Most of you out there are probably using a 3-button mouse right now, as the scroll wheel is in fact a button (the "wheel click"). However what I’m talking about here is the old-school 3-button mouse, as in the one that had no scroll wheel, three buttons and nothing else, such as the one pictured right.
You didn’t see 3-button mice very often because more often than not these type of input devices were "business mice" that had to be purchased for a very specific reason for very specific apps.
In the MS-DOS environment there were very few apps that needed 3 buttons, never mind 2. In the Windows 3.1 environment there were some apps that did utilize right-clicking (such as Netscape Navigator), but for 3 buttons, not really.
What were 3-button mice used for? Mainly for very complicated business applications that needed a programmable shortcut for the middle and right buttons. Drafting apps like AutoCAD could utilize the 3rd button. Certain financial apps could also use the 3rd. But for your run of the mill consumer stuff on home computers, the only time a 3rd button could really be used is in some games or for your own personal programmed shortcuts.
One of the longest holdouts concerning the old 3-button layout is the trackball mouse, such as the LogiTech Trackman, seen right. In fact you can still find these used on Amazon.
These days when you want 3 or more buttons on a mouse, modern design puts them in places where you can utilize them better, such as smaller side buttons, "grips", thumb buttons for curved-hand designed mice, and so on. What we have now is definitely better than what we had.
You’ll notice the original 3-button mice were fairly ugly, and that’s because they weren’t designed to be pretty, they were designed for business. While ugly, they did get the job done, but they certainly won’t win any beauty contests.
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