So there's the history, on to the modern day question: why is it so hard to find a trackball that isn't wireless? I don't think Logitech makes one anymore. I can see the appeal of wireless mice, but a trackball doesn't need to move so the wire is much less of a burden - and it removes the need to change batteries.

Trackman Marble. USB. I have been using this forever and swear by it.

https://www.logitech.com/en-us/product/trackman-marble?crid=...

I was alarmed by your comment and had to go to the website to confirm it is still for sale.

Also: I switched to this because of wrist issues. I really think having this large marble trackball at your fingertips could be helpful to a lot of people. Give it a try! It's cheap.

On the other hand you can't get a wired trackball from them that has the ball to the left; the M570 and the MX Ergo are wireless-only. I have an earlier wired USB Trackman Marble with a PS/2 adapter, which I'm glad I bought and squirreled away when it was available. My 20-or-so-year-old PS/2 Trackman finally started to show its age, and the "newer" one came out of storage to replace it.

I see that the wired USB/PS2 Logitech TrackMan Wheel is available from refurbished on newegg for USD 45. I'm tempted to give it a shot now.

Hmmm... might be worth looking into. (The trackball I was referring to was that, not the Marble). It wouldn't be bad to have a spare, though if this one holds up as well as the ancient Trackman I retired, I won't be needing it for a while.

> I have been using this forever and swear by it.

I think it's been at least 10 years for me.

One nice side effect of the design is that you can switch hands if/when your wrist gets tired (I write with my left hand and throw with my right hand, so ambidextrous trackballs work very well for me).

I've had other trackballs along the way, but this one suits me best, all the more so given that it's small and lightweight (on the road most of the year).

I could swear this was no longer available last time I looked - thanks!

I think there's some confusion. The Trackman Marble is OK, but it's the Trackman Marble FX that is the best trackball, and no longer in production: http://weblog.mrbill.net/archives/2007/10/17/why-cancel-good...

How do you scroll with the Trackman?

My trackball has a wheel around the hall for scrolling. It saves a lot of effort. You can always click on a scroll bar and hold it. Any up or down movement scrolls the late.

Another vote for Kensington. I've got several of the wired Orbit trackballs with the scroll ring, I'm very happy with them. I've used the Logitech Trackman Marble as well but I think I prefer the Orbit. The scroll ring feels very intuitive.

https://www.kensington.com/us/us/4493/k72337us/orbit-trackba...

Yeah, it is plenty stupid. I have read many people complaining the same, but to no avail.

You can also add the lack of reliability to the drawbacks (more hardware, more software involved).

I am fond of thumb trackballs, and the M570 I was forced to buy did not last very long ('forced' because I did not want wireless). It stopped working after a while, without any visible sign of damage on any component.

Whereas my much older Trackman Wheel (the same as M570, but wired) is still my daily driver after more than 10 years.

Kensington has the best trackballs(slimblade and expert). Unfortunately their wireless version sucks big time

The Kensington Expert Mouse is in the upper echelons of the sturdiest/most accurate trackballs ever made, but it has a flimsy wrist-pad attachment bridge and the sensor collects dust, requiring a thorough delinting every few months.

Not a deal-breaker, but if your pointer acts erratically, clean out the enclave first!

I'm a big fan of the classic TrackMan from Logitech.

Their recent release is wireless, BUT it comes with a rechargeable battery via USB. And they also provide you with a USB receiver. Furthermore, the scrollwheel is really good quality unlike their previous offerings. I like it.

https://www.logitech.com/product/mx-ergo-wireless-trackball-...

I bought 10 or so of the original Trackman wheel back when I discovered it stopped my hand hurting (assuming, correctly, that they would stop making them at some point). I still have 2-3 of them new in the box. I have mostly switched to the wireless variant which as you note is ok. I don't like that it steals a USB port though: I would prefer it use Bluetooth, even if that made it 2x the price.

Try https://www.3dconnexion.com/products/spacemouse/ - it's designed for 3D authoring but can be used as a simple trackball type device and there is a non-wireless variant. The wireless variant can be tethered and untethered. Kind of pricey but great for CAD/CAM type work.

The SpaceMouse is a great (and somewhat unusual) device, but it's a joystick really, not a trackball.

> So there's the history, on to the modern day question: why is it so hard to find a trackball that isn't wireless? I don't think Logitech makes one anymore.

Googling “wired trackball” finds quite a few available from a wide variety of sellers and manufacturers, and Logitech clearly thinks they still have them.

https://www.logitech.com/en-us/product/trackman-marble

big fan of Logitech Trackman Marble. I own like ten of them. I use them everywhere. They are indestructible, they don't require batteries and they occupy a fixed space of my choosing. With them I can easily navigate the large real estate of my dual monitor setup. Polish the ball with a little Pledge and your cursor flies cross the screeen with a little flick of the wrist.

Also, they are ambidextrous, so you can switch to left-hand mousing when the right wrist is starting to hurt.

They are indeed everywhere: https://imgur.com/1toYn6A

All of the elecom models are available both wired and wireless

My wired Elecom M-DT2URBK is the best mouse I've ever used. It's great if you have small hands.

The thumb trackballs are on bearings with higher static friction than the logitech thumb balls. You get used to it, but immediately feel the difference if you go back to a logitech. The buttons are great though, I remapped the middle-click away from the track wheel because with the 4-way wheel it's much harder to middle click, since my elecom has 3 non-scrollwheel buttons it still works great.

There's a forthcoming linux kernel fix to get the right button to work on the EX-G models.

I know you can get the Elecom Huge[1] wired or wireless, it's super comfy and has a giant marble.As far as why you can't find them in retail stores, most people don't want a trackball and it takes getting used to for gaming.

http://xahlee.info/kbd/i2/elecom_huge_trackball_87142.jpg

Kensington [1] still makes wired trackballs. Of course they also make wireless variants.

[1]https://www.kensington.com/us/us/4493/trackballs

> trackball doesn't need to move

Unless you are using it on your leg, on a sofa. Trackballs are second-to-none for home cinemas. Regardless, most are semi-wireless (such as the M Ergo) - just keep it plugged in.

You can just leave these plugged in all the time if you never want to think about the battery again. Unfortunately plugging them in doesn’t make the MX Ergo be a USB mouse. It only charges the battery.

So now your trackball takes two USB ports? No thanks.

have you looked into the kensington trackballs? the slimblade is corded and quite popular among the music producer crowd for example

+1 for the Slimblade. I keep a spare on the shelf, along with a spare Kinesis contoured keyboard, to be sure I'll never be caught without — although I've never had either fail. It's a well-behaved standard USB device (including the z-rotation for scrolling) amenable to 'xinput set-button-map'.

this has kept me happy for the past few years: http://www.pckeyboard.com/page/product/96U1114

I'm a trackball fan, but trackballs and mice have different properties that make them suitable for different tasks. Mice are better than trackballs at fine motion and precise movement. Trying to get pixel-perfect movement (say, in a drawing program) with a trackball can be frustrating.

But trackballs have the following advantages over mice: 1. You don't need as much desk space, since the trackball doesn't move about. 2. The trackball stays where you put it so you can find it quickly without having to look. 3. Because the trackball doesn't move about, the cable can be arranged so that it doesn't get in the way. 4. Clicking the buttons on a trackball never accidentally nudges the pointer. 5. Trackballs are faster for big pointer movements, as you can spin the ball in the right direction and then brake it when the pointer gets close to its destination. 6. When a mouse user comes over to your desk and tries to use the trackball they will find it trickier than they expect, and they will have to hand control back to you.

Love #6, probably the real reason I've spent so much time customizing my system and setup.

Not my reason initially, but it pays off.

>Trying to get pixel-perfect movement (say, in a drawing program) with a trackball can be frustrating.

High levels of acceleration can help. The classic X windowing system input method has something described as "a more natural and continuous formula, giving precise control for slow motion but big reach for fast motion, and a progressive transition for motions in between." which works really well with my Trackman Marble.

Another advantage is that usually when you hold a mouse, your hand is in pretty much the same position the whole time, whereas with a trackball (particularly the larger kind), you can roll the ball with whichever of your finger tips, or the long side of your fingers, or even the flat of your hand. I've no doubt that for me, this flexibility leads to much better long-term comfort.

#4 is the only one that applies to me. I personally use a track pad with sensitivity jacked to the max, which covers the other bases.

The ThinkPad pointer stick also has its acolytes.

Very nice historical overview, but the abrupt closing with "Last month, in fact, Logitech released its first new trackball in seven years, ..." makes me wonder if this is just grey advertising of the new product.

I play video games with a trackball instead of a mouse when I can. Most games do not require mouse-specific movement. The main problem I've found is that the market allows thumb-based trackballs, which are extremely painful to use for more than a few seconds and very hard to precisely control. The ideal trackball lets users switch between index-finger-only and two-finger control, so that it's possible to rapidly click mouse buttons while improving precision in a cross-screen scroll.

Logitech Trackman FX was the best trackball of all time. I've had a half dozen of them. Sadly, I eventually gave in and moved on to the trackpad.

Yeah, really liked those but it eventually died. I still have the wired Logitech trackball in the middle one but never liked it as much.

I used trackballs for ages but I actually preferred the trackpad when I switched to a Mac even though I had always hated pads on Windows laptops.

Maybe you should try the Kensington Expert Trackball. I have a Macbook Pro at work and an iMac at home and use the Kensington on both for over 8 years. A great trackball, IMHO better than Logitechs.

I've tried and sometimes use a Touchpad, which is hard to beat when I'm mobile. But I still prefer the stability of the ball, its inertia, fine control, and especially its clearer semantics for compound operations. Too often, I find that TrackPad multibutton ops (esp. Force Touch) will miss the mark.

Thanks. I may give it a try. I'm pretty happy with current Mac Trackpads (to the point where I see no reason to use a mouse or anything else on my laptop but always looking for more comfortable input devices.

Did this article completely skip over the microsoft trackballs?

I'm far from an Msoft fanboy, but the wired trackball they had got more use from me and the various mice I had for many years.

I was on a quest to develop a system to use it more and suddenly they stopped making them! I think I got one still in stock somewhere for bit more, and now they are $380 on amazon.

Please come back with that design and shape - it was a little longer than the logitech (I think), which gave it a perfect feel for my hand, and made it very stable when on a desk, or cinder block, or pressed against the body.. in the lap or while standing up.

Any chance the old Msoft design on that is past any kind of patent stage?

I still like the logitech one I have that works, when not at my desk, just because I find trackballs better in general than a mouse or trackpad in mobile situations.

I bought two extras of those when I saw they were no longer being carried at the local office box just to be sure to have one if no longer being made. Wish I had bought an extra couple of the Msoft ergo keyboards they no longer make.

I still don't understand why the air controller needs the trackball. The article makes it sound like they select planes on screen, but it also says that before selecting the plane, they enter the code of that plane, which to me sounds like it is already selected.

Fascinating! This is the kind of article I come to Hckrnews for.

The ATC task sounds like it would have been a lot easier with a light pen, or a touch screen if those had existed at that time.

Look up the term "Gorilla arm" and you'll see why it's not easier in the long run.

This is an advertisement for the Logitech MX Ergo.

Possibly also for Golden Tee. Not sure about that part.