Simple but effective even after 3 years

I've had this trackball for nearly 3 years and decided it deserved a review. My first laptop (a 60Mhz Pentium I!) had a built-in trackball back before the new touch pads were around, and I loved it. So I bought the Orbit later when my desktop mouse died, and have been using it since. When I moved in with my wife, who is right-handed (I'm a leftie) we hooked up the mouse on the right for her and the Orbit on the left for me (through the USB port).

Trackballs
Trackballs are like upside-down mice. Instead of moving the whole mouse, you roll the ball around with your finger. The best part is that you don't need a mousepad -- no more tugging on the wire to get to the corner of the screen! And this means you need less room, too, which is nice: just a good spot for the trackball to sit.

Look & Feel
Probably the most important part of a mouse/trackball is comfort. Once you get used to a trackball, the Orbit is very comfortable, with a nice rounded shape and a large blue trackball that is easy to roll around. The buttons are large and well-located. They can be switched through the Control Panel>Mouse controls in Windows to be right or left handed.

Hook-Up
The Orbit can plug into either the traditional PS/2 mouse port or a USB port (it comes with an adapter). Either way, Windows automatically recognizes it and installs the drivers if necessary. I have used it with Windows 98, 98SE, ME, 2000 Professional, XP and XP Professional. In 98 and 98SE it glitched sometimes when plugged into the USB port, but that was an older PC that had some issues of its own. If you want to keep your mouse for any reason, you can have both the Orbit and a mouse plugged in at the same time (1 in the mouse port, 1 in the USB port).

Ease of Use
Once you get comfortable with the Orbit it kind of vanishes from your thoughts -- it's painless and easy, and becomes a natural action as you use it. This is how any mouse/trackball should be, really. I will say, though, that when I'm doing long hours of layout and design (Photoshop, Quark) that the repeated, minute motions of my finger begin to get irritating as my finger gets tired. For those projects I often switch to the mouse -- but not everyone plans on having both hooked up, but then again not everyone is doing design & layout!

Cleaning
The ball pops out easily by pressing a spot on the bottom, and pops back in just as easily. Inside you'll see the familiar rollers just like a ball mouse -- the difference is that the trackball doesn't roll across a dusty pad, so the dirt doesn't seem to build up as fast.

Where's the Scroll Wheel?
My only complaint is the lack of "scroll wheel" to help scroll through windows (especially online). This model came out years ago, before the wheels were as common, but so far I haven't seen any trackballs that include a wheel. There was no software that came with my mouse, but apparently many mice (and maybe current models of this one) come with software that can offer all sorts of features, maybe even some scrolling options.