhaps RSD is Right Shoulder Disorder?

Dave Farquhar said:
My fix for RSD is 1000 mg of flax seed oil
Click to expand...
Well, I added the oil to my mouse pad and the mouse moves much easier. Yes, I can see how that will reduce RSD. Thanks.
 
RSD = Repetitive Stress Disorder. I got it in 2000 when I was working 40 hours a week at a regular IT job and moonlighting trying to write books. One Saturday I went to unload my dishwasher and found I couldn't grip the dishes to pick them up and put them away.

Chuck, to answer your touch-typist question, I am. I had to type 60 or 70 wpm to get into journalism school (I forget which), but at my peak I was much faster than that. I'm not as I used to be, but my typing still turn heads if I'm good and mad about something. Especially if I'm typing on a Model M, but it's not quite as impressive on the modern keyboards at work.
 
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