Sweet, I'll probably get my mom one of these. I prefer to use OSX than Linux. I could always use a BSD variant as a dedicated server if needed.
Anyone know if you connect a 2 button mouse to a Mac if you can bind the 2nd button to something?
Slightly offtopic but staying on operating systems, check out these pretty cool open source operating systems.
http://syllable.sourceforge.net/ OS inspired by BeOS
http://www.reactos.com/ OS working to be 100% compatible with windows.
Depends on the driver software of the mouse manufacturer. My logitech allows you to program the 2nd button to perform other functions. Mine's set to double-click.
Just about any 2 button USB mouse will work with the Mac right out of the box. To get some of the fancier features on some mice to work, you may have to install a driver from the manufacturer.
I'm using a Logitech 5 button/scroll wheel optical wireless mouse with my Mac. The buttons can be programmed separately for each application if you want to.
I see a lot of negativity on this thread and I think it's a little silly. Allowing people to use their existing keyboards and mice is just a cost-cutting move because a lot of people have them from an old PC. Better that than a $599 base system.
As the owner of a $5,000 plus Mac system (PowerMac G5, Cinema HD Display, 3.5gb RAM, etc, etc), I think this is an excellent thing because it brings more people to the platform and encourages more development. That helps me at the high end as well as those on the low end with the new cheap machines. I'll probably even buy one or two myself for home control and similar applications.
Connecting a 2-button mouse to it will make the second button behave in a similar way to Windows - it will be like Control-clicking the item, which is the same as right-click on a PC.
In other words, it will work just fine out of the box.
Hope that helps.
D
>>Anyone know if you connect a 2 button mouse to a Mac if you can bind the 2nd button to something?
Yes, it's a setting -- I forgot where it is. This works on any Mac running OSX I believe...
You can put a two button mouse with a scroll wheel on almost any Mac available.. and it works! and if you push down your control key on one of those no button jobs.. you see what happens when you push the right click on a two button mouse.. this has been supported for years but almost no one knows about it.
Yes. The two button (or more) mouse (or other input device) will most likely auto-detect and work just by plugging it in to the USB port. My 3 button wheel trackball defaults to L button - regular click, R button - contextual menus, wheel - scroll, push wheel - double click.