They rock (for me anyway) (Score 1)

I got one when I was having problems with wrist pain at work in '99, and it worked a treat. My one was branded as an 'Anir'; I gather 3M are marketing them now, hence the appearence of being 'new'.

While a lot of so called RSI symptoms are typically stress related (and I've experienced plenty of that) I was finding that moving my wrist left and right on an ordinary mouse eventually became fatiguing and painful. I never do that with this mouse, and I use my thumb for left and right clicking, which is also good. So good in fact, that when I started using a regular mouse on my home machine, the pain came back, so I got one for home, too.

The good stuff:

- It's fairly easy to get use to. I have no patience, even for MS natural keyboards, but I was into this mouse in a few hours. Your bandwidth may vary...

- They come in left and right versions in a few different sizes.

- All three buttons work in X :-). I use 'MouseMan' and Emulate3Buttons.

Cavaets:

- No roller button thingy. Never used one anyway, but they're pretty cool and I'd like one.

- No wireless optical. I can dream, can't I? :-)

- They're not too good to use if you're standing. I use a regular mouse when I'm noodling around with playlists at parties.

- They're not too good for gaming, but only because the mounting that holds the left/right mouse buttons can break under abuse. In my case this was a particularly, uh, 'exciting' moment playing Theif. I fixed it with 24hour araldite and a bit of metal tube from a hobby store, but it's never been quite the same since. Being 'ergonomic' it cost me 5 times as much as a regular one, so I'm reluctant to throw it out and get a new one just yet :-)

Overall, it's definitely the least worst piece of ergonomic equipment I've bought.