Comments on: Mac Mouse Acceleration

By: NN

NN — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 21:25:46 +0000

Conversely, I mostly use a Mac and can’t stand the clunky mouse acceleration in Windows – no amount of time seems to get me used to it, and I’m constantly less precise than I’d like to be. On my Linux desktop I can do that satisfactorily well, but haven’t yet found a Windows solution.

The problem seems to be simple lack of granularity in the levels of acceleration. Same applies to mouse wheels and two-finger touchpad scrolling.

I’ve noted what you describe when taking Windows-developed mouse sense to the Mac, though – I’ve noticed lots of users respond as if it’s too slow, until their brain starts to actually use the acceleration in a fluid way. I suspect if acceleration worked better in Windows in the first place it wouldn’t be such a leap – some sites even describe how to turn off “enhanced pointer precision” in Windows entirely.

By: iinokia

iinokia — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 07:56:29 +0000

does it behave with that original apple mouse like mighty mouse?

By: tom

tom — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 14:25:28 +0000

I just purchased a MB pro. The mouse is driving me crazy – the biggest problem is when I am trying to select menu items or small buttons immediately after a long distance movement of the pointer. I seem to either overshoot/undershoot the target. Strangely, when using the touchpad everything feels fine! From googling this it seems the problem has to do with the mouse acceleration curve on OS X – but honestly, I really don’t want to know or care about such details. And this is not just a windows vs mac type debate. I regularly use many flavors of Unix/Linux as well as Windows and the mouse behaves the same on these platforms. But not on MAC. It seems sort of like standard keyboard vs alternate keyboard layout type of issue. I just hope that like you, I can get used to it. However, since I work with computers (windows/linux) and use the Mac at home – I wonder if my brain will adjust?