As some of you may know, I have a Logitech MX Revolution. It’s a great mouse, particularly for those of us with larger than average hands. However, there’s one little problem: Logitech’s OSX drivers leave a lot to be desired.
They’ve always done something…weird…to scrolling. I’m not really sure how to describe it – it’s almost like you’re scrolling in jello – like there’s a bit of lag between when you move the wheel and when the page actually scrolls. And when it does scroll, it either scrolls a little further than you expected, or a little less.
The movement of the mouse feels similar, although the effect is much less pronounced.
Neither of these issues affects the mouse until you install Logitech’s drivers. Under the stock drivers, the mouse “feels” just fine. You just can’t map all of the buttons, and can’t configure the “microgear” scroll wheel to do anything but switch back and forth from free-wheel mode.
It’s been a pain, but I’ve been managing. Until now.
I was alerted to a third party driver called “SteerMouse“. I believe the language that was used was:
“It makes the MX Revolution work like it should – this is what Logitech’s Control Center should be.”
That’s high praise. I decided to check it out.
Holy crap. They’re right. It works perfectly. There’s no lag. Scrolling feels right. The scrollwheel not only functions as the middle mouse button (a big deal for us former linux geeks), but auto-switches to free-wheel mode when you give it a hard flick.
That little tiny button just over the scroll wheel? It’s mappable. As are all of the buttons. Every single one.
It’s like using a completely different mouse. One that’s worth the price I paid. One that works the way it said it would on the box.
The UI is a little rough, but certainly usable. To see which logical button a physical button maps to, you hover over the big mouse graphic and press it. The entry for the button gets highlighted, and you choose what you want it to do.
The other tabs allow you to customize how the scroll wheel works (“Acceleration scroll” seems to be the one to use with the MX to make the free-wheel-on-demand work), how tilt-scrolling works, and whether you want the cursor to auto-move to the default button in dialog boxes (I find this annoying, so I turned it off).
I’m so impressed, I’m going to add my own quotable soundbyte:
SteerMouse makes the MX Revolution work as advertised under Mac OSX.
Logitech needs to hire these people.