This is completely justified on all levels. If everyone in a town pays the $75 annual fee EXCEPT THIS family and the fire department helps them anyways, guess who isn't going to be paying the fee next year? EVERYONE IN TOWN!

Can you Linux snobs possibly be more arrogant or are you really just this short-sighted?

Giving people a familiar-feeling interface is 100% always going to be one of the best first steps you can take to convince someone to move from Windows to Linux. If someone is taken from Windows straight into a unfamiliar Gnome interface can be very daunting and scary (not matter how much better Gnome behaves). The user will most likely feel unsure, insecure and not confident in exploring the operating system. All of this will usually lead to the user simply giving up and going back to familiar old Windows.

I use Linux on a daily basis. The more people that use Linux the better it will be for them and everyone else out there. But when the Slashdot crowd comes across with comments and posts like this, you are simply reassuring any Windows users out there that Linux is a playground for the big boys and if they can't handle it then go home. You will not win over any potential converts with that attitude. Simple as that. If this is what snobby Linux users want, fine. You'll get it. But stop complaining about why more people don't switch from what is familiar to them to a better operating system.

I got this a few weeks ago interested in the unique features it offered. What a waste of money. I hated it almost immediately.

Ergonomnics - The shape of it is like a small box. About as non-ergonomic as you can get. Convinced that it was 'cool' product that I just had to ease myself into, I forced myself to use it and got used to the weird shape after a few days. But my hand began to hurt pretty easily from being in such an akward grip all the time.

Scroll Pad - The whole 'scroll pad' thing.... Not a good idea... It's interesting and new and unique, but if Logitech replaces all their scroll wheels with these things I'd have to start buying other mice. I had an incredibly difficult time with it in some cases. It is good for scrolling up or down on long documents or webpages. But it is HORRIBLE for when you need precision scrolling. Like if you know you need to move the scroll wheel up exactly 3 "clicks", it is virtuall impossible, unless you get lucky.

EXAMPLE - You are playing some FPS game and you use the scroll wheel/pad to change weapons. You are using the pistol and you have to scroll up 2 "clicks" to get to the shotgun. With this mouse, GOOD LUCK!. You will either overshoot or undershoot almost everytime and end up with the wrong weapon in your hand. Impossible.

COLLAPSING - A cool unique feature is that the wireless receiver can fit into the bottom of the mouse and it collapses upon itself for easy storage/travel. A cool idea that works very well.

NO MIDDLE MOUSE BUTTON - I use the middle mouse button all the time in my field of work and can't use this mouse without it. Logitech decided it was a good idea to get rid of it for some reason. Probably cause making a clickable scroll pad was too complicated. Anyways, BAD MOVE.

Overall I give this mouse a 3/10 (10 being the best). I like the collapsing feature, but there are too many other problems with it. Too uncomfortable, scroll wheel too difficult to work with, and no middle mouse button.

In my opinion, if you want a really great and comfortable mouse, buy the Logitech MediaPlay mouse. I own 3 of these things for my computers. It's wireless. Perfect for either left or right handed folks. Very ergonomic. And the wireless is very responsive. IMHO this is the best mouse Logitech has released since the original 3-button MouseMan many years ago...