this post was submitted on 17 Mar 2026
785 points (99.4% liked)
Programmer Humor
30436 readers
1725 users here now
Welcome to Programmer Humor!
This is a place where you can post jokes, memes, humor, etc. related to programming!
For sharing awful code theres also Programming Horror.
Rules
- Keep content in english
- No advertisements
- Posts must be related to programming or programmer topics
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
i guess some people are too young to remember wired mouses
Relying on batteries is for suckas
I only use wired. Batteries and charging suck.
This is the way.
Wired vs. wireless is whatever works for you, but no one misses balled mice. No one.
I miss the weighty rubberized balls IN the balled mice! Talk about a free fidget toy!
However, do trackballs count as balled mice? Because I got one for my laptop recently and I LOVE it. Wish there was more of a market for nice trackballs, with an assortment of ball materials for different inertias and whatnot. Lol
No, trackballs are a separate thing. And their design is usually better at keeping debris out of the ball meaning less maintenance even though it's exposed literally all of the time.
Less debris on the ball, but in my experience there's more dust on the rollers. So it's the same maintenance anyways.
Whoops! Big mistake buddy, you said something on the internet. Now we’re gonna fight! I miss balled mice. How ‘bout them apples? Nothing is as satisfying as cleaning the lint out of those things was
Stealing all the balls from the computer lab at school was fun.
You’re a monster. And also my type of people.
Get a naked mole rat if you like bald mice. 😌
Like they said, nobody.
Now days sure, but I'd take one of later really good ball mice over many of the shitty cheap mice you get packed in with stuff now. The first few optical mice that I owned were legit worse than ball mice, while being much more expensive. I kept going back to the ball mice and regretting my wasteful purchases. The first one good enough to really kill them off was probably the MS InteliMouse 3.0.
I will concede only in the fact that it made me look like a miracle worker to my parents when I "fixed" their mouse that had stopped working with my magic.
On the other hand, the Christmas I gave them an LED mouse was peak level for all of us.
I still use them exclusively lol
Same. The mouse is always something I’m going to use on the desk next to the computer. I don’t understand the advantage of making it wireless, that’d just be one more battery for me to keep charged. Honestly, if I had a wireless mouse I’d probably just leave it plugged in to the charger as I use it. (And don’t get me started on Apple’s mouse charge port on the bottom.)
These generations of wireless mouses are fine. The advantage, as small as it is, is less drag from the wire and not having to juggle with wires when working with a laptop. Given the batteries these days I’m fine with wireless.
Now I do not have the same view on wireless keyboards as these are pretty much stationary by default.
The batteries are my main issue.
12 hour battery? I charge every night.
4 day battery life? I forget to charge until it dies, and then it dies in the middle of using it.
The mouse I have is only wireless for the "less drag while gaming" aspect but the cable is actually super nice, so I dont even mind the cable... I just leave it plugged in now.
Just to join the poll, my logitech mouse will do about 2 months per charge. When the battery is low, it wil indicate with a red LED, but it will keep going for several days (thoigh I've never had the issue with not finding a charger within that time, so I don't know how long it could run after the LED lights up).
I've been using a wireless mouse at work now for over 12 years and can count on one hand the number of times I've had to change the batteries
This is what I do. The mouse is plugged in most of the time but if I'm playing a game or working in like Photoshop, it comes off for the freedom of movement.
My logitech wireless mice will run on a single AA for like ... 2 years of daily use, I wanna say? At least 18 months.
Mine lasts several weeks. Also, it has a little light that turns red when it's low (as in, needs charging within a few days). It can also be used while charging without much issue. When I see the red light, I just plug it in while I'm not using it or doing something like watching media. It's really convenient. I have a mouse bungee, from when I had wired, and the cable just sits there waiting until it's needed.
My laptop's wireless mouse has used the same AAA battery for months, and it gets used regularly. It's not daily, but it's at least a few times a week for an hour, and usually a lot more.
My wired mouse on my PC gets used about the same amount, but the cable occasionally catches under the corner of the keyboard. It's not helped by the fact that I move the keyboard around depending on what I'm doing. That's also the reason I'm considering a wireless keyboard as well though.
I had a wireless keyboard where the internal battery was total crap, had to keep it plugged in because it would drain within an hour. Got one with replace batteries, plenty of those available. Might be safer bet for you as well.
On the keyboard side it's nice if your setup has you moving the keyboard to store it when not using the computer, eating when watching media, etc.
I used to live with a cat that chewed on cables. Other devices could have protective sleeves on the cables, but for the mouse that wasn't readonable. So that's the only reason I know for having a wireless mouse.
I think the main selling point was less the mobility and more that the cord didn't get caught on things. Still not a huge concern, imo.
For me, the computer towers are across the room so I use cheap wireless battery mice and a nice wireless keyboard. I use rechargeable AA for the mice, and they last a pretty decent amount of time. I had a lot of rechargeable AA and AAA already. The keyboard has built in rechargeable battery and can swap inputs with a button press so I just have the one for the towers. If I turned off the backlight it would hardly ever need charging, but since I like the light, it needs a charge every few days of actual use.
For my laptop, which isn’t across the room, I still use a wireless mouse because I just have them. I can also have one mouse tethered to two dongles and use the same device for two PCs that I don’t have on at the same time, so I do that between the laptop and the gaming pc.
I work tech support. And I'm often working in weird or cramped places on site with my laptop.
I hate using the touchpad! So I always bring a wireless mouse.
It's a lot more convenient than a wired one.
Also, I can connect the laptop to a TV and watch movies from streaming sites, using the mouse as a remote while I'm on the couch.
I actually do this. I have a small power bank I keep the mouse hooked up to, and when it falls low enough it taps into it. Every few weeks or even a month I recharge the bank up. But wires being a problem will depend on your setup and desk real estate. This doesn't bother me, but having a wired keyboard would lose some space, so I'm glad for my wireless there. And that's even less of a hassle, as it's still running off the original batteries it came with years (and years!) ago. Makes sense, there is very little power usage there being a boring old Logitech non-backlit keyboard.
Same here.
With wireless you get:
extra cost, extra weight (drives me nuts), either a battery that eventually fails or replaceable batteries that you need to buy and replace, and if its not bluetooth, some usb adapter that either gets lost of broken.
Plus that adapter takes up one port...oh wait. But I'm still team wired mouse.
Most reasonablemice now support wither a 2.4GHz dongle, or Bluetooth. If your device has WiFi it almost certainly has Bluetooth support. So many motherboards are coming with built in wifi now, as do a lot of prebuilt towers. For most usage a Bluetooth connection is just fine.
I bet you still have a mousepad and have to clean your balls on occasion
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdoi3ZYC3Jk
I know it's Lewis Black, but I'm still not gonna watch a video
i mean, it's social media, i didn't reply just for you to see
What are you talking about? This is my playground.
But seriously, a significant number of us aren't going to watch a video, even if it has the promise of high quality as I purposefully indicated.
Mine is wired for a bit when the batteries need charging.
I highly prefer a wireless mouse, but only if does also come with a wire.
I highly prefer replacable batteries though, as i have chucked too much stuff just because its internal battery died.