Comments on: Open source design and the OpenOfficeMouse

By: When Design Meets Ergonomics – And When They Fail Together | CloudAve

When Design Meets Ergonomics – And When They Fail Together | CloudAve — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 04:15:28 +0000

[...] With New MouseOpenOfficeMouse crams practically a million buttons onto the back of a rodentOpen source design and the OpenOfficeMousePosted Under : Design Tags apple openoffice magic mouse mac openofficemouse Share this article: [...]

By: John Drinkwater

John Drinkwater — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:19:59 +0000

I don’t understand how you make the jump to assume this is an ‘open source’ mouse, because it has the OO.o logo on it?

By: Micheas

Micheas — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 13:02:48 +0000

Hmm, remember the early 90’s when it was not uncommon to have 24 or more function keys?

I wounder if this is just a 2D version of touch.

Most people use a five button mouse but think of it as a two button mouse. (two buttons, plus a scroll wheel, with button three being down, button four being scroll up, and button five being scroll down.)

If this really is a good idea, then I am sure that someone will clean up the interface at some point.

By: Notional Slurry » links for 2009-11-08

Notional Slurry » links for 2009-11-08 — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 06:01:55 +0000

[...] Open source design and the OpenOfficeMouse | FactoryCity "What I worry about, however, is that pockets of the open source community continue to largely be defined and driven by complexity, exclusivity, technocracy, and machismo. While I do support independence and freedom of choice in technology — and therefore open source — I prefer to do so inclusively, with an understanding that there are many more people who are not yet well served by technology because appropriate technology has not been made more usable for them. The beautiful, usable technology in the marketplace need not be the exclusive domain of the proprietary — but so far I’ve see little indication that open source developers take seriously the need for simpler, easier, and more intuitive future-forward interfaces. Perhaps I’m wrong or just uninformed, but so long as products like the OpenOfficeMouse continue to characterize the norm in open source design, I’m not likely going to be able to soon recommend open source solutions to anyone but the most advanced and privileged users. (tags: open-source design-autism industrial-design design-by-committee contingent usability criticism community geek-cultural-assumptions) [...]

By: AR

AR — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 05:43:55 +0000

Why you call this OOMouse as ‘open hardware’? It doesn’t contain any open parts, it only has openoffice.org logo. Even their own press release (Nov 6, 2009) said it is covered by patents.

By: Adam Williamson

Adam Williamson — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 04:12:57 +0000

As others have said, I think the open source angle is a bad one. OpenOffice.org is not primarily an open source office suite, it’s a Microsoft Office clone which was around for years before it was open sourced, so assuming its design philosophy reflects anything about the innate nature of open source is a bit dicey.

The Abiword Mouse would not look the same, to give the obvious comparison. Nor would the Microsoft Office Mouse look much like the Mighty Mouse, and that’s another proprietary software company.

By: Richard

Richard — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 18:43:24 +0000

It’s a logical fallacy to claim that this mouse is representative of open source software. Most open source software has a large number of configurable options, like this mouse. However, most open source software comes with sane default settings; you don’t have to fiddle with the options to have working software. This mouse, however, actually REQUIRES complex setup.

It would be more reasonable to compare open source software to all computer mice. You only need to configure this ridiculous OOo mouse if you actually choose to use it. If you don’t want to configure it, there are plenty of simpler, configuration-free mice available (and your computer surely came with a simple one). However, it’s good to have a complex mouse like this available for hard-core gamers, 3D designers, and other people who might actually CHOOSE to use it.

The mere availability of options is not a burden on the user.

By: xurfa

xurfa — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 17:07:04 +0000

You’re just stupid if You don’t understand a joke…

By: jospoortvliet

jospoortvliet — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 15:19:47 +0000

He, interesting product… a mouse with 18 buttons, eh. Can’t we have just a few more? like 21? or is an odd number difficult to handle?

Seriously, you should get yourself checked out. It might not be april 1st but this can’t be anything but a joke. Just have a look at the ‘photo’ from ‘the third prototype’ – it’s not even a very convincing 3D rendering…

By: Glyn Moody (glynmoody) 's status on Sunday, 08-Nov-09 13:57:36 UTC - Identi.ca

Glyn Moody (glynmoody) 's status on Sunday, 08-Nov-09 13:57:36 UTC - Identi.ca — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 13:57:41 +0000

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