UPDATE: Warmouse ships 18-button mouse

Hmm . . .

This mouse has more buttons than some girls in my office . . . interesting . . .

By zeevro on 9 Nov 2009

That looks laughably bad

By TimoGunt on 9 Nov 2009

Well it'll definitely be a world first - that's for sure!

By nicomo on 9 Nov 2009

They should have a Black Version out with chrome buttons for the sensation seekers

By nicomo on 9 Nov 2009

What happened to Christmas?

Is it April 1st already?

That pic has got to be a PhotoShop jobbie surely?

By Lacrobat on 9 Nov 2009

Really?

Its a bit early (or late depending how you look at it) for April Fools.

By pveater on 9 Nov 2009

They must have raided someone's 'bad ideas and leftovers' bin from good 20 years ago. OO is really chasing it's own tail, it's sad.

By Josefov on 9 Nov 2009

A white mouse with a black cable?

I can barely remember my 4 digit bank code never mind 18 buttons on a bloody mouse!

and it looks like something from the 1980's!

By a_byrne22 on 9 Nov 2009

It can't be long before...

...they've invented the keyboard!

By JohnGray7581 on 9 Nov 2009

"Our furiously burning hatred is already far too occupied with Microsoft" - says it all really. Pathetic.

By jgwilliams on 9 Nov 2009

I like it.

Never having brought a mouse with more that 3 buttons and scroll wheel. I can see that after a lot of time spent working out what does what in which program and adjusting it for your needs. You could do the majority of your surfing, document reading and such like whilst still holding your coffee in your left hand.
(i've tried mouse gestures before and it was a nightmare just not slick enough)

also as it has OpenOffice on the box does this mean we can down load the schematic and send it to china to have it made a bit cheap and with chrome buttons?

By SimonCorlett on 9 Nov 2009

Flying through Microsoft Excel?

I am a little confused why their statement cites one example usage as "flying through the cells of a large spreadsheet in Microsoft Excel". Why not OO Calc? Presumably their "burning hatred" isn't absolute...

Whole thing smacks of a very childish and unprofessional press release - doesn't make me want to give OO another try.

By halsteadk on 9 Nov 2009

Why not have done with it and put a mouse-wheel under the keyboard?

By AdrianB on 9 Nov 2009

OOooo RSI

Even more of a strain, making the minute movements required to press so many different buttons accurately.

@AdrianB - well said!

By 23522 on 10 Nov 2009

Laughable

You've all seen those touch-pad things they have on laptops, and as such wouldn't you agree that having a similar but much larger multi-touch pad sitting next to your keyboard opens a greater range of interactive possibilities for the desktop PC?

Opportunities that don't require us prodding the screen or stroking the mouse.

By sbeams on 11 Nov 2009

Laughable

You've all seen those touch-pad things they have on laptops, and as such wouldn't you agree that having a similar but much larger multi-touch pad sitting next to your keyboard opens a greater range of interactive possibilities for the desktop PC?

Opportunities that don't require us prodding the screen or stroking the mouse.

By sbeams on 11 Nov 2009

Haven't I seen something similar?

So that's what happened to all the Atari Jaguar controllers!

By TimCoyle on 11 Nov 2009

Nothing to do with Open Office!

This abomination is the product of a company called warmouse "...an independant company with no business relationship with either the OpenOffice.org Community, or with Sun Microsystems, the owner of the OpenOffice.org trademark."

By gweezer on 12 Nov 2009

Ergonomics anyone?

This just looks like a surefire receipe for RSI or carpal tunnel.

By Revrd_X on 12 Nov 2009

Worst. Mouse. Ever.

It's not a shop job but it is definitely a piss-take and despite what they say, a humorous counter to Apple's new button-less wonder :P

By tonywhipple on 12 Nov 2009

Probably too much.....

It might not be as unuseable as people think, what about all those joysticks with numpty-hundred controls, people learn how to use them.... but still, all that for an office package...hmm

By drherd on 12 Nov 2009

Seen It All Before

Back in the '80s when Lotus 123 and Wordperfect were kings they were trying to flog something identical at the NEC (Which Computer Show). I don't think they sold many. The huge crowds it drew were there for the laughs.

By teddypig1 on 12 Nov 2009

Buy 2 and set them as a qwerty keyboard

more buttons and larger than most phone keyboard, if you can touch type, throw away your keyboard, sit in your arm chair and away you go. . . .
I hate microsoft too but surely the answer is to be better than them not worse.

By Mayburys on 12 Nov 2009

wrong mammal?

Perhaps they should have crafted the device as a white elephant which have been more appropriate.

By mitec1 on 12 Nov 2009

wrong mammal?

Perhaps they should have crafted the device as a white elephant which have been more appropriate.

By mitec1 on 12 Nov 2009

Everyone's missing the point......I think?

This can only be a spoof press release surely. Could it be that the I.T. press have been had by an all-too-convincing emailed press release from some guy now rolling on the floor splitting his sides laughing ??

By Robbieradio on 12 Nov 2009

Shurely Shome Mishtake

Surely this is a spoof.

I have no idea what the connection may be between a burning hatred of MS and an insane mouse...

By snapcracklepop on 12 Nov 2009

Decidedly Mischievious Reporting!

The great thing about the Internet is that you can easily compare the sources of stories with the spun and twisted results of journalism. I suggest you guys follow the blog link helpfully provided and you will find that Mr Turton has been decidedly mischievous in the way he has glossed this story!

By JohnAHind on 12 Nov 2009

It isn't April 1st for 6 months!

This has got to be a spoof.

By pjajennings on 12 Nov 2009

"Mr Turton has been decidedly mischievous in the way he has glossed this story"
Then why is it called "the OpenOffice Mouse" if there's absolutely no connection? Besides which, most of the comments are directed at the "design" not OO

By AdrianB on 12 Nov 2009

People are just too gullible

As @gweezer says this is nothing to do with Sun or OpenOffice. This atrocious article claims to have quoted from the OpenOffice blog; if you follow the link you will see that it is no such thing. IMHO this has Microsoft's finger prints all over it. Furthermore, Microsoft has just been caught red-handed using GPLed code in its Windows 7 download tool http://bit.ly/i96M4

By 6tricky9 on 12 Nov 2009

As I've just said

@AdrianB: Oh dear, as if to prove my point. If I printed your name on my mouse, Adrian, would it be your mouse or mine.

By 6tricky9 on 12 Nov 2009

As I've just said

@AdrianB: Oh dear, as if to prove my point. If I printed your name on my mouse, Adrian, would it be your mouse or mine.

By 6tricky9 on 12 Nov 2009

Open Office is Finished...

Rarely will anyone complement Microsoft, but the ribbon tool bar in the Office 2007 Suite is light years ahead of the Open Office offering. I originally walked away from MS Office to use Open Office a few years ago, but now... I'm sorry chaps. MS does have the upper hand. Even if it doesn't have 18 fingers.

By urbanaught on 12 Nov 2009

Decidedly Mischievious Reporting!

The great thing about the Internet is that you can easily compare the sources of stories with the spun and twisted results of journalism. I suggest you guys follow the blog link helpfully provided and you will find that Mr Turton has been decidedly mischievous in the way he has glossed this story!

By JohnAHind on 12 Nov 2009

Decidedly Mischievious Reporting!

The great thing about the Internet is that you can easily compare the sources of stories with the spun and twisted results of journalism. I suggest you guys follow the blog link helpfully provided and you will find that Mr Turton has been decidedly mischievous in the way he has glossed this story!

By JohnAHind on 12 Nov 2009

Why not?

Look at the bright side 18 is still nsufficient!. we could transfer ony
12 function keys,home/end,pageup/pagedown, delete/insert and still miss escape cursor keys, numeric pad, volume control, ... that avoid switching between keyboard and mouse.
Maybe the dualversion of the product can also function as a stenographer input device.

By hokyap on 12 Nov 2009

Buy 2 and set them as a qwerty keyboard

more buttons and larger than most phone keyboard, if you can touch type, throw away your keyboard, sit in your arm chair and away you go. . . .
I hate microsoft too but surely the answer is to be better than them not worse.

By Mayburys on 12 Nov 2009

Inmates Running Asylum

Open source claims superiority to Microsoft but demonstrates it by copying so as to look and feel exactly like Office so as to undermine it.

Faced with the challenge of actually innovating they come up with an 18-button mouse.

Time to sedate the marketing department again. Whose idea was it to let them out?

By fogtax on 13 Nov 2009

Oh dear

My colleagues and I have only two fingers to use in the direction of the MS Office Ribbon interface. While I personally would be happy to migrate all our stuff to OO we'd have all been happier to stick with MS Office 2003. At least it didn't provoke Out Of Memory errors like something out of the Windows 3.1 era.

And as others have already pointed out - this device has nothing whatsoever to do with OpenOffice, it's even there in black and white on the Warmouse blog. Don't let that stop you all frothing at the keyboard though!

By christ1an on 13 Nov 2009