On: Apple's Buttonless Mouse Came From Steve Jobs' Mis...

[ScottBurson]

Mouse Systems, Steve Kirsch's company, was shipping optical mice in 1982. They were standard issue on Sun workstations for years. I leave it to your judgment whether that qualifies as "mainstream".

[KC8ZKF → ScottBurson]

I remember Sun's mice. You needed a special mouse pad with a grid layout printed on it.

[wtallis → ScottBurson]

Mainstream is debatable, yes, but the quote used the word consumer, which Sun definitely wasn't.

[kalleboo → wtallis]

The Mouse Systems optical mice were available for other, consumer, platforms as well. We had a Mouse Systems optical mouse (with the metal grid mousepad) for our Mac Classic in the early 90's.

[seanmcdirmid → wtallis]

A Sun 360 deskside computer was definitely consumer, it was only the size of a filing cabinet (definitely made for nuclear war though, heavily shielded).

[adorton → ScottBurson]

Are those the ones that needed special metal mousepads? Those were rad. My dad had one for drafting.

[Aloha → adorton]

yes, they are.

[Aloha → ScottBurson]

My first mouse was a Mouse Systems serial mouse - in my 286 - today I picked up a NIB PS/2 Mouse Systems mouse with pad.