I have used many types of pointing devices in my years of working with computers. None of them work as well as a mouse. But the traditional mouse has the downfall of all those moving parts. Moving parts that, over time, get gummed up with "mouse droppings". There is nothing more frustrating than watching your pointer jump around unpredictably due to a piece of hair on the ball.

With optical mice, this problem is gone. There are no moving parts to get messed up. Nothing to clean. The optics of the mouse are inset, so you would have to try really hard to smudge the lens.

I run only Linux on my machine. I was concerned that the Microsoft mouse, might have used some non-standard communication requiring the mouse to be used in a windows environment. The Logitech mouse installed with no problem on my RedHat Linux box running Kernel 2.2.16. The kernel does actually support this mouse as a USB device, but I installed it as a PS/2 mouse so I didn't have to change any X windows configuration files.

All the fit and feel of this mouse is pretty good. It is a standard 3-button, wheel mouse. The size and shape is nice, and should accomodate both left and right-handed people.

In comparison with the Microsoft mouse, I chose this mouse over the MS one for a number of reasons: The MS mouse costs twice as much, it is too big, and that tail light is just plain dorky. I chose the Logitech mouse because: it has PS/2 support and USB, has a good overall feel to it and was inexpensive. My only complaint, when compared to an MS mouse, is the wheel movement is not as smooth. There isn't enough resistance or something, it just doesn't feel as good as the MS wheel. Functionally, there is nothing wrong with it though.

Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 29