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Great comment about the mouse at the end. John replied, “I wanted to ask him what would happen if you put more than one key on a keyboard. But I
by waynecochran 8y ago
Great comment about the mouse at the end.
John replied, “I wanted to ask him what would happen
if you put more than one key on a keyboard.
But I didn’t.”
The first thing I do when I get a new Mac is throw away their crappy mouse, and replace it with a decent three button mouse.
- ovao 8y agoYou throw away an $80 mouse?
- organsnyder 8y agoNo different than throwing away a $100 OS when you buy a computer. Sometimes there simply isn't a way to purchase it without the undesired item included.
- ThrowawayR2 8y ago> You throw away an $80 mouse? If it doesn't do what one wants it to do, it's worth $0 to them.
- ovao 8y agoBut potentially worth something to someone else, which is an argument for selling it or even donating it. Throwing it away seems downright silly.
- golergka 8y agoFunny how people can such a different taste for these things. I've switched back from Mac to Windows some time ago, and the thing I miss the most is the touchbar.
- fredsted 8y agoMaybe get the touchpad instead then.
- Zelphyr 8y agoKind of an apples to oranges comparison on Carmack's point though (no pun intended). Keyboards were invented 100 years earlier than the mouse. People, especially older adults, instinctively knew how to use them.
- talmand 8y agoWhen the first keyboard type interface was invented for typewriters and such, did people instinctively know how to use them immediately? Besides, at that time the concept of a two button mouse was not new and had been in use with computers for years.
- Zelphyr 8y agoI don't know about when typewriters were new, but up until recently, many people were actively scared to use a computer. I worked with people who would physically shake when they would use a computer because they terrified of breaking something. The mouse, while designed to help quell those fears, was still a part of the computer and still scary to those people. The number of buttons probably didn't matter in the whole scheme of things. They would've been afraid of it regardless. But his instinct was already to remove anything from a design that wasn't absolutely necessary. So it fit with his way of thinking to suggest that people wouldn't use a mouse with two buttons. If eliminating one button could make those people less afraid of the computer, then that was the way to go. All that said; I too thought that mouse sucked. But I was a power user by then and it wasn't designed for me.
- WalterBright 8y ago> because they terrified of breaking something Not really. More like they were terrified that the keyboard would shoot out sparks and fire, and throw them across the bridge of the Enterprise.
- jrs95 8y agoI don’t think it was remotely serious, he probably just wanted to say it to tease him a bit
- agumonkey 8y agoCarmack comedic skills seem as high as his engineering skills. I would pay to see his happy deadpan delivery of that question to Steve Jobs and enjoy the pause after that.
- jnwatson 8y agoBut new Mac mice have two buttons and a scroll wheel. Then have for at least a decade.
- waynecochran 8y agoNo friggin' middle mouse button though. You can't even configure their mice? to behave as if it had a middle button. Go ahead. Try.
- mentos 8y agoHa, even as a 10 year old kid in '96 I found the Mac's decision to have a 1 button mouse to be painful (coming from windows). I remember not having much of a concept of how companies were ran but instinctively felt there had to be someone stubborn somewhere.