Finally, an active community for trackball enthusiasts!
No social media site can exist without a section dedicated to trackballs, the arguably superior input method.
The previous communities went stale, so here is my take on it. Looking forward to welcoming the tens of people interested in this topic!
As a trackball user, I am delighted.
trackballs, the arguably superior input method.
As a mouse user, I vehemently contest that unfounded affirmation!
That being said, you have already managed to make me pull out of its drawer my old trackball and put a fresh battery in it. So, who knows? Maybe trackballs are not all worthless plastic gimmicks? Joined! :p
I'm definitely more accurate with a mouse than a trackball.
However, there are some neat things that one can do with trackballs that one can't do with mice. I've had a trackball of some sort around for a long time for those cases.
I can lie down on a bed or couch with a trackball, whereas a mouse requires a flat, horizontal, stable, hard surface to work with.
I can squeeze a trackball into a tiny space on a table, where a mouse wouldn't fit.
Depending upon the type of trackball, some permit for flicking the ball and letting it spin freely in a direction with one's fingers up. A lot of software these days, especially on touchscreen-oriented devices, permits "flinging" to scroll and letting virtual inertia let something scroll onscreen to simulate a similar effect, but such trackballs had hardware device-level support for such behavior that worked in any software and worked the same way everywhere.
Not really mice, but relative to trackpads, it used to be that trackpads with physical buttons were widely available. I vastly prefer those to trackpads with "virtual" buttons, but in 2025, there are very few laptop models that provide for physical buttons, especially with a Linux-friendly three physical buttons that don't require chording to get a middle-click. Some Thinkpad models provide Synaptic trackpads that do this, but even those have become a minority of available Thinkpad models. Trackballs, on the other hand, have to provide physical buttons, and are a lot easier to find in 2025 with more than two physical buttons than trackpads.
Also relative to a trackpad, I'm more-accurate with a trackball.
I wouldn't choose a trackball over a mouse for general use at a desk. And the very flat dimensions of a trackpad make it compelling for a lot of built-in laptop use --- while a few laptops still are available with internal trackballs, the tight physical constraints force tiny trackballs. If I use a trackball with a laptop, I personally want an external one.
But there are definitely scenarios where a trackball works better for me than either a mouse or trackpad, enough for me to keep them around.
trackballs, the arguably superior input method.
It's not arguable, because it's true! The mouse mafia are just trying to give everyone Carpal Tunnel Syndrone. We must overthrown the waggly input hegemony and bring peace to desktops everywhere!
Ok, I'll settle down now.
Mouse for gaming and graphics, trackball for everything else. Why choose when you can have both?
Also a 3dConnexion space mouse is handy
Mouse for...graphics
If you're doing freehand drawing --- which I rarely do, but obviously many graphic artists care a lot about --- a stylus and tablet really beats the pants off a mouse. Try to sign your name with a mouse and a tablet in a graphics program, and it really drives home the difference.
That's before one even gets to graphics programs being able to use tilt- and pressure-sensitive stylus inputs to affect brushstrokes.
That's cool, curious to see what people recommend!
I bet it's trackballs
Touchpads and trackballs are my go to input devices!
My partner is vindicated - hooray for trackball representation. If only I could get her off the crappiest trackball you've ever seen that she must have gotten in a 20 pack
I'd love to see a post about this cheap trackball, tbh.
Love my marble mice! Flailing your arm around to move a cursor seems so excessive!.