[9fans] Contour Three Button Mouse Review

["Aram Hăvărneanu" <aram.h@mgk.ro>]

Hello 9fans,

I've been a user of 3 button IBM mice (40K9203, also sold under the
HP brand) for many years, but they have a poor resolution, don't
work on every surface and they don't have a scroll wheel forcing
me to use two mice. There's 40K9201 which does have a scroll wheel
but I couldn't find it and I heard it uses the same electronics as
the other ones so it has at least some of the same problems.

The popular alternative is the Evoluent vertical mouse. Every Plan
9 user I talked to is happy with his Evoluent, but everyone mentioned
they needed about a week or so to adjust. I didn't want risking not
being able to adjust to such an expensive mouse, and I was also
concerned about its weight, so I searched for alternatives and found
the Contour mouse:
http://ergo.contour-design.com/ergonomic-mouse/contour-mouse

It comes in many sizes and they offer you a page to print so you
can find your size. I measured just between M and L, and I bought
the medium one.

My initial impression was that it's quite large, but then I figured
I'm not holding it as intended. I like to hold my mouse while I
rest my heel on the table. That way I'm not resting my hand on the
mouse, and I can use my heel as a pivot point allowing precise mouse
adjustments. This doesn't work with this mouse. The mouse pretty
much expects to hold your whole hand on it. If you're into my school
of thought buy the S one regardless of your hand size. If you're
into their school of thought use the measuring guide.

The lateral scroll doesn't feel weird at all, the action is natural
but the thumb has less leverage than the middle finger, so you'll
do less scrolling at one time. This is especially annoying when
scrolling up.

The resolution is great and the mouse moves on the surface freely
and without any jerkiness.

Overall I'm happy with this mouse, but I don't recommend it in a
pure Plan 9 environment. In a mixed Unix/Plan 9 environment it's
great because it can do everything, but in a pure Plan 9 environment
the scroll is not that useful and the mouse is very expensive,
especially in Europe.

Happy to answer any questions about the mouse.

I still want to try the Evoluent mouse someday.

--
Aram Hăvărneanu